UPS Import Charges Extortionate

martinjohn

I originally purchased a  69 EURO pair of trainers from Portugal to the UK.
 they are unsuitable and thus am returning them, As it was a return to original sender/retailer there should be no actual customs VAT/DUTY incurred, but there is a 50 Euro UPS brokerage fee which seems extortionate! 

Also, I affixed all the customs documentation etc so it was very clear what the item was, to whom it was going and the reason for it going there, so i am a little unsure of exactly what the "brokerage" actually needed to do or did.

Pollycat

martinjohn said:

I originally purchased a  69 EURO pair of trainers from Portugal to the UK.
 they are unsuitable and thus am returning them, As it was a return to original sender/retailer there should be no actual customs VAT/DUTY incurred, but there is a 50 Euro UPS brokerage fee which seems extortionate! 

Also, I affixed all the customs documentation etc so it was very clear what the item was, to whom it was going and the reason for it going there, so i am a little unsure of exactly what the "brokerage" actually needed to do or did.

What did UPS say when you asked them?

TripleH

There are administrative fees incurred by UPS when sorting the fees and paperwork for imports. They probably have simplified everything by charging a fixed fee for all imports as they may spend the same time sorting duty and taxes on a €69 pair of trainers as a €69,000 machine.

Sadly it may seem unfair to you but then very reasonable to the machine importer.

user1977

Is this possibly also a fee for dealing with the claim for the refund from HMRC for "un-importing" the goods? The difficulty here is that the duty is paid in the first place in order to get the goods, and then has to be claimed back - you can't simply not pay it.

martinjohn

Pollycat said:

martinjohn said:

I originally purchased a  69 EURO pair of trainers from Portugal to the UK.
 they are unsuitable and thus am returning them, As it was a return to original sender/retailer there should be no actual customs VAT/DUTY incurred, but there is a 50 Euro UPS brokerage fee which seems extortionate! 

Also, I affixed all the customs documentation etc so it was very clear what the item was, to whom it was going and the reason for it going there, so i am a little unsure of exactly what the "brokerage" actually needed to do or did.

What did UPS say when you asked them?

UPS have passed me from pillar to post, they kept saying someone else will explain it to you, a week later no one actually does. i have spoken to about 10 people by now who pass me on to someone else, and i still do not even have an invoice from them

when ive imported from USA in the past they use to add on a £12.50 fee or something like that on top of any VAT/duty, i do not understand how they can add on 50 Euros (£42) when that is not the usual fee so they should explain it! 50 Euros is a large amount of money, obviously i would not of returned the item had i known it would cost me over the items cost (69 Euros) in delivery fees to UPS.

( Britons STILL being charged high UPS fees on overseas orders | This is Money )

DullGreyGuy

That's about the fee you see people in the EU complaining about but there it tends to be a fixed amount.

In the UK its normally a percentage of the taxes collected with a minimum of around £12 and so better on small parcels but worse on large parcels. 

Its odd that they are trying to charge you in euros and odd that they are charging you at all as the parcel is under £135 and so the seller would have sorted the VAT.

martinjohn

DullGreyGuy said:

That's about the fee you see people in the EU complaining about but there it tends to be a fixed amount.

In the UK its normally a percentage of the taxes collected with a minimum of around £12 and so better on small parcels but worse on large parcels. 

Its odd that they are trying to charge you in euros and odd that they are charging you at all as the parcel is under £135 and so the seller would have sorted the VAT.

This is a return to portugal back to the seller. it should be fee exempt as its a return. there apparently, as far as i could see (a payment option was on the tracking but has since dissappeared!) is NO VAT/duty incurred, the only charges appear to be UPS s own 50 euro fee for "brokerage".
UPS is suppose to include customs clearance in the price so i do not understand it all!

and even if it is a "necessary" fee i am reading for brexit.... "For customs clearance, the courier company will charge a 'brokerage' fee of between 2.5 - 5.0% of the value of the goods (€12 - €22 minimum) ." so is it brexit or UPS cashing in?

so i am paying 50 euros fee for an organisation to not even bother to send me an invoice or even tell me what if any charges are due to pay. sounds like a great service, they are unhelpful and rude.

I can also see they have changed the phone number (i gave them the correct number) of the retailer im sending the item back to, to some textile supplier in london? i have no idea why, clearly they are making it look like they have done something to jusitify this insaine charge.

martinjohn

finally received some sort of response (which merely clarifies that they have added the fees themselves so that i would not get charged VAT/duty, actually it would of been cheaper if i had been charged that instead, they have done me no favour!), and now they have added another fee  (Portuguese customs inspection fee) on top of the original 50 euro which was the TOTAL amount that showed up on the tracking briefly with a pay now .  they are now asking for total 70,73€ !!!
so you question what the fees are and they put it up???

they really are taking the biscuit, so customs is really an opportunity for UPS to rip you off. DO NOT USE UPS for international deliveries.

i mean if they are adding NEW customs fees on a week after its cleared customs when a previous total was generated, they are clearly making them up and clearly doing it just because i dared ask what the heck they are charging me for!