Customs Fees

[tobias.chow]

Hi chaps

I bought something from the US and I have now received a note stating I have to pay customs fees. The fees are half the cost of the item.

Anyone experienced this and is there a way to appeal. Its for a small retro item manufactured in the US only.

 

[fitzsteve]

Hi chaps

I bought something from the US and I have now received a note stating I have to pay customs fees. The fees are half the cost of the item.

Anyone experienced this and is there a way to appeal. Its for a small retro item manufactured in the UK only.

I'm afraid the UK's customs are very strict on items from outside EU. They charge you VAT on the value of the item and the postage and then Royal mail (or the courier) slap a handling charge on top.

It really sux but there's not a lot you can do

They even charge VAT on gifts, basically everything above the value of £18 is liable for the fee.

 

[-Acid-]

Everyone has been caught out by this scam, welcome to the club. The only way to avoid it is to have it packaged as regular mail and not have it's true value declared but then you are in choppy waters where insurance of the items in transit is concerned, and we won't get into the legalities of it

If the charges would be less than postage back to where it came from and then back again, I would consider telling them to stick the fees where the sun don't shine so they had to send it back and ask the seller to post it again declaring a very low value

 

[tobias.chow]

Hi chaps

I bought something from the US and I have now received a note stating I have to pay customs fees. The fees are half the cost of the item.

Anyone experienced this and is there a way to appeal. Its for a small retro item manufactured in the UK only.

I'm afraid the UK's customs are very strict on items from outside EU. They charge you VAT on the value of the item and the postage and then Royal mail (or the courier) slap a handling charge on top.

It really sux but there's not a lot you can do

They even charge VAT on gifts, basically everything above the value of £18 is liable for the fee.

Thanks for replying. Seriously peeved, never had to pay any customs etc before. The fee is over £25 and I suspect they have opened my NOS item.

---------- Post added at 19:59 ---------- Previous post was at 19:56 ----------

The cost of postage from the US was nearly the same as the fees so no can do on that front

If they have openened the NOS item, is there a way to appeal?

Im just miffed at paying all these charges and taxes all the time.

 

[fitzsteve]

I doubt they've opened it - they usually just go by the value on the customs declaration.

 

[tobias.chow]

Will have to bite the bullet then. I just wish the seller declared a lower price to help me out.

 

[slk486]

Will have to bite the bullet then. I just wish the seller declared a lower price to help me out.

Always ask this of the seller before hand

 

[Tomse]

You're lucky, atleast you can buy for 18pounds, we can buy for 8.
But as slk says ask before

 

[bebek]

From Customs page:

All other goods
If you order or send purchased goods other than alcohol, tobacco, perfume and toilet water from a country outside the EU then you:
don't have to pay Excise Duty
may have to pay Customs Duty on goods with a value that exceeds £135
will have to pay import VAT on goods with a value that exceeds £15
Note that on all goods from outside the EU, Customs Duty is waived if the amount of duty calculated is £9 or under.

 

[kensplace]

Been hit with stupidly high customs fees before, but sometimes things get through without any issues (such as multiple laptop parts, value well over 50 pounds - no custom fee for some reason)

Its a bit of a gamble really.

 

[slk486]

You're lucky, atleast you can buy for 18pounds, we can buy for 8.
But as slk says ask before

Well yes, 8; no questions asked or 34 as gift, but you may be required to produce documentation :roll:

 

[Paul_s]

Will have to bite the bullet then. I just wish the seller declared a lower price to help me out.

and if they had opened it and found that the seller was deceiving them to circumvent customs fees you would never have seen the parcel i.e. into the customs black hole! (rare that it happens but they aren't daft and have probably seen every trick in the book!)

 

[AndyLandy]

Will have to bite the bullet then. I just wish the seller declared a lower price to help me out.

and if they had opened it and found that the seller was deceiving them to circumvent customs fees you would never have seen the parcel i.e. into the customs black hole! (rare that it happens but they aren't daft and have probably seen every trick in the book!)

I don't believe that's legal, but I believe they are within their rights to levy what they consider the appropriate amount of tax/duty.

 

[tobias.chow]

On the advert the seller stated that they wouldnt state a lower price on the customs form however I still did not expect it.

 

[Powerpie5000]

I doubt they've opened it - they usually just go by the value on the customs declaration.

I've been caught out a few times with the UK's silly customs charges (i'm pretty sure they pick parcels at random)... The packages were opened and inspected too .

On the advert the seller stated that they wouldnt state a lower price on the customs form however I still did not expect it.

I'm guessing it's because they need to state the full value in case it gets damaged or lost in the post, otherwise they won't be able to claim the full amount back if they lie.

 

[Firthy2002]

Thankfully I have never been caught out during my many years of international buying and selling.

 

[Paul_s]

Will have to bite the bullet then. I just wish the seller declared a lower price to help me out.

and if they had opened it and found that the seller was deceiving them to circumvent customs fees you would never have seen the parcel i.e. into the customs black hole! (rare that it happens but they aren't daft and have probably seen every trick in the book!)

I don't believe that's legal, but I believe they are within their rights to levy what they consider the appropriate amount of tax/duty.

On the CN22 form they can be opened 'offically'.. or so it says

http://laserpointerforums.com/attac...220843-my-experience-jake21-usps_cn22form.jpg

 

[Allen1]

Thankfully I have never been caught out during my many years of international buying and selling.

You have been lucky so far and I hope that it continues, I've been stung twice when buying from America, it would have actually been cheaper to buy those things in this country after taking all the fees into account

Never mind I also have had many a parcel from the USA without any problems like Custom charges etc

 

[HonestFlames]

I was happy to escape US->UK customs fees for an A4000T.

Would probably have been quite hefty!


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[bdb]

It seems like the more you try to comply (putting invoices on the package) the more likely they get held at customs and f_ucked with. Those packages without them seem to go right through.