Fedex debt collectors after me after company failed to pay import duties

thedoberman10

Hi guys. I recently bought some running shoes from Altra, who are based in Italy. I have bought from them before but on a recent purchase I was slapped with an anomalous £75 charge from Fedex for import duty. 

Altra state on their website that they pay this. Clearly, there has been an admin screw-up. They aren't responding to my emails with anything other than 'our legal team is handling' or 'fedex arent responding to us' 

Fedex are nigh-on impossible to get through to and have ignored all email correspondence. 

Two questions: 
1) What can I do here?
2) Are Fedex debt collectors as flakey as the parking ones? They appear from forum posts to have a bit more gravitas but have any of you experienced a similar situation? Can I call their bluff and get them to back down? What additional costs may I incur by standing up to them?

One thought I had would be to speak to Amex and dispute what I paid for the shoes (£150) because of this but that seems to be too non-processual to be countenanced. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. 

[Deleted User]

thedoberman10 said:

Can I call their bluff and get them to back down? 

There isn't a bluff for you to call. They believe you owe the money.

You have two options. Pay them and seek redress from Altra. Or keep on at Altra to deal with it.

Thrugelmir

Fedex are acting in their capacity as tax collectors for the HMRC. The debt will be persued and collected.  Non payment could result in additional charges being levied. They'll have no interest in your dispute with the supplier. 

user1977

thedoberman10 said:

Hi guys. I recently bought some running shoes from Altra, who are based in Italy. I have bought from them before but on a recent purchase I was slapped with an anomalous £75 charge from Fedex for import duty. 

Altra state on their website that they pay this.

Are you sure about that? This is what their standard terms say:

"4.2 With reference to requests for deliveries to countries that do not belong to the European Union, any customs duty for importation shall be payable by the consignee. The Client is therefore advised to contact the customs authorities in the country concerned beforehand to verify the costs and any restrictions on imports."

thedoberman10

"4.2 With reference to requests for deliveries to countries that do not belong to the European Union, any customs duty for importation shall be payable by the consignee. The Client is therefore advised to contact the customs authorities in the country concerned beforehand to verify the costs and any restrictions on imports."

That is weird, when I bought the shoes (in November) I'm almost 100% sure they stated that they paid all import duties to the UK. In my correspondence with them they've accepted responsibility. Other purchases from them haven't resulted in this either. 

Perhaps they've changed policy 

thedoberman10

Thrugelmir said:

Fedex are acting in their capacity as tax collectors for the HMRC. The debt will be persued and collected.  Non payment could result in additional charges being levied. They'll have no interest in your dispute with the supplier. 

Tax collectors for the HRMC? What? They have no affiliation surely

thedoberman10

There isn't a bluff for you to call. They believe you owe the money.

Could you not apply this to many parking charges? Calling their bluff is just refusing to pay and in some instances they just can't be bothered with it. 

Ergates

thedoberman10 said:

Hi guys. I recently bought some running shoes from Altra, who are based in Italy. I have bought from them before but on a recent purchase I was slapped with an anomalous £75 charge from Fedex for import duty. 

Altra state on their website that they pay this. Clearly, there has been an admin screw-up. They aren't responding to my emails with anything other than 'our legal team is handling' or 'fedex arent responding to us' 

Fedex are nigh-on impossible to get through to and have ignored all email correspondence. 

Two questions: 
1) What can I do here?
2) Are Fedex debt collectors as flakey as the parking ones? They appear from forum posts to have a bit more gravitas but have any of you experienced a similar situation? Can I call their bluff and get them to back down? What additional costs may I incur by standing up to them?

One thought I had would be to speak to Amex and dispute what I paid for the shoes (£150) because of this but that seems to be too non-processual to be countenanced. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. 

It would be *very* unusual for a retailer to agree to pay the import duties in a country they're delivering too - it would make it very complicated for them to price the items on their website for starters and/or work out what delivery costs will be.

Also, even if they did, they'd only be passing the costs on to you, so those £150 shoes would have cost £200+ instead (or, more likely, the postage would have been £50-60 more)

thedoberman10

It would be *very* unusual for a retailer to agree to pay the import duties in a country they're delivering too - it would make it very complicated for them to price the items on their website for starters and/or work out what delivery costs will be.

Also, even if they did, they'd only be passing the costs on to you, so those £150 shoes would have cost £200+ instead (or, more likely, the postage would have been £50-60 more)

I regularly buy stuff from Europe and have never faced a problem like this before

user1977

thedoberman10 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Fedex are acting in their capacity as tax collectors for the HMRC. The debt will be persued and collected.  Non payment could result in additional charges being levied. They'll have no interest in your dispute with the supplier. 

Tax collectors for the HRMC? What?

They've dealt with customs clearance and paid HMRC on your behalf. So you need to reimburse them.

thedoberman10

Also, even if they did, they'd only be passing the costs on to you, so those £150 shoes would have cost £200+ instead (or, more likely, the postage would have been £50-60 more)

This may be the case. The same shoes retail at roughly £120 in the US