Damn Customs

[BluMonkey]

Originally Posted by X400

check "no" they get back to you, sometimes with better results

Thanks I was so angry I missed that ...

this was my reply

"The post Royal mail have said because of the way you have labeled it not showing the discount and individual items I have to pay on the full amount ... had it shown the correct infomation I would not have been charged as the individual amounts with the discount are under the £18 threshold
I have been a good customer because of your great customer service however in this instance I am very upset, please could you tell me how to obtain a refund if I dont accept the goods and the post office return to you as undelivered.

This has put me off ordering any further goods from you...

All my past orders have come via Germany and have not had to pay any charges despite how you have shown the info on the box . "

[mrdario64]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

"The post Royal mail have said because of the way you have labeled it not showing the discount and individual items I have to pay on the full amount ... had it shown the correct infomation I would not have been charged as the individual amounts with the discount are under the £18 threshold
"

This happened to me 3 times recently. I ordered 2 titles at a time, with discount the value would be under £18. On each occasion Amazon not only listed the full value without discount, but also added in the postage charges. As well as Tax and Import duty, in each case I had to pay an £8 post office handling charge.

This was the first time i've been had from Amazon, tho the first Blu's i've ordered. Perhaps I was unlucky.

[BluMonkey]

according to what Ive read they are not allowed to charge £8 I'm looking into it my girlfriend is a legal secretary ...
re amazon
one solicitor said "Amazon have technically misled customs as they have stated the wrong price of the items on the box".

Ive received loads which were in excess of the £18 but everything came for some reason via Germany ....

I'm not letting this drop ... it must cost amazo as much to give me the £18 as it does for postage here and back ... which I have just pointed out to them ...

[NARMAK]

gotta hate like in the friggin UK, we get ripped every which way you can think of & then when you think it can't get worse, they find a way to shaft u sum more

Seriously need some new laws to stop this crap from happening, i appreaciate we have a NHS & that, but hell, we gotta put up with some of the crapest weather in the world & then we get ripped off to add to the insults of rubbish weather

[BluMonkey]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

gotta hate like in the friggin UK, we get ripped every which way you can think of & then when you think it can't get worse, they find a way to shaft u sum more

Seriously need some new laws to stop this crap from happening, i appreaciate we have a NHS & that, but hell, we gotta put up with some of the crapest weather in the world & then we get ripped off to add to the insults of rubbish weather

if we werent ripped off so much there would be no need to import ...

ive just paid £3k in tax happy new year your majesty

let me see ...

I'm taxed on what I earn @ 40%
Taxed on what I buy @ 17.5% + extra % on Duty if importing... even get taxed on gifts...
I'm taxed on my savings.
Were taxed via interest rates levid by the Bank of England btw which is the Queen... just for using their tender.
And when I die if my net worth is so much they tax my family too ...

there is an advert on the TV here " Tax doesn't have to be taxing" (B###ocks)

cut us some slack ... throw us a bone for Gods sake ... Rant over :P

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

if we werent ripped off so much there would be no need to import ...

ive just paid £3k in tax happy new year your majesty

We would still import but not having these friggin huge charges & massive prices we'd only need to import stuff that will only be available in certain countries & not here, like stuff from japan & the US, or certain editions we won't be gettin over here like the blade runner set

Oh well, guess i just hope my life pans out good & i can escape to some sunny country, dubai is a place i'd love to retire to, only 17 & already in despair, what a bummer

[richieb1971]

I could buy a harrier jumpjet from ebay and not get charged customs.

The last time I was charged was when laserdisc was around.

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

I could buy a harrier jumpjet from ebay and not get charged customs.

The last time I was charged was when laserdisc was around.

Perhaps, but it does not make it legal. I think it is one think when an individual send something worth $100 and says "gift" with a value of $5. Technically, not legal but customs is not going to do very much, maybe ask the receiver to pay import tax on $100 if they have a cut off that low.

But it is very tricky for a business. Regardless of the price they are selling at, they have to value the goods according to whatever method is required for the country that you are shipping to. Most countries use similar methods but really you sometimes have to have local experts help in all those countries. Companies can be scrutinized much closer and if they get caught under-declaring the goods then customs can audit them and go back and review all their shipments into their country.

It is a pain, but what can you do when you are dealing with a large corporation, they can not risk breaking laws into all the countries they ship to.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

if we werent ripped off so much there would be no need to import ...

ive just paid £3k in tax happy new year your majesty

let me see ...

I'm taxed on what I earn @ 40%
Taxed on what I buy @ 17.5% + extra % on Duty if importing... even get taxed on gifts...
I'm taxed on my savings.
Were taxed via interest rates levid by the Bank of England btw which is the Queen... just for using their tender.
And when I die if my net worth is so much they tax my family too ...

there is an advert on the TV here " Tax doesn't have to be taxing" (B###ocks)

cut us some slack ... throw us a bone for Gods sake ... Rant over :P

I would move

[richieb1971]

People say move. But where to? The USA!

[jw]

Now I know why there was the Boston Tea Party.
I suppose us americans should be happy that it happened

[Living Near Shamu]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

Now I know why there was the Boston Tea Party.
I suppose us americans should be happy that it happened

This reminded me of the Family Guy episode where they throw the beer down the river

[jw]

I must be doing people favors, I always mail the bds I sellas a gift and value them at 5.00 usd

[BluMonkey]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

I must be doing people favors, I always mail the bds I sellas a gift and value them at 5.00 usd

PM me ur ebay if thats where you sell them, my Sammy's were from the US and the sellers marked them as used players and on a value of £88 I was taxed inc duty and charges by DHL £58 .. imagine had I put the actual price

[jw]

everybody needs their cut I guess, I havent heard anybody complain yet

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

Thanks I was so angry I missed that ...

this was my reply

"The post Royal mail have said because of the way you have labeled it not showing the discount and individual items I have to pay on the full amount ... had it shown the correct infomation I would not have been charged as the individual amounts with the discount are under the £18 threshold
I have been a good customer because of your great customer service however in this instance I am very upset, please could you tell me how to obtain a refund if I dont accept the goods and the post office return to you as undelivered.

This has put me off ordering any further goods from you...

All my past orders have come via Germany and have not had to pay any charges despite how you have shown the info on the box . "

This really is not their fault. Regardless of the discount they offered, they are suppose to declare the true value of the goods that the export to comply with all laws. Customs often compares like goods when auditing things being imported so they would have to be consistent on the value declared for each of the same goods.

If somebody send you a plasma TV for free, it still has to have a declared value that will have to be paid when it is imported. It is the same for other items, if they give you a discount but not your neighbor, as far as import department is concerned, that value declared should be the same as they are the same goods.

[BluMonkey]

Originally Posted by jdc115

This really is not their fault. Regardless of the discount they offered, they are suppose to declare the true value of the goods that the export to comply with all laws. Customs often compares like goods when auditing things being imported so they would have to be consistent on the value declared for each of the same goods.

If somebody send you a plasma TV for free, it still has to have a declared value that will have to be paid when it is imported. It is the same for other items, if they give you a discount but not your neighbor, as far as import department is concerned, that value declared should be the same as they are the same goods.

I have no problem with that .. the problem is they put the total value not the individual value ... $19 is only £10 I only pay Duty etc over £18 or $36
But because they put a total value of $119 I have to stump up £18 which is just because of the label ie I could order 1000's of disks @ $36 and not pay duty as long as each one is under that amount but if you call it one item and its 1000 x $36 then I will have to pay

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

I have no problem with that .. the problem is they put the total value not the individual value ... $19 is only £10 I only pay Duty etc over £18 or $36
But because they put a total value of $119 I have to stump up £18 which is just because of the label ie I could order 1000's of disks @ $36 and not pay duty as long as each one is under that amount but if you call it one item and its 1000 x $36 then I will have to pay

Sorry, I misunderstood, do you mean they partially shipped your order and put the value of the complete order on the shipment? If so, then that is just wrong. Their commecial invoice should reflect the value of the individual items contained within that shipment. If not, something seems screwed up.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by jdc115

This really is not their fault. Regardless of the discount they offered, they are suppose to declare the true value of the goods that the export to comply with all laws. Customs often compares like goods when auditing things being imported so they would have to be consistent on the value declared for each of the same goods.

If somebody send you a plasma TV for free, it still has to have a declared value that will have to be paid when it is imported. It is the same for other items, if they give you a discount but not your neighbor, as far as import department is concerned, that value declared should be the same as they are the same goods.

I agree to an extent but prior to the shipping date I would request the merchant to put the amount that the buyer will actually pay.

Sitting in customs sensitive regions like U.K / E.U it's the responsibility of the buyers to take preventive measures to avoid being slapped by customs.

The customer is always right but it doesn't mean that the merchant is always wrong.

I rate amazon as the most customer friendly site. Who does a price match on completed orders ?

I would request the OP to consider this as a bad experience or return the package and move on.

[BluMonkey]

..........

I went into the sorting office and asked to see the package in question...

As I suspected it is exactly the same as all the other packages I've had from ebay ... post mark is Frankfurt ... which technically should sail through customs... the plot thickens..

I pointed out to the dithering muppet behind the counter (this may sound cruel but you weren't there), that the post mark was in the EU and showed her the invoice I had taken with me to show that inside the box the individual items were less than the £18 limit and therefore I should not have been charged...

She basically said tough either we can return it or I pay the charges...

Tact two (bare in mind this is a busy sorting office and I had a huge audience ughhh) - I read her the riot act saying that legally under section 104 of the Postal Act 2000, they had no legal right to delay or hold my parcel and that any duty due was a civil matter between myself and customs...

she came back with .. we paid the duty on your behalf so you owe us and the charge for our service of paying the duty...

grrr I explaind that there is no legislation that give them the right to impose this service on me and if they have paid charges to customs they should take it up with them and over my goods which they are unlawfully holding...

She took the parcel back handed me a card saying ring customer services ...

I got in the car and rang them ...

Got through after several attempts and explained my problem to the lady who answered...

She said that they did have the right to hold onto the goods as I owed them for the charges they had paid, I asked her to tell me what legislation gives her the right to pay customs and charge me for doing so without my legal consent ... she said that there is a notice in all post offices that states as from April 2007 they now charge and pay the duty for us ...

But I said ok thats what you have chosen to do but where legally does it state I'm bound by that ... erm erm erm ... no answer..

She said I will speak to your sorting office and come back to you in a few minutes ...

30 mins later no call so I rang them again...

This time I got through to Belfast and went through the whole thing all over again ...

The guy said simply you paid customes Yes but its customs who levid the duty not us .. speak to them ... and with that gave me thr number a nd went off the line...

Ok so then I rang HMS customs and excise ...

The lady was really polite and helpful and I learned about the big scam ...

She said ...

The limit of £18 is not per Item but per package
athough if I could prove that the individual items were ordered on different days and the sender packaged them in one parcel they would look @ it, but this would involve getting the office to send it back to customs...

she said re the post mark .. technically I'm correct that if its inside the EU no charges should be levid, however they could ask me to provide evidence that I have paid the duty and tax in Frankfurt which is even higher than ours ...

Basically I'm screwed...

But this seems to be the scam from what each of the people I spoke to have said...

Customs must struggle to recover duty on items so the easiest thing to do is get the post compaines to pay it then recover it from you, which they are happy to do so as they charge £8 + for the privelage...
But again there is no legislation that enforces this its just each companies policy...

The other thing that all 3 asked was ...

Is it a parcel from AMAZON ... I said yes and they all said there is a lot being stopped ... the Smile on the box is giving the game away ...

This is the 1st Ive had stopped and have let be returned .... I think I will ask amazon to re send and keep my fingers crossed ...

Or pay amazon extra and package everything seperate...

Or as I've done today ... rent a US address with a forwarding company who will re package and invoice the items for me...

This country sucks BIG !!!