talkmagic.co.uk

I know its been done to death, but im going to bring it up again!

Bloody customs!

Just had to pay an extra £12.83 on top of the original payment for 2 dvds! I know it isnt much, but it is the principle!

Does anyone know why we have to pay customs? and how do they work out the cost? It would have been cheaper to get them whilst on holiday! Or get them to send it to a family member in the US, before getting them to send it here!

Were they magic DVDs? (Sorry, I can't answer your questions).

here you go tiger...

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... e=document

best bet is to order from stevens magic emporium, give them the extra £12 and get it all in 3 days flat from order to ripping it open...

cheers sir - ill go have a read!

and they were indeed magic dvds...unfortunately, on that site only...last time im using theory 11 ill tell you that...

Blapsing_Beard wrote:get them to send it to a family member in the US, before getting them to send it here!

VAT & Duty would still be payable and there'd need to be a customs declaration of some kind - unless those family members were bringing them back personally in which case they would count as part of their gift allowance .

Mandrake wrote:

Blapsing_Beard wrote:get them to send it to a family member in the US, before getting them to send it here!

VAT & Duty would still be payable and there'd need to be a customs declaration of some kind - unless those family members were bringing them back personally in which case they would count as part of their gift allowance .

or just mark the package as "gift" or "educational"? Iv never had this problem in the past from the US

Technically that would be illegal if it's intended to evade paying Tax/Duty. Packages marked 'Gift' are usually treated leniently as long as a realistic value is shown. I've never come across any consideration for items marked 'Educational' so can't comment but do please bear in mind that the Revenue and Customs aren't there to be nice guys, their job is to charge the correct amount of import duty and tax as per current legislation on incoming goods to 'protect' home industry, deter unnecessary imports which affect the balance of payments. and to raise a few quid in the process. It's even more annoying when we know the additonal fees and 'procesing' payments are just one huge rip off......

i keep seeing it crop up in places £8 import duty and £1 handling fee...

so where does the £12 come from?

VAT is an annoying fact of life, what I really object to is ParcelFarce slamming on a processing fee just because it got taxed. It barely costs them any more and it just adds insult to injury when you've already had to fork out for an unexpected cost.

Blapsing_Beard wrote:so where does the £12 come from?

From the fertile mind of some money grubbing number cruncher who realised that with virtually no completion on postal services (yet!) they have a free hand to charge whatever they like. The customer's only alternative is to not import stuff. Nice people aren't they? Whilst there's certainly a huge increase in global purchasing, the systems used to check and process parcels are continually improving so it doesn't cost a great deal to handle them. Sadly, such 'progress' is usually accompanied by an increase in costs and deterioration in customer consideration.

On a side issue, I had my gas bill at home last week and, quite by chance, found one from 20 years ago. The old one was about 2/3 of an A4 sheet, printed both sides and included a payment slip. The new one used 3 x A4 sheets, printed one side only in a huge font using kindergarten standard phrases which suggests I'm short sighted and stupid - possibly but I'm not quite that bad. There were also three leaflets on topics of no interest whatsoever and it all came in an A5 envelope. The older bill came in a very small window envelope. On that basis the utility companies seem very happy to charge obscene levels of prices and chuck the money away by sending me a pile of material for me to recycle. Progress? Yeah, right!

A while ago, I managed somehow to end up with 1p credit with NTL. They'd send me a lovely 3 page, A4 statement just to let me know that they owed me a penny every month for about 2 years.

Blapsing_Beard wrote:I know its been done to death, but im going to bring it up again!

Bloody customs!

Just had to pay an extra £12.83 on top of the original payment for 2 dvds! I know it isnt much, but it is the principle!

Does anyone know why we have to pay customs? and how do they work out the cost? It would have been cheaper to get them whilst on holiday! Or get them to send it to a family member in the US, before getting them to send it here!

I agree. I've been stung like that before. The import tax doubled the cost of a couple of t-shirts I bought. I think the rule is that Customs are free to charge like wounded rhinos!

Mandrake the soothsayer intones in an anguished voice:

"Woe, woe and thrice woe, beware the unexpected visitor. I foresee a man in Customs uniform approaching Tomo. For some reason he's wearing a long latex glove and is carrying a tube of some substance beginning wth K, KY or something like that"

(Let's just hope it's not OK Sauce....)

runs away clenching as he goes...

Serious question: If you buy an ebook from the US, are you importing it?

Mandrake wrote:On a side issue, I had my gas bill at home last week and, quite by chance, found one from 20 years ago. The old one was about 2/3 of an A4 sheet, printed both sides and included a payment slip. The new one used 3 x A4 sheets, printed one side only in a huge font using kindergarten standard phrases which suggests I'm short sighted and stupid - possibly but I'm not quite that bad. There were also three leaflets on topics of no interest whatsoever and it all came in an A5 envelope. The older bill came in a very small window envelope. On that basis the utility companies seem very happy to charge obscene levels of prices and chuck the money away by sending me a pile of material for me to recycle. Progress? Yeah, right!

That bothers me so much. I sympathise with those with sight problems (I'm short sighted myself and so wear glasses all the time), but do they have to use a huge font? Can't they put on their glasses?

My local doctors practice now has a huge touchscreen where you sign in. When I complained about the oversized font making it easy for people to read my personal details, their reply was that this was so that those with sight difficulties could read it!