Bloody import charges from royal mail....

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 7:14 pm

I bought a carb adaptor from Holley in the states for £36.00
The postage by USPS was another £28.00

I had to pay £21.02 in vat and customs clearing charges at the post office.

The VAT was £7.20 and the rest was for clearing it through customs.

I still dont see why I have to pay VAT on used car parts??

What does Customs clearance even mean? £13 for admin??

What a joke !

JSF55 · Post by **JSF55** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 8:30 pm

Sh!t ..... thats a lot ! i bought some gauges from speedhut, luckily they marked the box up a little cheaper !!
http://www.speedhut.com/

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:45 am

Hi Perry
Strictly you shouldn't however you still have to pay handling, and if you refuse to pay the charges they can hold it and charge you storage. Also it used to be the case you were not charged vat below £140. That all changed soon after this latest bunch of muppets came to power and now I get hit for everything from the US. I was told by the chap at parcel force that you can normally get the vat and duty back if you write to them but they deliberately do not have a proper process as they hope you won't bother a second time. Strictly there aren't proper rules on this, it is a case of "normal practice" and they can do what they like, as an example I have yet to be charged any vat or duty on stuff from china.
Best regards
Mike
Ps. It is nice and sunny here, you can get lunch for less than £3 each, beer is 80p a tin and Karen says hello.

chodjinn · Post by **chodjinn** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:04 am

Perry it doesn't matter if it's new or used, the fact is it is a product from outside the UK therefore subject to import tax and VAT etc. The £12-ish handling charge is daft though, but meh.

When I was doing my turbo build I bought a lot of parts from ebay in the US, and I also buy a lot of expensive mouontain bike stuff as well. For a long time I never got done for import duty etc, but then I got done properly once, and then every time after that.

Basically I was told that they can only check/handle a small percentage of the incoming parcels, so it is pot luck when you get 'caught out'. However once you have been done, the likelihood that you'll get done again goes up by a large amount! So, I don't buy much stuff from the US anymore lol!!!

r2d2hp · Post by **r2d2hp** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:28 am

Hi Pel,

All explained here. Might help decide what shipper to use in the future

http://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/241658 ... om-is-3.2/

kev_the_mole · Post by **kev_the_mole** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:35 am

Ps. It is nice and sunny here, you can get lunch for less than £3 each, beer is 80p a tin and Karen says hello.

Milton Keynes???

DaveEFI · Post by **DaveEFI** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:51 am

Sadly, many US firms won't give you a choice of carrier. And tend to use an expensive one where we'd simply pop it in the post in the UK.

I'd like it explained how I can buy, say, one transistor from China which costs pennies including postage, whereas buying the same thing from the US will have a vast about added for postage and duty, etc. Admittedly the post from China will take a few weeks, whereas the US one will be quick - but it would be nice to have the choice.

And don't get me started on firms like DigiKey who have a UK website but still charge US postal rates, etc.

JSF55 · Post by **JSF55** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:47 pm

Just coughed up £34 for my parcel, but i'm sure the value was down as £100 ...seems a lot

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:08 pm

kiwicar wrote:Hi Perry
Strictly you shouldn't however you still have to pay handling, and if you refuse to pay the charges they can hold it and charge you storage. Also it used to be the case you were not charged vat below £140. That all changed soon after this latest bunch of muppets came to power and now I get hit for everything from the US. I was told by the chap at parcel force that you can normally get the vat and duty back if you write to them but they deliberately do not have a proper process as they hope you won't bother a second time. Strictly there aren't proper rules on this, it is a case of "normal practice" and they can do what they like, as an example I have yet to be charged any vat or duty on stuff from china.
Best regards
Mike
Ps. It is nice and sunny here, you can get lunch for less than £3 each, beer is 80p a tin and Karen says hello.

Say hello and Happy New Year to Karen from us lot Mike. How is the weather in Nam??? No folks, he's not in Vietnam. He's in Birmi nam:)

Geoff hasnt finished the bits for you yet Mike. He's been off with the current runny bottom syndrome. I told him to put your poop on the back burner and get on with my carb to bug catcher adaptor ring as that is way more important

I'm not sure when you fly back in but I'm getting the Pod to open up for me on Sunday for a photo shoot for the Fueltopia website. If you are back and want to come along you are more than welcome.

I've got Reg, Jason, JJ and possibly Gavin on standby for BIG day at Mikes when you get back. It woulkd be nice to see the rail on track on the 27th?

Sorry for going off topic folks!

Back to the plot. Only once did I buy some stuff from the USA and not get stiffed for import costs. They just arrived by UPS in a van and I signed the guys chitty. I was expecting some sort of bill in the post. But that was 4 years back and I guess I wont get a bill for VAT etc now eh?

I did buy some cheap Viagra from China and I didnt get charged any import duty on that. Funnily enough I didnt get stiffed either?? Must have been a duff batch

Post by **katanaman** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:02 am

Everything I have ever bought from the states gets charges on it. Roughly count on a 3rd of the cost and you wont go far wrong. Its even worse if you end up with UPS or Fedex. Not a single item has ever attracted tax from China though (including high value properly marked) and the delivery can be quicker than 2nd class in the UK. Doesn't help when you want V8 parts right enough

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:47 am

kev_the_mole wrote:
Ps. It is nice and sunny here, you can get lunch for less than £3 each, beer is 80p a tin and Karen says hello.
Milton Keynes???

Phan thiet. . . About 3 1/2 hours north of Saigon very nice but full of Russians

Perry I hope you are just winding me up I am absolutely relying on picking up those pedestals off Geoff on Tuesday morning when I get back or any hope of running before March goes out the window. Having lost the three days before Christmas because they weren't done and having this moronic speed awareness course go do the only way I can be running is if I can do the trial assembly before going to work this week and do most of the engine build on Saturday if I have to wait for Geoff to wake up Saturday morning iwill have lost another six hours of build time

jet lag will mean I will be waking up at about three am for the next week.
I appreciate rallying the troops but this engine build up has to be done first and I need those pedestals to do it otherwise the lads will be just thumb twiddling.
Best regards
Mike

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:57 pm

He had gone down with some virus etc. He's back on it now I think.

He's playing catch up.

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:29 pm

Basically avoid USPS/Royal Mail if you can. It is never the cheapest option, and always the slowest.

Plus the duty charges are always higher. IMO always try and use FedEx where possible.
Their service is second to none, and I'm pretty sure Ive never been charged a handling fee.

DHL is an ok second, with UPS third.

As for the Parcel Force fees....this was posted on a forum a few years ago. Their charges certainly arent anything new !

Taken from: http://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=213532

I found this and found it quite interesting indeed, as we know, large purchases from Rexspeed incur a charge by Pacelforce....well....I may have found a way around it....read on...

Firstly the package was labeled correctly as its legal to import for person use and customs didnt put up an arguement they simply held the package for a couple of days and then slapped the duty and VAT charges £23 something.
As the package was imported using the thai national postal service it gets handed over the Parcel force which is now a privatly owned devision of the royal mail.
Parcel force pay the customs charge on your behalf then slap £13.50 on for the priviledge of doing so.
When my mate went to collect his pack from the depo they refused to hand it over unless he payed the charge including £13.5. and storage on top of that.
My mate then quoted that it was illegal to complete a service (paying customs) and charge the customer wthout offering them the chance to pay it themself or having a proir agrement on the price.
Then he demanded that they hand the package over with an invoice as it was a criminal offence under the (criminal law act section 104 sub section 2d) to hold a postal package in "virtue of lien". This means holding a package for ransom of payment... This is just like saying....
"you cant have your package unless you pay us £13.50 cause we paid your customs bill,,,,, when you didnt even ask us to."
Also holding a package illegaly as a non government owned postal service (Royal mail and Parcel force are privatly owned now) is against the postal service act 83,84 and carries a sentense of up to 6 months.
He spoke to the manager who didnt give him the package and my mate then rang the police who after an hour or so of argueing with him told the boss he either released the package or they would arrest him.
He got the package. Parcel force paid the bill and as they didnt inform my mate they were going to pay the customs charge on his behalf they didnt have a leg to stand on so in the end he paid nothing.
Royal mail and Parcel force make millions every year doing this and its against the law so f**k them and next time you get a bill check to see if you legaly have to pay it.
Im telling you this now cause I just went to pick up my new set of golf clubs and they slapped a bill on for over £90. I walked in and stated the criminal law act 104 subsection 2d and the postal act 2000, 83,84 and they just gave me my clubs.
Sounds like they shouldn't be doing what there doing...

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:59 pm

Hi
just to prove this is all a lottery I had two sets of valve guide seals turn up today, USPS and GPO from the US. . . $38 for the items plus $19 postage and no duty or VAT.
Best regards
Mike