Customs delay

2

Comments

  • mattyprice4004
    mattyprice4004 Posts: 7,492 Forumite
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    hubb wrote: »
    I won't be paying any fee. They can have it back and I will get a refund. They are only vitamin supplements.
    Do you understand how importing works? Over £15 and you need to pay VAT - and you won't automatically get a refund if you don't bother to pay.

    I suggest you look up how it all works, as importing is a process people should understand before embarking on 'the adventure' it can sometimes be :)

    Might be best to pay up, rather than lose your money and the vitamins.
  • hubb
    hubb Posts: 2,482 Forumite
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    mattyprice4004 wrote: »
    Do you understand how importing works? Over £15 and you need to pay VAT - and you won't automatically get a refund if you don't bother to pay.

    I suggest you look up how it all works, as importing is a process people should understand before embarking on 'the adventure' it can sometimes be :)

    Might be best to pay up, rather than lose your money and the vitamins.

    All the 20 years I have ordered stuff from overseas this has never happened.
  • powerful_Rogue
    powerful_Rogue Posts: 7,516 Forumite
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    hubb wrote: »
    All the 20 years I have ordered stuff from overseas this has never happened.


    Exactly where overseas? EU or Non EU?

    If it's Non EU, then you've done well and about time you paid the import taxes :)
  • George_Michael
    George_Michael Posts: 4,251 Forumite
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    edited 16 February 2019 at 12:19PM
    Are you 100% sure that the health supplements in question are legal in the EU?
    Just because something is sold in the USA doesn't mean that it is approved for sale elsewhere and this may be the reason for the delay.
    hubb wrote: »
    All the 20 years I have ordered stuff from overseas this has never happened.

    In the 40+ years I've been driving I have never once received a fine, points or had to attend a speed awareness course for speeding despite the fact that I do occasionally go over the posted limit.

    If I do ever get caught and prosecuted, will "it's never happened before" be a valid defence?
  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,551 Forumite
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    US have some strange laws on whats legal. Watched a science video from an American youtuber. Thought that looks interesting i will have to try that myself.
    They purchased the items from Walmart in fairly sizeable quantities, but here it seems i need an explosives licence to be able to purchase even a small drop of it. (its a liquid).

    Stupid thing is its easy to make, if you know how. They freely sell the other various items it takes to create this item. Just time and effort to create it.

    Quite a lof of food supplements available over their will be banned here.
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,544 Forumite
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    hubb wrote: »
    All the 20 years I have ordered stuff from overseas this has never happened.

    https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty
    https://www.simplyduty.com/calculate-uk-import-duty-taxes/
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,457 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Home Insurance Hacker!
    I would hope that Customs do pay close attention to packages of pills being sent from abroad!
  • hubb
    hubb Posts: 2,482 Forumite
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    edited 16 February 2019 at 12:07PM
    Well I got a royal mail card (they didn't even knock) saying my package is at the depot and I have to pay £12.50 !!!!!!!

    So what do I pay my taxes for ? Basically they are charging me for a service they are payed to do, I didn't ask them to and the cheek of it making me go into town to pick it up

    If I am stopped by a police officer for a spot check on my car, do they bill me for that ? no.

    RIP OFF BRITAIN!!!!!!!!
  • Lorian
    Lorian Posts: 5,706 Forumite
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    edited 16 February 2019 at 12:19PM
    Its not rip off Britain. It's duty/VAT (probably VAT) payable. you should find that's £4.50 duty you owe plus their £8 customs handling fee. something like that.

    if it had been less than £7 it would have probably been waived. I realise that wont make you feel happier.

    You can pay the fee online

    https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/pay-a-fee
  • shaun_from_Africa
    shaun_from_Africa Posts: 12,858 Forumite
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    hubb wrote: »
    So what do I pay my taxes for ? Basically they are charging me for a service they are payed to do,

    Royal mail are a private company and are not government owned or run so your paying taxes to the government has no bearing on the fee you are now being asked to pay.
    If you don't want a company to process your imports for you then you need to sort this out before making the purchase.

    All you need to do it to get the sender to write "customs clearance by addressee" on the customs declaration.
    The package will then get handed to HMRC when it arrives in the UK and they will work out the tax and duty payable, send you notification of this then when you have paid, the package will get given back to the delivery agent.
    However, this will take far longer than the week that your latest package has taken.
    It also means an end to receiving the majority of packages with no charges applied as once it has the "customs clearance by addressee" written on it, it will get looked at.

    You've had a very good run of not getting charged and 1 package in 20 years can't be bad.
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