Being charged for receiving overseas delivery

LABMAN

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

The value is over £15 is what's done it i suppose.

Thanks for the replies, the majority of you at least.

I'd fired off a quick email to the seller while i was at work to see what was going on but they said it is down to customs, which looking at it is fair enough.

It was a bit on the dear side to begin with, but just about ok. But now it's pretty expensive, especially considering to refuse it & return i'll have to pay return shipping & god knows what that will be.

Lesson learned i suppose.



Oh & a little off topic ... i don't vote

Royal Mail charge is one of the cheapest if not the cheapest I think.
The Royal Mail are levying the charge...not the PO BTW!

paddyrg

Just to clarify, duty and VAT are due on imports (to level the playing field somewhat with the taxes a domestic vendor has to charge) with the exception of some smaller items which are let off.

Carriers do the paperwork and prepay the taxes for you, so you can get your goods quickly, and for this they charge. Royal Mail charge less than pretty much any of the others at £8, and when you break down the work involved, it's a steal to be honest - a friend thought he'd be clever and do his own import handling of a £100 rug from India - with bonded storage, handling fees, plus the tax and duty, plus driving to the port that landed the goods, parking, etc., it cost him another £100 - back in the 1990's! The £8 fee is not mandatory, but worth every penny!

pogofish

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I've never heard of this before & never experienced it before. Why is this?
And is the only way to get out of it to refuse delivery (& have it sent back for refund)?

There are any number of threads on this here - including some very useful and detailed guidance on how to do your own customs clearance and minimise any charge to just the duty payable - and more importaintly avoid the "handling/processing fee" which for most of us makes-up the largest part of the charge.