Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

custardy

toerags wrote: »

I to have fallen foul of the £8 handling charge <SPIT>

On eBay I ordered stuff from Singapore, free postage. Normally I would stay away from international sellers but decided to give the guy a shot. I got the RM card through the letterbox stating I need to pay £13.49...£8 of which was the handling fee.... what an effin' liberty :mad:! These charges negated the good deal I had on the purchase. I decided to bite the bullet and cough up the £££s.

Anyway....I've contacted my seller to inform him that he might want to provide info in his eBay listings about these extra charges for the benefit of future UK buyers. Completely unexpected I received a $20 PayPal refund from him as a goodwill gesture! and he thanked me for letting him know about the customs charges. What a guy! He's paid postage and compensates me for the £8 fee I have to pay.

James (my seller) You have restored my faith in humanity and made me ashamed of hm revenue & customs, and royal mail (lower case intended!)

I ashamed of your lack of research

doveman

custardy wrote: »

I ashamed of your lack of research

I'm ashamed at your lack of ability to write basic english.

custardy

doveman wrote: »

I'm ashamed at your lack of ability to write basic english.

Oh no, how will I survive! :eek:

paddyrg

toerags wrote: »

I to have fallen foul of the £8 handling charge <SPIT>
... Completely unexpected I received a $20 PayPal refund from him as a goodwill gesture! and he thanked me for letting him know about the customs charges.

Blimey, that was good of him, but not really his fault or duty to pay you anything. You imported goods and HMRC applied the legally due taxes (which is why the headline was cheaper overseas in the first place). Because you didn't make provision to clear your own goods, Royal Mail had to do it on your behalf, and only charged you £8. This is actually a bargain - next time do it yourself or pay for a different courier service. Most charge £15, although DHL charge a percentage of the due amount (and a much higher courier fee to offset it).

doveman

paddyrg wrote: »

Blimey, that was good of him, but not really his fault or duty to pay you anything. You imported goods and HMRC applied the legally due taxes (which is why the headline was cheaper overseas in the first place). Because you didn't make provision to clear your own goods, Royal Mail had to do it on your behalf, and only charged you £8. This is actually a bargain - next time do it yourself or pay for a different courier service. Most charge £15, although DHL charge a percentage of the due amount (and a much higher courier fee to offset it).

I generally prefer to pay extra for DHL (it's never been that much more for me anyway) to at least have the goods tracked and insured against loss, which you don't get if you use the cheaper Airmail/Royal Mail option (which then ends up costing almost as much once you've paid RM their fees anyway).

Hermione_Granger

doveman wrote: »

I'm ashamed at your lack of ability to write basic english.

Surely you meant to type English with a capital E.

Heliflyguy

paddyrg wrote: »

Because you didn't make provision to clear your own goods - next time do it yourself.

I keep reading posters that say this is the way to avoid the RM fee over and over again but no guides to how its done...unless I missed it of course.

shaun_from_Africa

Here you go Helifly,

http://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/how-declare-goods-when-importing-post

Declaring the goods yourself
As the importer you can carry out your own Customs procedures. If you want to do this, you will need to ensure the sender clearly marks the Customs declaration form (CN22 or CN23) 'goods to be Customs cleared by the importer'.
Do not write on the wrapping. If the Customs declaration form (CN22 or CN23) is not marked in this way by the sender, the goods will be cleared by customs in the normal way; once goods have been Customs cleared you cannot then retrospectively apply to self clear them. For items that have been marked for clearance by the importer, a full declaration will be sent to you to complete and return to the appropriate customs postal office. They will calculate any import charges and write and advise you of your tax liability. When you have paid this and the funds have been cleared, your goods will be released for delivery. However, as a manual procedure there could be a considerable delay in the receipt of your goods.

Coopdivi

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

Surely you meant to type English with a capital E.

Surely you meant to finish your sentence with a question mark?

Hermione_Granger

Coopdivi wrote: »

Surely you meant to finish your sentence with a question mark?

No, because it wasn't a question it was a statement.
If I was asking a question I might have typed something such as "did you mean to type English with a capital E?"