Customs charge confusion

MrChips

Not sure the best subforum for this query - but this seemed the least wrong one!

We visited a friend in Germany for New Year - on arrival they mentioned they'd sent us a surprise Christmas gift in the post but that it had got held up and not delivered in time due to delays with customs charges.

Sure enough, when we arrived home on Monday 5 January there was a card through the letter box inviting us to log in with a reference number to pay the customs charge.  However, when we did so the website said the charge was already paid, and, sure enough, when I checked with our friend he said he'd paid it himself from Germany on 30 December and requested a revised delivery date of 5 January.

Nothing has arrived and the tracking info shows no movement since December.  I called Royal Mail/Parcelforce today to find out what's going on.  They can see the charge has been paid, but mentioned that it usually can't be paid from overseas and as a consequence, one system thinks the charge is paid, but there's no reference number being shown and consequently another system thinks it hasn't been paid and hence the parcel isn't moving.

I've contacted my friend who, having checked his card statement, says the charge doesn't seem to be showing - from which I infer it was possibly rejected or reversed.  However, the Royal Mail system says the charge is paid and won't allow me to pay it myself.

Does anyone on here have any insight they can offer into what the issue might be and how I take this forward to resolve it?  The lady I spoke to this morning was at a bit of a loss and could only offer to escalate it internally to see what might come about.  She also suggested I try and get info from my friend such as last four digits of card number, billing address etc (which I now have) but it's at least a 30 minute wait to get through on the phone again.

MrChips

Edit - my friend has just remembered they paid by Paypal rather than by card (hence no charge showing on his card statement!).  He's passed me payment confirmation details, so I'll revert back to RM/PF.

silvercar

This is interesting. OH had a Xmas present from a company in Germany, first he knew was when he had a card from Royal Mail saying they couldn’t deliver as there was duty to pay. Then the company contacted him to say they thought that all the duty and tax had been paid at there end. Turned out there was some duty to pay here, that the company then reimbursed. By the time RM had taken their handling charge, the total of all the tax and duty came to more than the gift could have been bought for here in the UK

MrChips

Tried to ring last night but was on hold for an hour before being cut off at 6.30pm when the call office closed.  I did manage to go through an automated system requesting redelivery however.

Low and behold, when rechecking the tracking info this morning, the parcel is finally on the move, and is even slated for delivery today! Fingers firmly crossed.

Re comments from previous poster, the overal charge was around £20, made up of £12 handling fee and c£8 VAT.  I believe that means the declared value of the goods should be about £40?  If I've understood correctly, £39 and lower and it's exempt from charges - how frustrating!

MyRealNameToo

Couriers do often offer the service to bill the sender for all taxes (DDP) but in many cases its the same firm (or sister companies) in both countries so it's easy enough to do. It's not something here thats typically offered to consumers wanting to send stuff. 

Presumably they sent it by Deutsch Post given that it's been handed over to Royal Mail for delivery here. Im a little surprised that they offer a DDP service and probably not too surprising that the handover to unrelated Royal Mail may not be that simple 

£39 and under are exempt as long as its been marked as a gift, its a person to person gift (ie not a company sending you a gift) and the buyer of the gift was outside the UK (you can't buy your friend a gift from a German company to be delivered to them in the UK) 

Note that the values include the P&P 

MrChips

Very useful info, thank you.

In my specific circumstances, I presume they used Deutsch Post.  I don't think it was DDP, hence the confusion at Royal Mail and the delays.  The lady I spoke to at Royal Mail said she didn't think it was possible for the German sender to pay and that was likely responsible for the system issues.  My friend said they originally tried to pay by card but it wouldn't go through, hence the use of PayPal which seemed to work ok.

This is a person to person gift (my understanding it that the parcel contains a few edible treats / Christmas themed items). Reverse engineering the maths, seems like it's a £20 charge for gifts worth around £35 plus c£5 P&P!

sheramber

MrChips said:

Very useful info, thank you.

In my specific circumstances, I presume they used Deutsch Post.  I don't think it was DDP, hence the confusion at Royal Mail and the delays.  The lady I spoke to at Royal Mail said she didn't think it was possible for the German sender to pay and that was likely responsible for the system issues.  My friend said they originally tried to pay by card but it wouldn't go through, hence the use of PayPal which seemed to work ok.

This is a person to person gift (my understanding it that the parcel contains a few edible treats / Christmas themed items). Reverse engineering the maths, seems like it's a £20 charge for gifts worth around £35 plus c£5 P&P!

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

MrChips

Item arrived yesterday afternoon