Vat Import charge conundrum

battybetty

Hi,

I have a bit of a conundrum on my hands. I placed an order on the 8th of October with a clothing company named Dollskill which is based in the US. At first I mistakingly believed upon placing my order that this company had a base both in the US and in the UK, as some similar companies I order with work this way and the fact they listed their items in pounds and offered free postage on orders over a certain amount also influenced this misunderstanding. 

Now; upon placing my order I was not warned at any point at all that I would have to pay extra fees to actually receive my order, on top of what I had already paid. In fact, it kept promoting all over the website about the free postage.  The confirmation email I received did not contain any additional information other than what I ordered and how much I had paid. 

A few days after placing my order I got an email from Dollskill letting me know my order was delayed and that they would let me know when it was going to dispatch. I then received the dispatch email shortly afterwards letting me know the items had been sent and there was a tracking button I could click to see the progress as per usual these days. Upon clicking the tracking, it lead me to a page with no updates at that stage, so over the next few days I kept clicking and it still said nothing. I then received an odd email from a ''Pascaline Bizien'' stating the following: ''Great news, your order tracking number ******** from Dolls Kill has been shipped and is on its way to you via London in the UK where it will be cleared and handed over to the carrier for final destination in your country where you won’t be charged any further fees. Your order exceeds the £15 Great Britain import free threshold which incurs VAT charges and processing charges.''
First, this is contradicting itself, saying I wont have to pay any extra fees and then telling me I have to pay but not saying how much. It then says that to pay I have to click on a link and enter my bank details to pay the fees...

The email in question is poorly written, and has blurry images at the base relating to a company called Omnipay which is apparently as I understand it taking the fee for Pascaline Bizien for Dollskill... So to me this looks dodgy, I point blank refuse to enter my bank details through a link on a strange looking email, it screams phishing.

Apart from this issue, I never agreed at any stage to pay extra fees, had I been warned about this I wouldn't have placed the order in the first place. I am completely aware that import VAT charges can be applied on orders from the US and have paid these in the past for other items through other companies. But this company did not warn me this would happen at all and was not transparent about their location. This may sound silly to some, but when they rely on the customer to find the small print hidden somewhere through the help section at the base of their website and don't tell you you may have to pay a considerable amount extra to get your order, make it look like their postage is ''Free!'' and display prices in pounds... I personally find that unethical. It is relying on the customer to relent at point of receipt with the courier. 

However, this issue goes further. I let Dollskill know I was upset they did not forewarn me this would happen and refuse to pay the extra cost. I also let them know that even if they had warned me, getting a third party to send an strange email asking people to click on a dodgy link is absurd. I asked them to cancel my order as I had not agreed to this and asked for a refund. This conversation went back and forth, ultimately their customer service was lacking, they offered no help, and asked me to fill in a returns form when I received the items.  They said the email had nothing to do with them, which I do not understand as they choose the courier to deliver their goods. They at no point ever said anything bout refunding me despite me asking for a refund on multiple occasions. I also didn't understand how they assumed I would be able to send back an order I understood I wasn't getting if I wasn't paying this fee through this email. Pascaline Bizien sent me a further two emails reminding me to pay, I sent an email to the courier Seko Logistics letting them know I refused the order as I had not agreed to pay the extra amount to receive it, this was advised in the last email Dollskill sent me. Amongst sending these emails, I kept checking the tracking and at the very last minute it was updated to show that customs had cleared and it was now with My Hermes - these are now Seko, Pascaline, Omnipay and Hermes - all dealing with this order. The fact it said customs cleared made everything even more confusing. 

As I understand it, you don't receive an order if you have not paid VAT or customs on it, it gets sent back. Well lo and behold, today I opened the front door to go out and there the package was sitting on my doorstep. So I am very confused. I haven't paid this extra fee, why have I received it regardless? Does this mean that email was a phishing email after all? If I open and use the items I have paid for and don't pay this apparent Vat charge if it is legitimate -  do I get threatened in the future with HMRC claims?? 

Help! I don't know what to do.

Aylesbury_Duck

You may yet get a bill from whichever courier company paid the import fees, plus an administrative charge.  It's likely to arrive in the next few days if import taxes were paid.

bris

It's your responsibility to know about how to import and what fees to pay. When you buy from outside the EU you pay customs, charges, thats on you not the seller. They can still send with free postage without making any extra charges as it's nothing to do with them what HMRC charge you in VAT.

The courier will have paid the fees for you and send you the bill with a service charge for the clearance. They often do this so as not to hold up your delivery, so thinking you won't get the goods until you pay is just bad information you received.

Caz3121

under shipping information for Canada and United Kingdom it shows
"Buyers are responsible for local duties, taxes and advancement fees at delivery in countries where applicable."
in the FAQs regarding shipping it states
"All international orders are subject to customs fees determined by their countries regulations."
Under Payments and Ordering it says
"Customs fees are set by your country luv, we ain't got nuthin to do with them. We can't control them at all and do not benefit from them in any way. Buyers are responsible for any customs fees or advacement fees accrued on a package."

Returns get sent to the USA so there is nothing on the site that indicates this is anything but a US site....you can convert the currency of the prices into multiple currencies which is common for sites that market globally

Most couriers will deliver then bill in retrospect. I believe it is just Royal Mail that collect the payment before delivery

KatrinaWaves

I admit I skipped most of that but basically:

1. price in pounds means nothing
2. if you didn’t pay anything for postage, then it’s free. Customs charges is not postage.
3. dollskill do not state anyway they have a U.K. base
4. your assumptions were all wrong
5. Your ‘assertions’ about dollskills being misleading and unethical are wrong
6. if you are buying online you need to wise up to customs charges and buying from
abroad. It is not the companies job to list the customs and import taxes for all nearly 200 countries of this earth. 

battybetty

Firstly, thanks for your help.

This is not a customs charge it is a VAT charge and there are 4 separate companies involved in this. Dollskill, Seko, Omnipay and Hermes. I find the fact that a company does not explicitly warn anything about customs and VAT charges being applicable after the order unethical at best and the fact that consumers defend the company giants in this scenario beyond baffling. 
Whether my assumptions were wrong is besides the point, it is the fact that the company is NOT transparent that led me to believe this and if you search on Reddit you will find a whole thread of consumers in the UK having bought goods from exactly the same company ALL with the same issue I have. I think at the very least they should have small print when placing an order that not only customs fees but VAT fees may apply. Not only this, but that three separate companies will be involved and I will be sent a dodgy looking email asking me to click on a link within it to enter my bank details to pay a large amount of VAT for a relatively small order. Phishing 101: do not enter bank details on links in dodgy emails. The email as I said is badly worded and gives no information relative to this fee or the deadline or anything at all. 

I have paid customs charges before, from companies that have given prior warning, and I am happy doing so if I feel I have been treated fairly as a customer. In this scenario that is not the case. It is not a case of them saying the amount, but that it will happen in the first place, especially when it is not clear they do not have a base in the country the item is ordered from, this being the UK which they market to on a mass level. 

I again find consumers willingness to defend company giants unethical practice a bit odd. I takes nothing for them to write a sentence during or before an order with a small warning. Yet I find that the more I look into the company in question the more I have found out about their general unethical stance to a number of issues quite telling. Dollskill sells and has sold items from the UK... so forgive me if I automatically think that clothing fabricated and designed in the UK would be sent to the US to be sent back here again a little strange. If you think thats normal.. that's part of the issue here. 

DiddyDavies

battybetty said:

Firstly, thanks for your help.

This is not a customs charge it is a VAT charge and there are 4 separate companies involved in this. Dollskill, Seko, Omnipay and Hermes. I find the fact that a company does not explicitly warn anything about customs and VAT charges being applicable after the order unethical at best and the fact that consumers defend the company giants in this scenario beyond baffling. 

VAT is a customs charge because it is HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) that charge and collect this payment.

Flight3287462

Their website is hardly confusing and the default is US prices.  You have just failed to do your due diligence.

KatrinaWaves

I’m not quoting your giant wall of text but it is not unethical to not warn people about charges. They should not be expected to know the charge of every other country.

Customs charges on goods from abroad is an extremely common thing for people to know. I am sorry you didn’t know but the only person to blame is you. It’s not a secret. It’s common knowledge... 

mattyprice4004

I sell worldwide, and it's not my place to warn customers about VAT import charges etc - they should know the rules of their own country, as should everyone importing in the UK.

custardy

When you order from a new site. Do you not bother checking the about them page,location,shipping?
These are my default checks at a minimum

This site defaults to USD when I look and advises free UK shipping on orders over $75. A small clue.
The shipping page is clearer than most on fees IME