Amazon.com customs charges, VAT on postage

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Phil92

I'm not either.

Although, $23.98 works out to £15 converted, so the OP has a point. Unless it was $23.98 before shipping, then he's screwed...

$23.98 is .17p over the £15 limit.

I don't understand why Amazon seem to have the knack of pricing things just over the limit. Unless they want extra pocket money from people upgrading to Expedited Shipping (with Amazon US). I think it puts people off buying things all together.

[Indiana Jones]

Pretty sure they don't give much thought to us importers, their prices are mostly set to price match Best Buy.

[Sodslaw]

Chip, i normally ordered through amazon.com and used to only get the one or two discs from amazon.ca.
The only occassions when I have been charged the customs via dhl are the star trek next generation movie blu ray set ( original cast movie collection was on the black friday at .com deal but the next generation cast were not but at .ca was cheaper), lord of the rings extended trilogy and there was a batch of two recently so ive not experienced them slipping through but as I said, the charge is significantly cheaper.
If you are ordering from .ca and have a few titles coming out in the same week then its cheaper to leave them as they are as the dhl admin charge is significantly less.
If its from .com and you choose the regular shipping method with discs out the same week then prepare to be stung.
To save even more money you could put an order through, then add to it at a later time as long as you have discs not released yet, this saves the $2.49 charge for the shipping of discs, there is a $2.49 charge flat fee then they add on additional costs of shipping based on how many discs you order.
I know I sound like im representing amazon or something but rest assured I am not, Im just on a personal mission to spend the least that I can so I can spend more on what I want to spend it on as opposed to customs and shipping charges which are extremely annoying at the best of times.

[DaveSimonH]

Originally Posted by Sodslaw

Lots of well informed folks on here, thanks, I appreciate it.
Ive cancelled all of my orders which have more than one release in the same week, if they were sent individually then the customs charge doesnt kick in.
For amazon.com it just means a extra $2.49 per seperate order but thats still better than the £8 admin charge then the VAT on top.
If I place a big order and the releases are staggered then its just cost effective to put them through in one batch, the $2.49 will only go through once and then the delivery charge.
I know the rules are the rules, but for going over by 7p the additional charge of £12.47 is just beyond shocking, the discs cost £15.07 , I could of bought another disc with that!!
Cant fault amazon.com's customer service though, they have issued a $15 gift certificate as a result of this.

Not all of the £12.47 charge, but takes a big chunk out of it. Nice of them to do that.

[Sodslaw]

The batch of war games and sixteen candles came through today with ....
No customs charge!!
This batch actually cost more than the one that got charged.
Fingers crossed no more customs charges, would rather pay £1.75 extra shipping than £10 plus in customs charges any day.
American reunion came through today also from tesco entertainment, hopefully they send out the video games early too.

[snooloui]

Originally Posted by Sodslaw

Lots of well informed folks on here, thanks, I appreciate it.
Ive cancelled all of my orders which have more than one release in the same week, if they were sent individually then the customs charge doesnt kick in.
For amazon.com it just means a extra $2.49 per seperate order but thats still better than the £8 admin charge then the VAT on top.
If I place a big order and the releases are staggered then its just cost effective to put them through in one batch, the $2.49 will only go through once and then the delivery charge.
I know the rules are the rules, but for going over by 7p the additional charge of £12.47 is just beyond shocking, the discs cost £15.07 , I could of bought another disc with that!!
Cant fault amazon.com's customer service though, they have issued a $15 gift certificate as a result of this.

I think that's ridiculous. Amazon gave you a $15 gift certificate because you made mistake? I won't be surprised the day Amazon turn around and stop being so helpful and just say 'deal with it'. Maybe in the future when you get a damaged item, they'll make you send it all the way back across the Atlantic. Amazon are really great when it comes to customer service, but I don't even see why you contacted them in the first place when it was your fault.

[Sodslaw]

Wow,your tone is over zealous.
At no point was I fishing for money back, I contacted them due to the postage being taken into account when I was given notification of the customs charges.
Someone on this forum made me aware AFTER I had contacted amazon regarding this that postage IS taken into account upon the discs going over the £15 limit.
The batch which got charged the customs was over by 7p which turned into £12.47.
The latest batch came through with no customs charges but at a higher value, that is just the luck of the draw sometimes and today I got lucky, simple.
I was issued the $15 dollars as a gesture of goodwill as a valued customer having spent thousands of pounds in purchases at amazon (.com,.ca and .co.uk).
I actually praised their customer service on here as I appreciate the gesture.
As for yourself, I have met and endured individuals with a few chips on their shoulders, as for yourself, I wish you the best of luck in your future operation in the removal of the 25kg bags of king edwards on each shoulder.
I have not read any of your previous posts but your tone in this one is disgusting.

[snooloui]

My tone is disgusting? Thank you. I understand why you are annoyed, but there has to be a cut off point somewhere even if it means that people get charged for being £0.01 over. The reason I posted was because it seems that a lot of people take advantage of Amazon's customer service when they shouldn't. We all know that Amazon have great service, but that may not always be the case if people keep taking advantage. The right thing to do would've been to simply accept your loss and move on, not go whining to Amazon. You say:

I was issued the $15 dollars as a gesture of goodwill as a valued customer having spent thousands of pounds in purchases at amazon (.com,.ca and .co.uk)

and yet you've never encountered customs before?

[Sodslaw]

Rest assured I have received numerous customs charges before however I was not aware that postage is included in the customs charges.
If you read the first post and the actual title I think it would be enough to see that I was UNAWARE that postage is included , hence me contacting Amazon regarding this.
As before someone on the forum made me aware AFTER I had contacted amazon.
The Amazon representative said that they will raise the issue of postal charges being incurred as part of the customs charges due to the printed label on the front.
I created this thread just in case there were others like myself who were not aware that postage WAS taken into account when the VAT is charged.
I have not once challenged the customs charges in the 15 years I have ordered from overseas but thought I would on this occasion and needless to say I was shocked at my calculations.
So this post isn't a personal rant at amazon as I can not challenge their level of customer service.
However there will be others who will benefit from this post (those unaware of the inclusion of postage in vat) , those who may now do seperate orders to avoid the customs charges and now that Amazon are aware that their customers are getting charged VAT on postage, they may (fingers crossed) change the way they label their packages.
There are those that do take advantage of customer service,I am aware that when someone has a complaint in service that they inform everyone but when they receive good service they don't bother telling anyone.
In these economic times there's even more reason for great service as folks are loyal to their pocket and not a company .
I valued what the customer service representative did, they didn't have to do that and I thanked them and made others aware on this forum to not only show my appreciation but to also demonstrate how they went the extra mile for me.
To label my actions as stupidity is over zealous and discourteous, as a SENIOR MEMBER I would of thought that you would have an appropriate level of decorum in your reply to posts.

[snooloui]

I'm sorry but I just don't think that it's right to take advantage of their great customer service, intentionally or not. It's nothing personal, I just seem to read a lot of posts saying that they recieved someone else's order and kept it or we're allowed to kept barely damaged items etc.

[Sodslaw]

You dont think its right that people take advantage of the customer service team, intentional or not?
Once again, if you READ the posts you will clearly see that I had a issue that I wanted resolution on so spoke to the representative about.
A customer service representative is there to resolve issues that customers have and provide resolution so the customer is happy that the matter is resolved.
The customer representative took on board what I had informed them of, understood and felt that strongly about it that they were going to raise it to a higher level as other customers may be affected by this ( this includes YOU!!).
So my "whinging" was more than justified.
Once again the gesture of goodwill was offered by the rep, its not something I asked for.
If a customer service rep offered you $15 as a gesture of goodwill would you honestly turn it down!!?
I have never received a disc in the post I havent ordered or been delivered to my address as opposed to the one on the packaging.
I am more than aware of the anticipation of discs coming through the post and the dissapointment when the disc takes ages to arrive and wouldnt even dream of opening a parcel which wasnt addressed to myself, besides thats not only breaking the LAW but breaking my own moral code.
You have chosen the wrong thread to challenge in regards to amazons service as I have done nothing but shown appreciation for them.
May I suggest you start your own thread regarding your frustration at individuals whom you feel are taking advantage of amazons service as your replies are not valid based on the posts prior and after your replies.
Also in your future posts be mindful of your tone and choice of words as they have come across as extremely rude and ignorant.
This comment is based on your choice of the words "stupidity " and "whinging" and also your failure to not only read the previous posts but take them into account and context.
Rest assured I will not reply to any further posts from yourself as I not only have better things to do but actually do not value your contribution to this thread as your comments and replies are not only negative but unjustified and unfound.

[rewak]

I think you're kind of missing the point here snooloui, AMAZON made the mistake here, not Sodslaw or any other user posting about this problem. Amazon added the item cost + postage and listed the total on the customs form, that's NOT how customs forms should be labeled. As stated on the HMRC website, only the item cost should be listed (i.e the intrinsic value), postage costs do not count towards customs limits. Because Amazon are failing to note this and putting a total including shipping on customs forms people who are actually within limits are being hit with charges. Amazon are at fault here, so them offering a gift certificate or refund or whatever isn't the customer taking advantage, it's Amazon righting their own wrong.

[snooloui]

The OP never made it clear whether postage was included. All they said was that they were charged VAT on the item price plus the postage, which is correct. If what you are saying is correct, then fair enough Amazon should not be marking packages incorrectly, but I did not get that impression from the OP.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Sodslaw

American reunion came through today also from tesco entertainment, hopefully they send out the video games early too.

I have been using Tesco for pretty much all my Xbox 360 orders for the last 2 years and the majority have arrived on the Thursday with the rest arriving on the Friday.

[blu_ben]

Ugh I was planning on importing Cinderella from Amazon.com, but it's 70 odd p over the £15 limit, I'm just gonna' have to hope Amazon lower the price by a couple of dollars by release date

[chip75]

Originally Posted by blu_ben

Ugh I was planning on importing Cinderella from Amazon.com, but it's 70 odd p over the £15 limit, I'm just gonna' have to hope Amazon lower the price by a couple of dollars by release date

It's £19.63 with Standard Shipping but £26.19 for Expedited which will take care of customs for you. If it doesn't get hit you should with any luck get £4.36 back with a refund.

I'd check the exchange rate on the 1st of October to make sure what your options are!

Is there any reason why you want the US release over the UK one, apart from the extra DVD?

[blu_ben]

Ive just been collecting the US versions of the Diamonds so far so wanted to carry on with it.

[Phil92]

I think customs snagged my Rescuers. What's the number for them?

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Phil92

I think customs snagged my Rescuers. What's the number for them?

If they caught it then charges will be applied then it will move onto your local sorting office who will then send you a bill, no need to go ringing anyone.

[Phil92]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

If they caught it then charges will be applied then it will move onto your local sorting office who will then send you a bill, no need to go ringing anyone.

Thanks. My partner (who works for FedEx) told me customs wouldn't release it.