Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

david100percent

thanks ex-postie. i hope you'll forgive a naive 'newbie'

asbokid

i forget which private courier it was ... got a feeling it was UPS.. that charged me over £12 as a fee for collecting duty on behalf of HMRC. The Royal Mail's fee is modest by comparison.

custardy

perhaps its been deayed as its been opened to inspect the contents vs its declaration

david100percent

do you know how i can contact them to find out? from other reports it seems like their phone number never gets answered. is there a number to call that won't ring 100 times then go dead?

david100percent

will this mean another 'scamming fee' if they've opened it?

custardy

david100percent wrote: »

do you know how i can contact them to find out? from other reports it seems like their phone number never gets answered. is there a number to call that won't ring 100 times then go dead?

you seem to have all the answers
who are 'they'
you are the one with the information and experience it seems

doveman

I've ordered vitamins from the US several times and always use DHL as they only charge £1.25 admin fee when there's duty/VAT to collect where it's less than £62.50 (or 2% if it's above that).

http://www.dhl.co.uk/en/express/shipping/customs_support/duties_taxes.html

So unless HMRC charge DHL a lot less, I can only assume that RM is either much more inefficient (meaning it actually costs them £8 to process a parcel) or they're making £6.75 more profit to process a parcel.

mazza111

doveman wrote: »

I've ordered vitamins from the US several times and always use DHL as they only charge £1.25 admin fee when there's duty/VAT to collect where it's less than £62.50 (or 2% if it's above that).

http://www.dhl.co.uk/en/express/shipping/customs_support/duties_taxes.html

So unless HMRC charge DHL a lot less, I can only assume that RM is either much more inefficient (meaning it actually costs them £8 to process a parcel) or they're making £6.75 more profit to process a parcel.

No the difference with RM is it's £8 no matter how much the duty's are, or how much the package is worth, it's a flat fee. As previously stated, this item would be taken out of mainstream mail, and treated much like a special delivery would be, tracked every step of the way. Now the cheapest I've ever paid to send a special delivery is £5. So considering most of these are parcels they would probably cost more than that. DHL are dealing with a lot fewer of these parcels, therefore easier for them to manage, therefore lower costs. Think about it, RM would probably have 20 containers of parcels to DHL's 1 container, therefore easier to take out of mainstream.

doveman

mazza111 wrote: »

No the difference with RM is it's £8 no matter how much the duty's are, or how much the package is worth, it's a flat fee. As previously stated, this item would be taken out of mainstream mail, and treated much like a special delivery would be, tracked every step of the way. Now the cheapest I've ever paid to send a special delivery is £5. So considering most of these are parcels they would probably cost more than that. DHL are dealing with a lot fewer of these parcels, therefore easier for them to manage, therefore lower costs. Think about it, RM would probably have 20 containers of parcels to DHL's 1 container, therefore easier to take out of mainstream.

That doesn't make any sense. It should be more economical for RM if they're dealing with lots of parcels (economy of scale).

I'll just use DHL and pay £1.25 and RM can stick their £8 fee.

custardy

doveman wrote: »

That doesn't make any sense. It should be more economical for RM if they're dealing with lots of parcels (economy of scale).

I'll just use DHL and pay £1.25 and RM can stick their £8 fee.

why does a % make more sense?
what are the increased cost as the value of an item rises.
you are comparing apples and oranges.
DHL have a tracked service from point to point.
RMs doesnt(and can't given their service requirements)
If you have an issue with the fee then the simple answer is to do your own clearance for £0