Customs Fees

[demolition]

You're lucky, atleast you can buy for 18pounds, we can buy for 8.

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

I actually thought that the limit for a gift was also 8, but I can see now that you're right. However they don't necessarily go by the declared value if they have an idea of what the item is worth (if you're faking a low value).
But this is very good news for me.

 

[Powerpie5000]

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.

I ordered a cheap Android tablet from china and they stated on the packaging that it was a $9 book being sent as a gift .

 

[bdb]

Quite imaginative of them.

 

[Firthy2002]

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

Admittedly US trades always make me anxious about getting stung, as this seems to be where most people get penalised!

---------- Post added at 13:42 ---------- Previous post was at 13:40 ----------

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.

I ordered a cheap Android tablet from china and they stated on the packaging that it was a $9 book being sent as a gift .

Yes I've noticed Chinese people can be quite inventive to get around possible fees!

 

[rkauer]

Fell luck: in Brazil the fees are in the range of 80 to 112% of the price of good plus postage.

If they don't know the piece they can imagine a price. I had to pay R$350 (that's ~£106) in taxes for a MegAchip which I paid less than 100USD (~£62)!!! :banghead:

 

[Powerpie5000]

Fell luck: in Brazil the fees are in the range of 80 to 112% of the price of good plus postage.

If they don't know the piece they can imagine a price. I had to pay R$350 (that's ~£106) in taxes for a MegAchip which I paid less than 100USD (~£62)!!! :banghead:

That's insane!! How can they do that? And i thought we had it bad in the UK :wooha:

 

[-Acid-]

Fell luck: in Brazil the fees are in the range of 80 to 112% of the price of good plus postage.

If they don't know the piece they can imagine a price. I had to pay R$350 (that's ~£106) in taxes for a MegAchip which I paid less than 100USD (~£62)!!! :banghead:

If I was asked to pay that I would just laugh at them and tell them to send it back with a few choice words. Then it would be costing them money to send it back instead of you to keep it.

 

[demolition]

You have to know the rules if you want to avoid getting a 'fine' like that. If I buy something worth $14 from outside EU it will cost me $50 in total including customs to Denmark.. Needless to say I stay below that limit, but it is quite annoying how expensive smaller items can get if they just go above the ~$13 limit.

 

[rkauer]

Yeah, it's silly. But remember how hard a customs employee work is.

"What cost an used XBOX?"
"What costs a new tablet?"
"What costs frozen elephant semen?"
"What costs a built giraffe?"
"What costs a thing resembling a XBOX modchip, even if it not one I can find on the internet?" (that one applies to me...):banghead:

 

[Timtheloon]

Reviving this old thread: Recently, when enquiring about items I'm interested in, the responses have been along the lines of "There may be a customs fee and it is your responsibility to pay this".

I like the fact that they are letting me know that I may incur a customs charge, but I'm surprised people have to state that I (the buyer) am responsible for paying these charges. To me, it is obvious that the buyer is responsible for the customs charges.

Or... have I been doing it wrong all this time, and should I have asked the seller to pay for the customs charge which has been sent to my address?

Has this happened to some sellers where the buyer has stated the seller needs to pay the custom charge, If I was the seller I'd be like "Nope dont think so."

 

[fitzsteve]

Reviving this old thread: Recently, when enquiring about items I'm interested in, the responses have been along the lines of "There may be a customs fee and it is your responsibility to pay this".

I like the fact that they are letting me know that I may incur a customs charge, but I'm surprised people have to state that I (the buyer) am responsible for paying these charges. To me, it is obvious that the buyer is responsible for the customs charges.

Or... have I been doing it wrong all this time, and should I have asked the seller to pay for the customs charge which has been sent to my address?

Has this happened to some sellers where the buyer has stated the seller needs to pay the custom charge, If I was the seller I'd be like "Nope dont think so."

Yeah sadly buyers have been known to complain about having to pay the import duty and refuse to pay so best to be 100% sure folks are aware.

I lost €150 paying the fees to get a package delivered (was costing me a daily charge whilst held in Greek customs and was going to cost more to get it returned so in the end I paid it.)

 

[miggymad]

@fitzsteve

Always best to state in the advert or in a private message that there may be customs/import taxes for international buyers. Then there is no case for them to complain because they have been made fully aware of such a possibility occurring.

If the package gets caught out for declaring a lower value, then take it on the chin and pay the fee. You were just unlucky this time.

 

[Buzzfuzz]

Has this happened to some sellers where the buyer has stated the seller needs to pay the custom charge, If I was the seller I'd be like "Nope dont think so."

No way that is going to happen if I am the seller.
I'm happy to fly it out to anyone anywhere in the world in a box that is Ace Ventura kicking proof, but other than that, buyer pays the costs for air post or shipping, customs and taxes and whatever else comes along, like upgrade to express delivery.

I'm also happy to deliver it to your home, if that is within reach of my house or a certain amount added to sale for delivery.
I did trips to Germany, Belgium and northern France, but that is a far as I go, beyond that, just put it on air cargo

 

[Timtheloon]

I lost €150 paying the fees to get a package delivered (was costing me a daily charge whilst held in Greek customs and was going to cost more to get it returned so in the end I paid it.)

Wow a daily charge to the seller due to the buyer not paying the custom charge hows that a thing

 

[Boing-ball]

Just to add. I sent somethings for repair to a Polish business address. Unfortunately the person I sent it to didn’t make me aware, that if sending items to a business address regardless of repair or not. That import taxes has to be paid on the other end. 1 month later after spending time in Polish customs my items were just returned to me. Luckily no charge. So yes, there should be some kind of explanation by a seller/service offered.

 

[fitzsteve]

Wow a daily charge to the seller due to the buyer not paying the custom charge hows that a thing

It was held in customs because the value was (declared lower) as the recipient asked and customs revalued it, seized parcels stuck in customs can occur storage charges. As I booked through parcel2go they have in their Ts and Cs the sender is responsible for any storage charges or return costs.

 

[Watson]

Just wanted to add with regards to customs and my experience. I frequently send packages to family back in the USA and pretty much always use FedEx.

FedEx provides customs clearance services as part of their international shipping. They act as a broker, handling the necessary paperwork and procedures to move shipments though customs.

I have never had one parcel get held up, not one! But it does help to be honest when declaring value.

 

[fitzsteve]

Just wanted to add with regards to customs and my experience. I frequently send packages to family back in the USA and pretty much always use FedEx.

FedEx provides customs clearance services as part of their international shipping. They act as a broker, handling the necessary paperwork and procedures to move shipments though customs.

I have never had one parcel get held up, not one! But it does help to be honest when declaring value.

FedEx are absolutely amazing, I've never had issues with US either, UPS are very good too.

There's still some post brexit political issues particularly Greece, seem to (or at least were) making issues for packages from the UK

 

[cheeba]

The downside with FedEx is they will add their own disbursement fee on top of the original customs charges, which can make them very expensive for small items on the buyer side as there's a minimum flat fee (it's €8 here which can exceed the original customs charges by itself).

Certain EU countries (and I include Ireland in this) have gotten a *lot* more fussy about customs declarations the last few years and will straight-up reject incomplete or incorrectly declared items, so it might still be worth it in some cases. It's pretty rare that stuff gets checked here, but it does happen. I've had it happen at least once recently although that was 1 package in maybe 50.

Customs in this country has become a lot more of a pain than it used to be. 10 years ago stuff would just sail through customs and you'd maybe get a VAT bill once in a blue moon (I think I maybe got 2 bills ever), but these days it's almost guaranteed. They don't seem to bother if it's really low value (like under €20), but that isn't necessarily the case as they eliminated minimum value exemptions entirely a couple years ago, so it's likely they're just too busy to bother with those most of the time. That said anything sent FedEx always gets the full charge, they never seem to let anything slide (unless the items are straight-up customs exempt like certain types of books etc).

 

[qz3fwd]

FedEx are absolutely amazing, I've never had issues with US either, UPS are very good too.

There's still some post brexit political issues particularly Greece, seem to (or at least were) making issues for packages from the UK

Yes I experienced Fedex/UPS broker services about 15 years ago when our S. Korea engineering division sent me parts to my home address and a week or 2 later I received a bill for import duties. Had to file an expense report at work to get reimbursed.