Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

adouglasmhor

Though to be honest for the £8.00 per package they would think they could employ someone with enough brain cells to read the labels on the packages and if they were in a language they did not understand, maybe find someone who did.

It wasn't the charge that annoyed me, it was the package coming over a week late because of the time taken to apply a charge wrongly.

Förtullat isn't a town in Sweden.

Icm76

does anyone know if it's possible to process customs yourself if the sender didn't mark the parcel with the 'goods to be Customs cleared by the importer' and the parcel hasn't arrived at customs yet?

can I call up HMRC and say "I'm expecting a parcel to be sent, I want to process the clearance myself?" It seems like it should be possible as they can track by postcodes and addresses, but I'm not holding my breath for it to be permitted

custardy

Icm76 wrote: »

does anyone know if it's possible to process customs yourself if the sender didn't mark the parcel with the 'goods to be Customs cleared by the importer' and the parcel hasn't arrived at customs yet?

can I call up HMRC and say "I'm expecting a parcel to be sent, I want to process the clearance myself?" It seems like it should be possible as they can track by postcodes and addresses, but I'm not holding my breath for it to be permitted

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Seriously. Did you read what you were writing?
Exactly where would they be looking?
would they just keep your address on post it notes at all the points of entry?

Icm76

custardy wrote: »

Seriously...

I'm not sure Why you feel the need to post in such a way? It shouldn't be difficult, in this modern age we have enormous computing power, cheap storage and reliable optical recognition and instant network connection. Everything should be in place to do this already, if they're not doing it I believe it's due to a lack of will not a lack of technology. It crossed my mind that it might actually be possible already and people just weren't aware yet.

shaun_from_Africa

The biggest problem would be that by the time HMRC get to find out about any duties due on the package, Royal Mail would have already started the processing of it, so some time and effort and therefore charges would already have been incurred.

In all honesty, for RM to try and find one package out of probably tens of thousands that are imported daily (and they wouldn't even know what day your one would be arriving) would be next to impossible without the search racking up its own costs.

Icm76

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

for RM to try and find one package

but that's what I'm saying shouldn't be necessary, if it's known at any time before the parcel arrives in port that the recipient wants to pay the tax directly, nothing should need to be found, the parcel arrives, it should instantly be flagged by address/postcode and treated no differently than writing on the label.

in fact, why not even put in place a scheme for households to opt in or opt out of processing customs clearance themselves?

custardy

Icm76 wrote: »

I'm not sure Why you feel the need to post in such a way? It shouldn't be difficult, in this modern age we have enormous computing power, cheap storage and reliable optical recognition and instant network connection. Everything should be in place to do this already, if they're not doing it I believe it's due to a lack of will not a lack of technology. It crossed my mind that it might actually be possible already and people just weren't aware yet.

Okay,since you think its easy
so you have your tracking number?

shaun_from_Africa

Icm76 wrote: »

in fact, why not even put in place a scheme for households to opt in or opt out of processing customs clearance themselves?

But there is already a scheme in place.
As already mentioned, all that needs doing is for the sender to write on the package that the clearance will be done by the recipient.

Handwriting recognition software can still be very temperamental and could easily misread postcodes or addresses and until it is perfect or it becomes a worldwide legal requirement for all mailing addresses to be machine printed, I can't see that your suggestion could ever work.

At present, it is only a small percentage of imported packages that are selected for inspection to see if customs duties are payable, but if there was a system such as you suggest in place, every single international item would have to be stopped and have the delivery address checked against a database to see if the household had opted to do the clearance themselves.
This would further delay postal imports and probably lead to further increases in the £8 processing fee.

Icm76

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

But...

the scheme already in place, writing instruction on the package, is good as far as it works, but not all senders do it and I've noted a few posts that the instruction is being ignored at times so I was questioning if the scheme had been broadened in scope.

the potential problems you outline I'm not convinced should be a barrier - once a parcel is identified as having tax due the info is going on a database, I don't see how hand written address labels can stop that happening. It doesn't necessarily involve more inspections either, parcels could still be chosen at the same rate for inspection, it's only when they're selected that it gets handed off to the chosen cleanrance method (postal service or importer direct payment)

delays may be true and the compromise that would have to be expected (but may be speeded if there was an online portal to pay and scan a copy of the invoice) but unless someone is hoping to dodge the taxes surely always paying the tax and no fee is better than regularly paying a high fee? I'm thinking frequent buyers of modest value items like movies, games and clothes would most benefit. Some people may wish to take their chance still, but count me amongst those who would rather pay due tax than fund the dividends to parcelforce shareholders

custardy

custardy wrote: »

Okay,since you think its easy
so you have your tracking number?

Icm76 wrote: »

the scheme already in place, writing instruction on the package, is good as far as it works, but not all senders do it and I've noted a few posts that the instruction is being ignored at times so I was questioning if the scheme had been broadened in scope.

the potential problems you outline I'm not convinced should be a barrier - once a parcel is identified as having tax due the info is going on a database, I don't see how hand written address labels can stop that happening. It doesn't necessarily involve more inspections either, parcels could still be chosen at the same rate for inspection, it's only when they're selected that it gets handed off to the chosen cleanrance method (postal service or importer direct payment)

delays may be true and the compromise that would have to be expected (but may be speeded if there was an online portal to pay and scan a copy of the invoice) but unless someone is hoping to dodge the taxes surely always paying the tax and no fee is better than regularly paying a high fee? I'm thinking frequent buyers of modest value items like movies, games and clothes would most benefit. Some people may wish to take their chance still, but count me amongst those who would rather pay due tax than fund the dividends to parcelforce shareholders

Now its Parcelforce? When did they come into a Royal Mail thread?
This online portal,who is running that? whilst this is all happening,where are the packages?