Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

Inverness

Revenue & Customs charged £21.14 VAT on a camera my ex husband posted back when my son left it is the States at half term in February. Stupid ex stated it was a gift valued at $200 on the declaration.

I phoned but was told I'd have to pay it if I wanted the camera back.

Was also charged £8 "International Handling fee".

Wrote to Mount Pleasant on 8 May explaining situation again and enclosing confirmation from my ex of his error - no response - what can I do now, if anything?

MrsTee_2

Call customer services on 08457740740 however I can't imagine that you'll get a refund as it was officially declared a gift, mistake or no mistake.

bgs264

I, too, today got stung by the £8 fee. Interesting I imported some rubber stamps for card making, value $30. Today, xe.com values that at £17.96 so arguably I shouldn't have paid.

However after much googling around, I found this document, which breaks down the £8 fee if anybody's interested.

Unfortunately as a new user, I'm not allowed to post links, so take the following and figure it out:

www dot whatdotheyknow dot com/request/8_fee_for_collecting_hm_custom_c#incoming-40217

Regards
bgs264

custardy

18/08/2009
Annex1: Mount Pleasant customs unit cost per item 2007/08

Activity
Cost Element
Cost (£k)
Primary Customs
Managers, Staff, Property
1000
Secondary Customs
Staff, Property, Storage
1308
Delivery Office
Handling, Recording, Property,
900
Cash Handling
Cashiers
50
Return to Sender
Staff
69
RM total costs

3327

Cost per item

£7.99

Number of Items charged
416244
2006/7

Dear Mr Ellis

I am writing in response to your request, dated 21st July 2009, for a
breakdown of the £8 fee for collecting HM Customs charges. We do hold a
breakdown of Royal Mail's costs incurred clearing items through customs and
I have provided this information in Annex1 to this email.

All mail items that enter the United Kingdom may be examined by Customs,
but normally letters, postcards and packets containing only documents or
similar forms of correspondence are not required to be presented to
Customs.

Packages received from overseas (apart from another EU Country), may incur
customs charges. Any package assessed by HM Revenue and Customs as being
liable for Customs charges (import duty/tax) will also incur a Royal Mail
handling fee. The Royal Mail customs handling fee is charged for customs
clearance of items in respect of which import duty and/or tax is due.
Items in respect of which no import duty and/or tax is due will continue to
be cleared through customs free of charge. It is a legal requirement for
Royal Mail to segregate packets arriving from overseas (non-EU countries)
and to present to Customs those items that are liable for import duty/tax
under current customs regulations.

The £8.00 fee currently charged by RMG reflects the actual cost of clearing
items through customs. This includes the staff, facilities and handling
cost of presenting the item to customs.

I hope this information meets your requirements. If for any reason you are
not satisfied with this response, you do have the right to request a
review. If you wish to do so please set out in writing your grounds of
appeal and send to the Head of Information Compliance, Royal Mail Group,
Company Secretary's Office, 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ. An
internal panel will then review the decision, and you will be advised of
the outcome.

If, having requested an internal review by Royal Mail, you are still not
satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to the
Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700
https://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Colin Young
Freedom of Information Officer
[Royal Mail Group request email]
(See attached file: Annex1.pdf)
Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in England
and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 100 Victoria Embankment,
LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/8_fee_for_collecting_hm_custom_c#incoming-40217

jahman

I too have just been stung for this "charge" and, for the priviledge, I had to go to the sorting office to collect the parcel myself. I had to do so because the postman is too lazy to use the intercom as instructed to call up to my flat; too lazy to walk to the lift; too lazy to walk to my door and too lazy to wait for me to answer it. You can tell that the postman isn't my my favourite person, particularly given that over the last few years I've had a large number of items "go missing" in the post.

I was charged £4.22 in VAT, which I don't have an issue with but a totally disproportionate £8 handling fee. Why go to the trouble of calculating the VAT and then not be bothered to implement a fair system of proportional and proportionate charges based on the value of the item?

As for the tracking excuse, if it costs £4.95 to track an item why I am being charged an additional £3.05 for someone to perform the relatively unskilled task of data entry to calculate a VAT charge? I've already paid for the parcel to be delivered to my home address so that portion of the £4.95 fee shouldn't apply either whatever that is.

Cheers,

jahman

fiddiwebb

It's not a scam, if you are buying items from abroad (outside the EU) then don't complain about customs/duty and the associated charges if you are well aware that the item is over the allowed limits.

9 out of 10 times you luckily don't get charged when you are supposed to because customs don't have the manpower to check each and every item, I've been buying/selling on eBay for well over 10 years now and it has only been a handfull of times that I have had to pay.

If you are complaining about the Royal Mails handling charge try Fedex they charge (it may have gone up now) £10 + Vat, and that has been the case for a number of years.

Bob_the_Saver

That's one of the nice things about the EU, you just put it in the post, as long as VAT has already been paid. Don't believe everything you read in The Daily Mail. (I wouldn't believe anything myself).

custardy

jahman wrote: »

I too have just been stung for this "charge" and, for the priviledge, I had to go to the sorting office to collect the parcel myself. I had to do so because the postman is too lazy to use the intercom as instructed to call up to my flat; too lazy to walk to the lift; too lazy to walk to my door and too lazy to wait for me to answer it. You can tell that the postman isn't my my favourite person, particularly given that over the last few years I've had a large number of items "go missing" in the post.

I was charged £4.22 in VAT, which I don't have an issue with but a totally disproportionate £8 handling fee. Why go to the trouble of calculating the VAT and then not be bothered to implement a fair system of proportional and proportionate charges based on the value of the item?

As for the tracking excuse, if it costs £4.95 to track an item why I am being charged an additional £3.05 for someone to perform the
relatively unskilled task of data entry to calculate a VAT charge? I've already paid for the parcel to be delivered to my home address so that portion of the £4.95 fee shouldn't apply either whatever that is.

Cheers,

jahman

sorry i have no idea why VAT calculation relates tracking,perhaps im too lazy
you are referring to special delivery.a pad for service which bears little relation to the costs incurrd in customs clearence.
can you not see that?
however just to clear it up.the lazy thieving postman doesnt bring the item out of the delivery office.
that item is held as there is a fee to pay. so they deliver the card informing you of this.
you had no need to go to the delivery office(theres no such thing as a sorting office) as the card gives you delivery options using the online service.
hopefully your bottom lip has stoped trembling now.
heres an idea,rather than complain online about the postman. just call him a lazy thief to his face.

jahman

custardy wrote: »

sorry i have no idea why VAT calculation relates tracking,perhaps im too lazy
you are referring to special delivery.a pad for service which bears little relation to the costs incurrd in customs clearence.
can you not see that?
however just to clear it up.the lazy thieving postman doesnt bring the item out of the delivery office.
that item is held as there is a fee to pay. so they deliver the card informing you of this.
you had no need to go to the delivery office(theres no such thing as a sorting office) as the card gives you delivery options using the online service.
hopefully your bottom lip has stoped trembling now.
heres an idea,rather than complain online about the postman. just call him a lazy thief to his face.

You may well be too lazy - I couldn't possibly comment. You certainly haven't bothered to read my post carefully enough as I believe I clearly explained what I meant. I hope you pay more attention to the addresses on the letters and parcels you are custodian of. Perhaps your failure to understand is due to your dodgy eye in which case I wish you a speedy recovery for all our sakes as often unwilling customers of the Royal Mail.

I did not even consider for a nano-second the option of having my lazy, thieving postman deliver the parcel because a) I wanted to actually receive it and b) he would simply have put a card in my post box necessitating the same journey anyway as is his wont.

Strange, they certainly called the place in which they sorted letters a sorting office when I worked in one as a student. Calling it a delivery office these days are they? A misnomer if ever I heard one given the amount of mail I had go missing. It seems that they are now just storing large volumes of letters in warehouses now with apparently no desire to ever deliver them. What will they call those I wonder? Lost property offices?

If I could actually identify the lazy thief of a postman, or indeed whoever it is who has stolen several hundred pounds worth of items from me over the course of the last few years, I'd do a lot more than call him a lazy thief to his face I can assure you. A trembling lip would be the least of his worries.

Is that enough sarcasm for you or would you like second helpings?

Cheers,

jahman

custardy

perhaps you are one of the people like many i deliver to who find the concept of a full address too much for them?
eg the package addressed to 2 christian names but not at any combination of the flat numbers used.
the return address being mummy and daddy.
now im sure mummy and daddy will be incensed at their package being 'stolen'