Fedex Import Tax and ControlAccount PLC

mestizomad

Hello everyone,

I received a International parcel via Fedex from the USA in August 2016.

I then received an initial Invoice from Fedex (382392799) on 06/09/16 for an amount of £26.14.

I have tried on several occasions to pay this Invoice via Fedex's online bill, throughout Sept and October.

But I could never get past the purple PAY button. The systems seems broken. I also phoned atleast once, but was on the phone for well over 30 mins and gave up.

To be honest I then forgot about the payment.

On 4th January, I received an email from Control Account PLC, stating that I owe them £66.00.

Which is a fee of £26.14 + £40 in late fees.

I have phoned Fedex and Control Account and they claim that they sent me postal reminders of the Invoice due.

However I have not received any post from them whatsoever to my address.

I haved asked if they can provide proof of Posting and Delivery of these reminder letters? Such as tracking via Royal Mail First Class Recorded.

I am very happy to immediately pay the initial Invoice of £26.14.

However I do not see why I should have to pay the additional late fee of £40.00, which is more than the original bill and is an entirely made up administrative expense.

Especially when I did not receive any letters whatsoever, with the only communication that I have received from Fedex being an email on 06/09/16 and then two emails from Control Account starting on 04/01/16.

What can ControlAccount PLC do next to try and force a payment?

What are my options??

mrcol1000

Pay. Regardless of whether you got the letters or not, you knew you owed the money. I would ring Fedex and explain the troubles you had paying and see if you can still pay the original invoice.

If you carry on sticking your head in the sand, They could sell the debt to someone else and suddenly it will just spiral to three figures

Really though you will struggle to justify not paying the late fee when you have an unpaid invoice from four months ago.

forgotmyname

They sent me bills quite promptly when i imported something from China.

But they messed up so badly, lost one item and the other arrived slightly damaged.
Seller sent me a replacement, so i got 2 bills from FedEx.

I phoned and had a whinge and they scrapped them. It didnt take long for the invoices to arrive though.

RFW

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Really though you will struggle to justify not paying the late fee when you have an unpaid invoice from four months ago.

You might struggle to justify not paying it but they cannot force you to pay it. It is a trumped up fee that they have invented a number and charged it. It is not enforceable in any court.

The fee itself is a different matter, although I've never been convinced if that is enforceable in court either. The fact is that the person receiving the parcel has, in the majority of cases, never had a contract with the courier company, so any liability for outstanding fees should be taken up with whoever paid for the service.

I realise the latter is quite contentious and I rarely get anyone to agree with me on that, as far as late fees go, they really aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Late fees are menaces money.

mestizomad

RFW wrote: »

You might struggle to justify not paying it but they cannot force you to pay it. It is a trumped up fee that they have invented a number and charged it. It is not enforceable in any court.

The fee itself is a different matter, although I've never been convinced if that is enforceable in court either. The fact is that the person receiving the parcel has, in the majority of cases, never had a contract with the courier company, so any liability for outstanding fees should be taken up with whoever paid for the service.

I realise the latter is quite contentious and I rarely get anyone to agree with me on that, as far as late fees go, they really aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Late fees are menaces money.

Hi, thanks for the response.

I am VERY happy to pay the original fee of £26 and i have phoned Fedex and ControlAccount PLC and offered to pay over the phone there and then.

However FEDEX just keep saying that they have passed the case to ControlAccount (have sold the debt to them) and ControlAccount just say that they want the full £66.

I have written an email to Fedex's dispute email, but they have not responded after 3 days.

You are right that the £40 is a complete trumped up charge.

What is also interesting is that from the original £26 fee. Only £16 is actual DUTY and £10 is "admin".

I also don't see why i should have to pay £10 additional admin after paying Fedex £50 for postage from the USA.

But i will pay this, the original £26 if only they would let me!

forgotmyname

With mine the VAT was £10.28 and the admin charge £12. I have seen posts mention paying the VAT/Duty etc. But not paying their admin charge.

Really they should be charging the sender this not the receiver. At the end of the day though the seller will charge you for it. Possibly paying less VAT/Duty with paying the admin this end? The admin fee would probably count towards the postage and paying your extra 20% on that?

RFW

forgotmyname wrote: »

With mine the VAT was £10.28 and the admin charge £12. I have seen posts mention paying the VAT/Duty etc. But not paying their admin charge.

Really they should be charging the sender this not the receiver. At the end of the day though the seller will charge you for it. Possibly paying less VAT/Duty with paying the admin this end? The admin fee would probably count towards the postage and paying your extra 20% on that?

The admin fee is supposed to be just that, apparently there is considerable paperwork in doing it. I've never heard of a lawyer or even a newspaper questioning it. When I was dealing regularly with a company in China they knew which couriers were less likely to whack on charges so helped a bit there.

RFW

mestizomad wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the response.

I am VERY happy to pay the original fee of £26 and i have phoned Fedex and ControlAccount PLC and offered to pay over the phone there and then.

However FEDEX just keep saying that they have passed the case to ControlAccount (have sold the debt to them) and ControlAccount just say that they want the full £66.

I have written an email to Fedex's dispute email, but they have not responded after 3 days.

You are right that the £40 is a complete trumped up charge.

What is also interesting is that from the original £26 fee. Only £16 is actual DUTY and £10 is "admin".

I also don't see why i should have to pay £10 additional admin after paying Fedex £50 for postage from the USA.

But i will pay this, the original £26 if only they would let me!

I'll say what I would do from here but I know some would consider it risky.
I would try one last time to pay by phone. Get the name of the person you speak to and the time/date. If they then reject you keep all the information. Then write to the chairman/ceo at their head office, explain the situation and your desire to pay (if you like you could include a cheque or ask them to call you to make payment).
Then leave it. If they don't reply they will probably send you a couple more threatening letters from their collection company. They will threaten that they might take you to court, there's a miniscule to no chance of a company as big as FedEx taking you to court for £66. If they did you can defend and produce evidence of your attempts to pay and letter to the CEO.

martindow

forgotmyname wrote: »

With mine the VAT was £10.28 and the admin charge £12. I have seen posts mention paying the VAT/Duty etc. But not paying their admin charge.

Really they should be charging the sender this not the receiver. At the end of the day though the seller will charge you for it. Possibly paying less VAT/Duty with paying the admin this end? The admin fee would probably count towards the postage and paying your extra 20% on that?

When you send with carriers there are various options regarding customs fees. The seller can opt to pay them, for the receiver to pay them or for shared fees (don't know how this works exactly).

Regarding your problem, I would post a cheque for the original charge along with a letter (briefly) explaining your attempts to pay. I suspect that will be the end of it.

mandy44d

Under UK contract law, if there is no prior contract/agreement for the charges then you're not obliged to pay them the admin fee. So a lot depends on where you originally bought the item and if there was any mention of charges/fees from the shipping company/courier by the vendor.

If there's no mention you are within your rights to only pay the actual £16 customs charges not the admin and certainly not their £40 late charge fee.

mestizomad

Hi everyone, thanks for all of your replies.

mandy44d wrote: »

Under UK contract law, if there is no prior contract/agreement for the charges then you're not obliged to pay them the admin fee. So a lot depends on where you originally bought the item and if there was any mention of charges/fees from the shipping company/courier by the vendor.

If there's no mention you are within your rights to only pay the actual £16 customs charges not the admin and certainly not their £40 late charge fee.

An interesting development in my case. After lot's of arguing with ControlAccount PLC, they allowed me to pay the original fee of £26.00.

They then said that a Manager would call me back on a specific day regarding the £40 late fee, but he never called back.

However a few days after that i did get a text from them saying that i should call them.

I will call them. But were do you think i stand now?

Thanks