The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: Sarah-Bee on April 04, 2012, 02:11:19 AM
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I am absolutely SICK of receiving customs charges on stuff I'm buying from abroad!! :throw:
Between starting collecting in 2003 and summer last year I'd had a whole 3 customs charges - whatever, I can cope with that.
This year I've paid about £100 in customs charges!! Every other package I receive has a charge and they don't just charge the 20% VAT, they stick an £8 handling charge on every one as well!!! :throw:
Personally I think it's disgusting, especially when you consider these are mostly second hand ponies! If I bought these in the UK they wouldn't receive VAT on them so why should I pay it on second hand stuff from abroad?!
I'm going to have to give serious consideration to buying just from the UK which limits what's available to me :(
To top it all off my husband is now having to sit on the phone to UPS while I'm at work because some stroppy cow just came to deliver some ponies from the US with a customs charge on and because he didn't have any cash on him she said she's sending them back to the US! What about arranging re-delivery?!
I'm so fed up of this. Has anyone else noticed an increase in these charges or have I just been really unlucky?
Sarah xx
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:hug: Sarah what a bummer!
They get you coming and going anymore.
And what the heck is the handling charge for? Just for them having to do there job and deliver it to your door? :argh:
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Exactly! I'm paying them to charge me essentially!! And there's no point trying to speak to anyone about the whys and wherefores of VAT on second hand stuff, anything run by HRH or the Government here is just gonna do it anyways, whether it's right or wrong, no matter what I have to say about it! GRRR Makes me so mad!
Post Merge: April 04, 2012, 07:46:16 AM
Just been reading this which details a lot about customs charges http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&propertyType=document&id=HMCE_CL_000014
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Sarah-Bee - Are you saying that if a package is worth $4 then you will get charged 8 pounds in customs?!?!
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Sarah-Bee - Are you saying that if a package is worth $4 then you will get charged 8 pounds in customs?!?!
No in the UK we get hit with customs charges when the parcel is valued over a certain amount - but the limit is set incredibly low...£15ish for most items and even £40 if its marked as a gift [yes in the UK you pay tax on a gift!] and Customs are currently on a drive to catch every one
Since starting collecting, I have over the years been hit with some very very painful customs charges...and they are something I continue to rant about as I find them grossly unfair
I understand that if I purchase an item from outside the UK that I could have purchased from inside the UK then Her Majesty and her Tax Man still want the VAT they are entitled too...fair enough I get that. However, if I purchase a vintage plastic pony which may not even have been for sale back in 1985 in the UK - a pony which is "used" and which I couldnt purchase any other way for my "collection" being billed that extra is ludicrous...oh and the "admin/handling" fee that either Royal Mail or the courier stick on top is nonsense it doesnt cost them £8 per package to send out a letter/leaflet or to process the fee back to the government.
Unfortunately its a monopoly and a system they are using for a tidy bit of extra income...
Trust me...I completely feel your pain Sarah...its horrible to have to go through it.
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So 15 bp eh? That's 23 USD. So if I send something to the UK and mark that it's worth $20 how much will the buyer have to pay? Is it nothing?
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Yes, they should pay nothing if the value is marked as $20...
Dont get me wrong they dont catch absolutely everything and some things of higher value sneak through fine...but they are certainly a little more 'hot to the trot' on it than they used to be...and more things are caught than I have ever seen.
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Very very good to know. I will be keeping that in mind when I ship out packages to the UK. Not that I like lying or anything but a few dollar fib won't hurt anyone.
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don't even get me started on customs :S Crazy customs here made me wonder if I should drop pony collecting in general. Then I decided to focus on finding ponies locally, but just now I had a horrible situation with a local seller so I´m really bummed :(:(
Anyways, I feel your pain
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The £8 isn't customs fees. It's Royal Mail handling fees. :mad:
I had a 50 cent pony shipped from the US to the UK. They misread the .50 as 50 and decided that as it was worth $50, they'd slap fees on it. I had to pay about £12 to get the parcel including £8 handling fees and never got a refund.
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I feel your pain too! I paid out a heck of a lot of money in customs fees lately as well :( and the £8 handling fee that goes with each parcel... UGH! :throw: if fact they kept one of my parcels at the local depot for over a week before deciding to send me a letter (which took another 3 or so days to get here)demanding the fees (and no they didnt attempt to deliver before that) which I certainly dont think deserved the handling fee on top :mad:
The fees apply to anything that isnt marked as a gift that is valued at £18+, or anything that is a gift valued at £40+ , doesnt matter whether its new or used either *sigh* :sad: Thats why I prefer not to buy anything too valuable from outside of Europe unless its from a friend here who doesnt mark it as a high value . We dont get charged on things from Europe, so I buy more expensive ponies from there where possible ;)
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@Ringlets...I believe they have actually lowered the threshold now it used to be £18 [as this was £15 + VAT] but according to my local sorting office its now £15.01 and anything marked at this or higher will be subject to charges if they catch it....grrrrrrr
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Vintergatan do you know what the limit is in Iceland? I'm about to send a parcel over so I'll make sure I mark it correctly
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The £8 isn't customs fees. It's Royal Mail handling fees. :mad:
I had a 50 cent pony shipped from the US to the UK. They misread the .50 as 50 and decided that as it was worth $50, they'd slap fees on it. I had to pay about £12 to get the parcel including £8 handling fees and never got a refund.
Yeah in my ranting I don't think I differentiated lol, but yeah the £8 is Royal Mail, yet another of HRH's services (insert sarcastic salute here). There is a form where you can apply for a refund on the attached link Daffydilly, if it wasn't too long ago. That really sucks!
Rockinprettybeats, it's a good idea in my opinion to ask the buyer what they want the value marked as, as it's the importers responsiblity, ie, the buyer not the seller, so nothing can come back on the seller if incorrect information is provided. And I can't see anything ever coming back on the buyer either, how are customs going to know what our ponies are worth? :P So asking the buyer if they want it marking at $20 is a good idea and something I shall consider in future. However, it may have implications on the value the item is insured for if you need to claim for it going missing so may be a case of weighing up pros and cons...
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I completely understand you Sarah! I am in Italy and that's exactly the same, while in past some packages were hit by the pesky fees lately every single damn package that arrives from US or Australia or whatever is out of the Euro zone....tax!
Even with gift as you said! The worst is that the limit to not pay should be 22 euro but they tax also lower amounts as those thieves take the amount of the goods and also the shipping costs...so we pay a tax on second hand things and on shipping costs !?!?!?
I had also cases where the amount was kindly put down by the seller/friend to try avoid me the fees but no...they taxed calculating on a "decided by them" amount they thought was right....
I just gave up with this and know I have to pay those fees if I want something out of Europe...sad but true :huh:
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Vintergatan do you know what the limit is in Iceland? I'm about to send a parcel over so I'll make sure I mark it correctly
Basically, the way it´s supposed to work here is that they won't charge you anything if the parcel is marked as gift of up to 10 000 isk in value (that's ~$80). However, they will often refuse to accept that something is a gift, which is the biggest problem! They even go as far as to open all packages and decide on their own if it´s a gift and how much it's worth :S I had them open my packages and see messages inside "thanks for the trade/purchase" and refuse to treat it as a gift :S
so basically, don't mention any such thing anywhere, mark it as a gift and put low value. Apparently, putting colourful stickers and such helps as well.
that's as much as you can do as a sender, the rest is up to us here ^^
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Wow, I just feel so badly for you guys who have to pay such ridiculous fees to build your toy collection! :huh: I wish that there was something that could be done to reinstate the sanity in the postal services.
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The £8 isn't customs fees. It's Royal Mail handling fees. :mad:
I had a 50 cent pony shipped from the US to the UK. They misread the .50 as 50 and decided that as it was worth $50, they'd slap fees on it. I had to pay about £12 to get the parcel including £8 handling fees and never got a refund.
So it's not customs it's royal handling fees?
Maybe this is a stupid question but why would the price of the item matter for handling fees? It's not like it makes the job harder right?
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RM have an £8 admin and handling fee, this is on top of the customs fee's :)
daffy had to pay £12 in customs fee's (tax etc) for the "$50" or what customs thought was a "$50" item as well as the £8 admin/handling fee.
Very very good to know. I will be keeping that in mind when I ship out packages to the UK. Not that I like lying or anything but a few dollar fib won't hurt anyone.
it is illegal to put a false ammount on the customs form, i know we are almost all guilty of doing it though :(
if the packet gets lost and you try and claim back the value for the lost item they will ask what the declared customs value is, you cannot claim for a $50 item that was marked as $5 on the customs form ~ i think that is right anyway!
love pkw xxx
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PKW is right, it is illegal and you would only be able to claim the amount stated on the form... BUT if it's not tracked and the only way to tell what you declared is on a MISSING item then you revert to PayPal/Ebay/Emails for proof of cost so there's a way round it if it's not tracked ;) *is not dodgy, honest :P *
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pinkkittywinks - Here in the USA packages aren't insured unless you pay for priority mail international. Which is almost never worth it and most buyers will never pay that much money to ship a pony or barbie.
But I'm still confused with the 8bp handing fee. It's based off the value of the item right? If so, what does it matter how much the item is worth. It doesn't make the package larger or heavier right?
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pinkkittywinks - Here in the USA packages aren't insured unless you pay for priority mail international. Which is almost never worth it and most buyers will never pay that much money to ship a pony or barbie.
But I'm still confused with the 8bp handing fee. It's based off the value of the item right? If so, what does it matter how much the item is worth. It doesn't make the package larger or heavier right?
"Handling fee" is always the same at the £8 its only the customs charge that varies depending on the item value - so even if you are only £2 in a customs charge you will still have the additional £8 to pay over and above that. Handling fee is basically an Admin charge - the parcel company or Royal Mail charge you for the fact they have had to send out a letter telling you you need to pay customs, the parcel company or Royal Mail also then need to process your customs charge back to HMRC [i.e. Customs] - all this is what they claim the £8 is for.
Oh the Royal Mail are notorious for handling fees...if someone posts you a letter and perhaps the stamp falls off...instead of simply charging you the 46p for your letter [i.e. you pay the stamp price] they hit you with a "handling" fee of about £1 on top of it as well simply because they had to send you a letter to tell you you had a letter without the correct price on it...lol
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RockinPrettyBeats, no- the "handling fee" it's not based on a % of value at all. That's a flat fee.
We have a handling fee too. I've only ever gotten one on things I've paid customs on, at least here, it's not applied every time you pay customs. sometimes though. I was told it was a charge because customs had to either open, or otherwise process my parcel. Here it's an extra $5 on top of whatever else if you're the "lucky" winner. (Customs is 12% of the Canadian $ value. in this province)
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Yeah, there's a 8.50$ charge on top of the taxes and duty up here, that's one reason I rarely buy ponies over 20$ value. I do not mind paying tax, I *do* take exception to the ridiculous processing fees. Almost an hour's wages just to process one payment? >_o
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What? Wow, the last time I was charged that fee I was living in Ontario, and it used to be $5!
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Yeah, it went up recently, to 8$ or 8.50$, can't recall which. I remember it being 5$ too, and even then that was pretty high.
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The problem I am having is that I really don't want my UK pony friends to get slapped with huge fees, especially when it's a gift, but on the other hand, if I am sending a package that really does include a lot of quite valuable items I don't want to take the risk of marking it low and it getting lost...
Swap packages, for example. I hate to think of my swap partner having to pay extra money to receive a gift. But if the box goes missing and I've marked it as worth $20 or something, then we both lose out D: I don't know what to do.
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THREE customs charges adding up to £100? I live with my wife who is a gothic lolita, and our last customs charge was £102 for her stuff.
The amount we've spent on customs over the last year is about £350.
For some reason anything coming from Japan is instantly grabbed by customs and given a HUGE charge. The last package was just a little sweater and a skirt. It's strange that we'd buy £200 from Taobao and not get a customs charge for it, but a $30 Pokemon plush sent from Japan got a £50 customs charge.
Personally I think it's ridiculous that we have to pay customs on something we've already paid expensive shipping prices over, and i've had to resort to asking sellers to mark down the value to avoid having to pay more. Sure I know that's illegal, but I think charging extra should be illegal. I didn't have to deal with this in America. Why should I pay £100 for customs on one dress that was already overpriced due to it being a brand name?
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pinkkittywinks - Here in the USA packages aren't insured unless you pay for priority mail international. Which is almost never worth it and most buyers will never pay that much money to ship a pony or barbie.
i didn't know that, it is different in the uk.
any packet you send regular mail, that is no tracking or added insurance is automatically insured for the value of £42 GBP so long as it is not jewellery, cash or vouchers. however if you send something worth more than the £42 in the regular mail and it gets lost you only get the £42 back.
love pkw xxx
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Urgh, don't get me started!
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that sucks! they always find a way to get your money!
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Auch, and i thought the Netherlands were bad.. sorry to hear you had over 100 pounds on customs fees, only in this year, Sarah! That's rediculous much!!
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i didn't know that, it is different in the uk.
any packet you send regular mail, that is no tracking or added insurance is automatically insured for the value of £42 GBP so long as it is not jewellery, cash or vouchers.
The value our parcels are automatically insured for went up to £46, and I believe its higher now (it is the cost of 10 first class stamps..) I have to get a new price list and check the details again though since the prices have all changed :awake:
NoD I know what you mean about swap boxes. Its a toughie! however , since its a gift, and if the value is less than £40 /approx $63 ( and like I just mentioned, the value might have gone up now, I have to check) , then sending a parcel to a UK partner should be ok and not get any fees even if you put the true value on the box...unless you have joined a really high value swap, or you went waaay over the swap budget ;)
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Along the same vein, how reliable is the Royal Mail postal service?
For myself I buy a lot from the US. I request inexpensive first class shipping when possible (without insurance). should a package get lost, all I would request from the seller is a scan of the receipt as proof they did indeed send, and I would eat that loss. So far, after over a decade, I have gotten every piece of mail that was sent to me. (even stuff that the address was botched.)
I'm getting a lot of UK buyers. I'm more then happy to mark these as second hand toys, (they only have value to us, to anyone else it's a used pony horse a toddler would chew) but the insurance would be void, in order to take advantage of that, the declared value needs to match the receipt. If the odds of mail truly vanishing are low, I have no problem with this. However if they are notorious for losing mail, I'll be changing my stance.
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They are normally pretty reliable (thankfully) and I havent had many lost packages although I've sent and received literally hundreds of parcels :) the one thing I would say though is that they can handle the parcels a bit roughly sometimes , so be sure to put extra tape around any bubble mailers or boxes, so that the parcel cant tear open and you should be ok ;)
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Thanks for clearing that all up.
I always thought Royal Mail was better than US Postal Service but I guess I'm happy I don't have to pay a flat handling fee on top of customs!
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I just paid £17 for a doll that cost $23 they have mischarged me so now I need to figure out how to get it back!
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That's insane.
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I just paid £17 for a doll that cost $23 they have mischarged me so now I need to figure out how to get it back!
Oh....money "back" from Her Majesty...good luck...she has trains to buy and expensive holidays to fund, not to mention a few castles to heat [*funny sarcasm intended here*]
Here you go...
What do I do if I think I have been overcharged Customs Duty on my parcels/goods?
Once you have confirmed that you are entitled to a refund (ie by checking the duty and VAT rates or available duty reliefs), your next action will depend on who delivered your parcels/goods, as follows:
For Parcelforce and Royal Mail deliveries you need to contact the UK Border Agency (UKBA) Office that dealt with your parcel so that they can advise you how to make your claim. Their contact details will be on the Charge label attached to the parcel, along with the Charge Number. You do not have to take delivery in order to make your claim, in which case the Parcelforce or Royal Mail local delivery depot will be able to provide you with the UK Border Agency Office details and Charge Number information from the parcel.
For all other deliveries you need to complete a C285 (available from the VAT, Excise and Customs Helpline) and send this together with any supporting evidence to:
HMRC
National Repayments Unit
Priory Court
St Johns Road
Dover
CT17 9SH
Tel:01304 664523
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Thanks hathorcat xxxx
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Thanks Cat!
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NoD I know what you mean about swap boxes. Its a toughie! however , since its a gift, and if the value is less than £40 /approx $63 ( and like I just mentioned, the value might have gone up now, I have to check) , then sending a parcel to a UK partner should be ok and not get any fees even if you put the true value on the box...unless you have joined a really high value swap, or you went waaay over the swap budget ;)
Zomg Ringlets, you know I have! I think I'll just figure out the maximum value I can mark and do that and hope for the best. I've never had a package gone missing and I ship to the UK a lot, but I want to be as covered as I can, just in case.
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Thanks Cat!
No problem!!! You may have been able to tell from my rant on page 1 [I think] of this thread...UK Customs and I do not get along...
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The stupid thing is if you had these ponies in your luggage they wouldn't charge a damn thing!!! How is it any different than posting.. really
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I had a 50 cent pony shipped from the US to the UK. They misread the .50 as 50 and decided that as it was worth $50, they'd slap fees on it. I had to pay about £12 to get the parcel including £8 handling fees and never got a refund.
Ive had a similar situation happen to me Daffy, I bought an $11 item from a seller who clearly got her customs labels mixed up when she shipped someone elses parcel worth £100 and ended up paying about £18 customs charges.
I got a refund but had to write 2 letters - 1 to HMRC together with evidence of what I had paid for the item (Paypal receipt) and a statement from the seller saying what had happened with the label mix-up. I got a refund letter and a cheque from HMRC, when you get that, attach a copy of it to a letter to Royal Mail and they will refund the handling fee. Royal Mail will only refund the handling fee if you get your money back off customs first.
Jem :-)
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Ugh so I am not the only person who has this problem! the last one I had was a £28 including the £8 stupid handling fee! I'm going to start charging them for everytime I have to walk to their collection office because the postman is too lazy to press the buzzer!
And normally it takes a couple of weeks for stuff to arrive from the usa but not this custom oh no, three months after the postage date i got the note delivered! Arghh ok so rant over, sorry guys!