Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

custardy

foomonkey wrote: »

Hi,

I am also getting extremely annoyed with customs as they are making mistakes that is causing me stress on something that should be straight forward.

I have 2 separate situations for 2 packages that i need help with.

Package 1)

Was sent to me as a gift with a value of $25 ( which i confirmed as the post depo officer let me look at the label) and i was charged customs + RM £8 charge bringing it over £11.50 worth of charges. being marked gift doesnt mean customs will treat it as such

I explained to the teller that i shouldn't be charged as it's within the law that the fee be waivered (value being under £36) but she advised she couldn't do anything about it and i'd have to pay the fee. What law is that?

I asked if she could hold onto it while i seek how to get the matter resolved to having the fee waivered and was told that if i didn't accept it there and then, it'd have to go back to the sender in the USA. I decided to reject the package because i didn't know if i'd even get my money back from RM had i paid the fee.

i was able to phone the [STRIKE]post office[/STRIKE] Royal Mail number that was provided and they confirmed to me that i was infact correct with what i stated and that it had been an error by customs. The phone agent told me that he sender would have to fill out a complaint if he is charged to resend it and also gave me the phone number for customs (0845 010 9000). However this number won't be of any use for the sender since it's a UK number.

I've communicated this with the sender advising him he needs to talk to his post office on his end as they'll have their own procedures. The problem now is, it's been over 4 weeks since i rejected the package from my end and the sender has advised me he hasn't recieved it yet.

What can i do in this sitaution to get this resolved as i've no idea what going on?

Package 2)

..Arrived to my depo a couple of days ago and i got a slip through the door telling me i owe £11.75 this time.

The package contains a few toy figures that total a value of £12 max (which i have receipts to prove of this) that were bought from ebay.

My understanding again is that i shouldn't be paying customs + RM handling fee because in this instance the value of the package is under £15?
You dont know what the declared value was?

This time, i don't want to have the package sent back to the USA and want to try get this resolved myself over this side of the pond so i can get what i ordered asap. How would i go about getting the fees waivered in this situation? Would i need to pay the fees initially and then get a refund, if so would i get separate refunds from HMRC and RM? What is the process for this??

There is really no explanation on the process i'd go through in getting a refund as HMRC and RM are 2 separate bodies. Could anyone help me out with each situation i'm in?

Thanks

RM charge for the clearance
if HMRC have mistakenly charged the item,RM have still done the clearance
hence you will struggle to get RM to refund

foomonkey

custardy wrote: »

Was sent to me as a gift with a value of $25 ( which i confirmed as the post depo officer let me look at the label) and i was charged customs + RM £8 charge bringing it over £11.50 worth of charges. being marked gift doesnt mean customs will treat it as such

Well whats the point of having the option for it to be marked as a gift if they won't abide by the rules for marking it as a gift?

custardy wrote: »

I explained to the teller that i shouldn't be charged as it's within the law that the fee be waivered (value being under £36) but she advised she couldn't do anything about it and i'd have to pay the fee. What law is that?

Searching "A guide for international post users" in google, go to "2.4 Gifts". It explains it there.

custardy wrote: »

My understanding again is that i shouldn't be paying customs + RM handling fee because in this instance the value of the package is under £15?
You dont know what the declared value was?

It will be what i paid for the items as a bundle from ebay, which is valued under £12 total.

Also, i've read somewhere that RM fees can be dropped but i can't remember where this was i read it?

Again, can anyone help me on what i should do or what process to follow as it's extremely unclear?

Thanks

custardy

foomonkey wrote: »

Well whats the point of having the option for it to be marked as a gift if they won't abide by the rules for marking it as a gift?
The 'rules' are down to HMRC. If they deem its worth more or isnt a gift. then they can treat it as such



Searching "A guide for international post users" in google, go to "2.4 Gifts". It explains it there.
So no law that says the fee is wavered then



It will be what i paid for the items as a bundle from ebay, which is valued under £12 total. will it? you certainly didnt pay the seler £12,you paid in their currency. So it depends what the seller declared

Also, i've read somewhere that RM fees can be dropped but i can't remember where this was i read it?

Again, can anyone help me on what i should do or what process to follow as it's extremely unclear?

Thanks

you have read somewhere that the RM fees can be dropped? Well I suggest you read some more

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

foomonkey wrote: »

Searching "A guide for international post users" in google, go to "2.4 Gifts". It explains it there.

Ah, Google! They never pay their tax either!

Outwith this Google, unfortunately, HMRC are the law. and if you do not like it, you can emigrate

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/tax-and-duty.htm#1

I do not see any specific reference to an item as a gift.

foomonkey

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Ah, Google! They never pay their tax either!

Outwith this Google, unfortunately, HMRC are the law. and if you do not like it, you can emigrate


I do not see any specific reference to an item as a gift.

If you do the search and click the first link that comes up for it, it tells you under "2.4 Gifts" the law.

You can even go to the HMRC website and search "A guide for international post users" and it comes up there as a link. Go into that and go to the 2.4 Gifts section and read.

Sadly i can't give you the direct link as i'm new to the site so i'm not allowed

custardy

foomonkey wrote: »

If you do the search and click the first link that comes up for it, it tells you under "2.4 Gifts" the law.

You can even go to the HMRC website and search "A guide for international post users" and it comes up there as a link. Go into that and go to the 2.4 Gifts section and read.

Sadly i can't give you the direct link as i'm new to the site so i'm not allowed

Yes,I read it

2.4 Gifts

Goods sent as a gift that are over £40* in value are liable to import VAT Customs duty also becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135 but is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £9.

*Please note this limit will reduce to £36 with effect from 1 January 2013.

To qualify as a gift:
the customs declaration must be completed correctly
the gift must be sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country
there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly by anyone in the UK
the gift is of an occasional nature only, for example, for a birthday or anniversary

Note: if you purchase something from outside the EU to give as a gift to a relative or friend, whether or not addressed to that person, it is treated as a ‘commercial consignment’ for which the import VAT relief threshold in paragraph 2.3 applies.

My point still stands

kadison

Glad there's a thread about this, I know customs has applied the VAT correctly but my outrage is at RM charging me £8 handling fee! The customs fee was only £7.51, so why can't they charge a percentage up to a maximum of £8 then people paying small amounts wouldn't get so ripped off!

I mean why charge 100+% interest (which is what it is in this case) on something they've held for a week tops? :mad::mad::mad::mad:

custardy

kadison wrote: »

Glad there's a thread about this, I know customs has applied the VAT correctly but my outrage is at RM charging me £8 handling fee! The customs fee was only £7.51, so why can't they charge a percentage up to a maximum of £8 then people paying small amounts wouldn't get so ripped off!

I mean why charge 100+% interest (which is what it is in this case) on something they've held for a week tops? :mad::mad::mad::mad:

its a flat rate
does VAT of £2 cause X% less work than that of £8?
If you knew customs charge VAT,how did you envisage paying it?

KxMx

kadison wrote: »

Glad there's a thread about this, I know customs has applied the VAT correctly but my outrage is at RM charging me £8 handling fee! The customs fee was only £7.51, so why can't they charge a percentage up to a maximum of £8 then people paying small amounts wouldn't get so ripped off!

I mean why charge 100+% interest (which is what it is in this case) on something they've held for a week tops? :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Whether there is £5 or £500 owing to customs RM have to do the same amount of work, so that's probably why there is a flat fee.

It does work out at poorer value for smaller items, but just as those with small items moan those with items of large value seem to like the flat fee.

There are usually winners and losers and in this case it's people with lesser value items unfortunately.

shaun_from_Africa

kadison wrote: »

so why can't they charge a percentage up to a maximum of £8 then people paying small amounts wouldn't get so ripped off!

The £8 fee is payment for a service and that service takes the same amount of time and effort to process a £20 item as it does for a £2000 item.