help, £88 import tax for £70 item bought from UK company on kickstarter

Leo2020

My understanding of kickstarter is that you are backing a project not purchasing anything. Any goods received are as a gift. That's why the website mentions "Rewards". If you were purchasing a product then Consumer Rights Act kicks in and kickstarter would be in effect a shop.

Heliflyguy

I had a similar problem way back, it wasnt via kickstart though and its interesting what leo2020 says, that it may be considered a gift.

You will need to find out how much you should have paid as well, there are several online UK duty calculators.

In this thread I posted how to get a refund, you may have to check some details but the process is probably the same.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2265967

sheramber

Doesn't sound like a gift

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/gifts

4. Gifts

To qualify as gifts, goods must be:

described as gifts on the customs declaration
for a birthday, anniversary or other occasion
bought and sent between individuals (not companies)
intended for personal use

Keep_pedalling

It is not a gift, but neither is it a purchase, because you put money into the start up as a backer with absolutely no guaranty of getting anything back.

What you might get out of it in the long run is a product paid as a sort of dividend, which would not have been a problem if the idiot company had shipped from the U.K. Instead of direct from a Far East factory who put a moron in charge of the customs declarations stuck to each package.

HMRC have already been paid by FedEx, so they have every right to chase for payment and the only people they are going to chase is the importer (the OP in this case)

I would pay the bill, then issue Lix with a letter before action to try and recover my costs from them.

ishmish

I emailed lix with a copy of the letter from Fedex, Lix replied to my emails as below:

"Our shipping company had made a mistake when declaring the correct value of the product which is why you are asked to pay some ridiculous amount. Please understand that you are not expected to pay this as it was wrongly declared. At this point you do not have to do anything. The shipping company is notified last week and they will be handling the situation.
Again, we want to apologize for this situation and assure you that it will be dealt with very soon."
Few weeks later (today) I recieve a letter for reminder for payment from Fedex saying I needs to be done within 5 days or further action will be taken.

I have contacted lix Informing them about the letter (with copy attached) they replied:
"We have informed you before that you are not expected to pay since the items in the parcel were wrongly declared. As you will see in our message dating Dec 1st " At this point you do not have to do anything". This is exactly what we have meant. As soon as the items get declared with the correct amount, you will be receiving the correct invoice from customs.

We are sorry if this wasn't clear in the previous message. These fees are equivalent to VAT that every end user has to pay.
Hope this makes more sense. "

I have Told them to contact Fedex directly and sort it out or foot the bill by the deadline. Although I'm not holding my breath. I have accepted that they are complete liars now and I don't wish to damage my credit rating or have debt collectors so will just pay by the deadline if nothing's sorted which im sure it won't be.

Next question is how do I claim back the money I had to pay? Many of you said it's not a "purchase" but the lix company has sent me a invoice of the amount in dollars I paid since receiving the item ?

Anything I can do legally about this? Perhaps with others scammed same way? As seems ridiculous someone can just post something of insane false declared value and you will just have to foot the import duty bill a week later

Heliflyguy

ishmish wrote: »

Next question is how do I claim back the money I had to pay?

If your asking about the over payment of duties then its in my pre post and as per unholyangels post.