Urgent Help Needed RE Customs Charges

Wig

Who is invoicing you? Fed Ex?

The £18 includes cost of postage, Fed Ex is going to be expensive.

All I know so far is that you are happy with the amount you paid for the 1st parcel.

The second parcel had goods, for £9.78 + postage costs so if postage was £8.22 or more then duty is payable on the full amount.

Your 2nd invoice must have some itemisation, and what is the actual amount?

Have you phoned up HMCE and asked them what happens if the value of the contents has been incorrectly stated? And you could also ask them to say how much duty would be payable on the 2nd parcel (including postage costs).

My initial interpretation of the situation is that
1.) You can't touch the company in the USA, unless you fly to the USA.
2.) As someone above said write and ask Fed Ex What contract you have signed with them that allows them to invoice you.
3.) Phone HMCE
4.) Sounds to me like the company bent over backwards to give you fantastic service, they sent you a substitute product (free of charge) in the 2nd parcel, They paid all the costs, except import duty (which is your responsibility to know how much it will be. They make a mistake on the parcel contents value, but you still got a free product with free shipping by Fed Ex.


These are the pitfalls of ordering from overseas - no legal comeback if things go wrong. And always make sure you either know what the duty payable will be or know that the total cost inc postage is less than £18, if mistakes are made it all becomes very difficult.

fedupconsumer

just to clarify the item was not sent free of charge i had to pay for the product postage was free but its the principle.

Edit: Just to add i have phoned customs who were very helpful they have confirmed to me that the 2nd charge should not have stood and that i should not have to pay these charges as i paid for the total goods and import charges in the first shipment.

Wig

And it is Fed Ex who is invoicing you?

Just tell them where to stick it, it's not your responsibility, tell them you have already paid the duty owed for the whole shipment. The fact that the second shipment was incorrectly labelled is not your responsibility. Tell them to recover any duty they (Fed Ex) has paid from HMCE.

fedupconsumer

oh i will the man on the phone says they can write off any customs charges he did also say they may try and get a admin fee from them but as far as i am concerned i paid them the first lot.

Fed ex did invoice me have not had the heart to deal with things it did receive the invoices after the postal strike but due to a bereavement of a family member was not in a fit state to deal with things until now.

Alfie_E

Wig wrote: »

The £18 includes cost of postage, Fed Ex is going to be expensive.

The £18 exemption for import VAT applies to the “intrinsic value” of the goods, ie. without delivery costs. If the intrinsic value of the goods exceeds £18, then any duty or VAT is worked out using the total price paid for the goods, ie. including delivery costs. A bit anomalous, but see Are import duties and import VAT always payable?

fedupconsumer

Alfie_E wrote: »

The £18 exemption for import VAT applies to the “intrinsic value” of the goods, ie. without delivery costs. If the intrinsic value of the goods exceeds £18, then any duty or VAT is worked out using the total price paid for the goods, ie. including delivery costs. A bit anomalous, but see Are import duties and import VAT always payable?

Thanks Alfie most helpful i had paid the import vat on the first item and the customs charges too on the complete order so according to what i have read on the site i owe them nothing at all and should not be charged.

The intristic value was only £9.40 on the secondary parcel well below the threshold that import vat is charged.

Wig

I am slightly confused.

You say you paid customs duty and VAT on the first package "on the full order".

Are you saying you had two items in that parcel worth how much? But you were charged VAT/customs on the package as though it contained 3 items... worth how much?

Because it could be that you have paid too much customs and VAT. The value of the two items alone might have been below £18.

And the 3rd item when sent seperately will not be due for any customs/VAT.

If you were charged VAT/customs for the 3rd item within the cost of the 1st package, do you see that you shouldn't have had to pay for that portion of the costs. They should have valued the contents of both packages not the full value of the order.

Hope you see what I'm saying.

fedupconsumer

Kinda wig i think.

Fed ex have now opened a file and are investigating this matter ill keep you posted I need a cuppa tea .

fedupconsumer

just a little update I stuck to my guns on this one and fed ex wrote of the second invoice.Result