Amazon Order (Prime Delivery) - DHL trying to charge extortionate customs charge after delivery

HelenDP

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

jon81uk

Did you order from Amazon.co.uk?
Was it under £135? If so then Amazon should have collected the taxes upfront so it seems that seller is in the wrong, you need to get Amazon to resolve it with the marketplace seller.
If it was over £135 and coming from Italy then you are liable for VAT and duty. But you should still complain to Amazon that their UK site didn't make it clear.

But if you ordered from amazon.it (the Italy site) then you are liable for the taxes.

DullGreyGuy

jon81uk said:

But if you ordered from amazon.it (the Italy site) then you are liable for the taxes.

The £135 threashold still applies if you order it from any Amazon site.

HelenDP said:

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

Do you have a link to the item? If you remove the https://www. from the front of the link you can post here despite being a newbie. 

If you look down the left side on an item on Amazon it tells you who the seller is and who arranges delivery. In this post-brexit world if either isnt Amazon its worth clicking on the name to check where the entity is based.

RFW

HelenDP said:

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

A debt collection agency can't do much to you unless they take you to court. All they can do is harass you, if they call you can request that they don't, so the harassment can't be more than one letter per month. I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

I'd raise the complaint again with Amazon, preferably via Live Chat, and let them know and let them know the sales page was misleading at time of purchase.

DullGreyGuy

RFW said:
I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

Contracts are not the only source of liability, else you could drive away after rear ending another car saying you dont have a contract with them

There is an act of parliament that entitles carriers to settle HMRC importation charges and charge the importer plus a marginal fee for doing so... from memory its one of the Postal Services Acts but someone else always chimes up and gives the exact clause of the statute. 

That isnt to say they will take the OP to court, the amount is probably too small to bother, but has nothing to do with any absence of contract. 

Keep_pedalling

RFW said:

HelenDP said:

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

A debt collection agency can't do much to you unless they take you to court. All they can do is harass you, if they call you can request that they don't, so the harassment can't be more than one letter per month. I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

I'd raise the complaint again with Amazon, preferably via Live Chat, and let them know and let them know the sales page was misleading at time of purchase.

The OP is liable for any import duties and VAT payable on anything they import, if this goes to the small claims court the OP will almost certainly loose. It is not DHLs fault that the OP accidentally ordered something from the EU and the importer is responsible for paying it. Ignoring this will leave the OP with a CCJ against their name.

RFW

Keep_pedalling said:

RFW said:

HelenDP said:

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

A debt collection agency can't do much to you unless they take you to court. All they can do is harass you, if they call you can request that they don't, so the harassment can't be more than one letter per month. I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

I'd raise the complaint again with Amazon, preferably via Live Chat, and let them know and let them know the sales page was misleading at time of purchase.

The OP is liable for any import duties and VAT payable on anything they import, if this goes to the small claims court the OP will almost certainly loose. It is not DHLs fault that the OP accidentally ordered something from the EU and the importer is responsible for paying it. Ignoring this will leave the OP with a CCJ against their name.

Highly unlikely. There's little chance of this ending up in court. It won't just be a customs fee, it will be an additional charge from the courier which the OP has not agreed to, even if the duty charges could be considered as implicit in the purchase.
I've never actually heard of this being pursued in court, feel free to offer some reported cases.

RFW

DullGreyGuy said:

RFW said:
I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

Contracts are not the only source of liability, else you could drive away after rear ending another car saying you dont have a contract with them

There is an act of parliament that entitles carriers to settle HMRC importation charges and charge the importer plus a marginal fee for doing so... from memory its one of the Postal Services Acts but someone else always chimes up and gives the exact clause of the statute. 

That isnt to say they will take the OP to court, the amount is probably too small to bother, but has nothing to do with any absence of contract. 

Thanks. It comes up on here fairly frequently. With many sellers now prepaying then errors seem to be creeping in.
The other point is that any courier would have a problem pursuing this via court. What if, for an extreme example, the receiver is not someone who lives at the address? I suspect that the couriers never go to court on this, their fees probably cover the small percentage who never pay up.

DullGreyGuy

RFW said:

Keep_pedalling said:

RFW said:

HelenDP said:

I wondered if anyone can advise at all. I purchased something on Amazon which had Prime delivery (Free). Unbeknown to me the third party seller was based in Italy. A few weeks after receiving the item DHL sent me an invoice for a £50 customs charge, Amazon just advised me to ignore it but now I am received letters from a debt recovery agency. 

A debt collection agency can't do much to you unless they take you to court. All they can do is harass you, if they call you can request that they don't, so the harassment can't be more than one letter per month. I can't see that this would ever end up in court, you haven't had a contract with DHL.

I'd raise the complaint again with Amazon, preferably via Live Chat, and let them know and let them know the sales page was misleading at time of purchase.

The OP is liable for any import duties and VAT payable on anything they import, if this goes to the small claims court the OP will almost certainly loose. It is not DHLs fault that the OP accidentally ordered something from the EU and the importer is responsible for paying it. Ignoring this will leave the OP with a CCJ against their name.

Highly unlikely. There's little chance of this ending up in court. It won't just be a customs fee, it will be an additional charge from the courier which the OP has not agreed to, even if the duty charges could be considered as implicit in the purchase.
I've never actually heard of this being pursued in court, feel free to offer some reported cases.

I fully agree that its unlikely to end in court however the rest of the comments are just wrong... the Postal Service Act allows the carrier to charge a fee for clearing customs... they have a statutory right to charge the OP, they dont need a contract or prior agreement etc, its implicit in the OP being the importer.

The reality is even if it did go to court its going to be small claims court with judgements handed down orally and given the right stems from statute you arent going to be getting large numbers of appeals. Its therefore no wonder that that you dont hear about these things being pursued. 

90% of people on here eventually buckle and pay what they owe and the remaining 10% we never hear from again so may or may not have paid.