DHL customs charge, now threatening legal action

TheMysterious1

I have posted this one another forum, just thought I'd see if I can get some more responses here. Thanks for your help guys! :T

I'll try keep this brief.

Bought some items from America last year and it was couriered by DHL. They delivered my items and then said I'll be getting a letter showing customs charges etc which I have to pay.

I got this calculation of costs letter but the figures were outrageously wrong even to the extent of putting in a charge of £50 for delivery costs which wasn't the case.

I rang them saying they have got the calculations wrong and I sent them the original invoice with covering letter. This was about middle of november last year.

About the beginning of April I got a letter from them saying I still have an outstanding bill with them (basically I hadn't heard from them for about 4 months and they still had my costs wrong). This was swiftly followed by another letter (about a week after) saying if I don't pay the charges they will threaten me with legal action.

I rang them and told them I had sent the original invoice and but they still hadnt calculated the correct charges. After a bit of back and forth it was agreed I'd send them the invoice again via fax and they will calculate the charges again.

I received the updated calculation and it's still unclear what charges I have to pay and a credit note had been attached too which was way too low.

Admittedly I have been a bit lazy to go back to them and find out whats going on, which is why today I received a letter saying they are passing the charges over to their legal department with fees etc to recover the costs. Fair enough but this letter STILL has the old costs and not the new recalculated costs on it, so they still havent calculated the costs correctly therefore I'm not paying the wrong costs.

My items cost me £100 inc duty and they are wanting to charge me £30 for VAT and some other stealth charges they are trying to incur. I know I should be paying about £20.

Any ideas on where to go from here? I am going to be ringing them tomorrow anyway to find out whats up.

Your help is much appreciated!!!

mute_posting

TheMysterious1 wrote: »

My items cost me £100 inc duty and they are wanting to charge me £30 for VAT and some other stealth charges they are trying to incur. I know I should be paying about £20.

What were the items?

VAT is payable (IIRC) on the goods AND the duty, then there will be a handleing charge for DHL dealing with customs on your behalf - this is (I think) about £8 with Royal Mail so I imagine it will be much higher with DHL.

VAT on £100 would be £17.50, so £30 including handling charges sounds about right?

HTH

MP

TheMysterious1

mute_posting wrote: »

What were the items?

VAT is payable (IIRC) on the goods AND the duty, then there will be a handleing charge for DHL dealing with customs on your behalf - this is (I think) about £8 with Royal Mail so I imagine it will be much higher with DHL.

VAT on £100 would be £17.50, so £30 including handling charges sounds about right?

HTH

MP

they were shoes and clothes. the total including duty on the items came up to under £100. then of course vat would be around £17.50 on it. and dhl charges are less than royal mails according to the original calculations which is why i thought £20 would be correct, £25 MAX!

oh well we'll see how it goes.

superscaper

TheMysterious1 wrote: »

they were shoes and clothes. the total including duty on the items came up to under £100. then of course vat would be around £17.50 on it. and dhl charges are less than royal mails according to the original calculations which is why i thought £20 would be correct, £25 MAX!

oh well we'll see how it goes.

Does that £100 include the delivery charges or not?

JohalaReewi

Don't forget there will be VAT on the DHL charge too. Also, the value of the imported goods for VAT calculations can be as bad as
goodsvalue + shipping + insurance + duty.

The goods value might not be the actual price paid for the goods, but the value of the goods declared on the customs slip.

however, DHL should be able to tell you the breakdown of the total amount showing how they got to the final figure. Suggest you keep in contact with DHL even if you do feel a bit lazy because not doing so can count against you if the matter comes to court. Might be an idea to get some legal advice?

custardy

are you sure the seller hasnt used a service requiring you to pay cod?

TheMysterious1

Thanks for your suggestions.

£100 includes the delivery charge.

the seller hasnt used a service requiring cod.

DHL did initially give me a thorough breakdown of the costs which were way off the mark. i then asked them to recalculate using the actual invoice and i dunno how she has calculated but there still is nothing saying exactly what i have to pay, although it seems to be much closer to what i would expect to pay.

rang them today and the lady on the other end of the phone was still adamant i had to pay the original charges and wouldnt hear of anything else. when i finally was able to go through the revised charges to this woman she started backtracking and didnt know what to say. heck she didnt even have a copy of the revised calculations!

she suggested i ring again tomorrow and speak to the lady that recalculated my costs. that made me laugh :rotfl:

they aint half pushy at DHL arent they?

deanos

Dosent the figure come from customs and DHL just add on there fee as at the end of the day they are collecting on behalf of customs ?

superscaper

deanos wrote: »

Dosent the figure come from customs and DHL just add on there fee as at the end of the day they are collecting on behalf of customs ?

DHL's admin fee wouldn't be that much. For something like £100, it'll be £2 at most.

cashsavepounds

hI we are having the same problem with dhl, we had some parts delived from india to us no mention at the dhl office in india about us being charged vat when it was delived to our address in england.We have had a bill off them for £53.27 for the duty and vat that they had to pay on our behalf to enable clearance of delivery of goods we were told nothing about this when we arrange the delivery in india the total cost for sending the parcel was £148 with insurance and now they want another £53 i will never use them again

Brooker_Dave

cashsavepounds wrote: »

hI we are having the same problem with dhl, we had some parts delived from india to us no mention at the dhl office in india about us being charged vat when it was delived to our address in england.We have had a bill off them for £53.27 for the duty and vat that they had to pay on our behalf to enable clearance of delivery of goods we were told nothing about this when we arrange the delivery in india the total cost for sending the parcel was £148 with insurance and now they want another £53 i will never use them again

Everyone has to pay duty and vat.