talkmagic.co.uk

Don't you find it pathetic how they strike about not getting paid enough and then incur extortionate custom charges on everything?

I ordered a DVD and some cards from Theory11 that totalled quite a bit (about $60) and after waiting two weeks wondering where it is, i get a bloody Royal Mail customs card through the door with the post.

The card tells me that they recieved it a week ago but it has been in 'holding' and now i have to pay £16.41 to get it back. Ridiculous!

How they can justify charging these prices i dont know, but after spending $60 on some things i wanted, as well as $13 postage, im really beside myself on how unfair this is.

Anyone else experienced this?

luck of the draw i guess.
This customs thing is a licence to print money.

Best thing to do in the future is, Buy british.

Hi

Why is this pathetic and unfair?

The assumption of most is that they can make a saving by purchasing from the states instead of their local dealer. Ever wondered why dealers in the Uk charge more for their products than the current exchange rate for the same goods in the USA?

When you purchase something from abroad and it enters the UK you are charged 17.5% VAT of the Stirling value. Why should you get away from paying this? You also have a custom fee added. Usually a fixed amount.

You can see that your argument against the Royal Mail is not justified. These charges are charged by all companies, Royal Mail, Parcel Force, UPS, Fedex, etc

Royal Mail doesnt keep this money apart fromt the handling charge or sets the amount they charge you, as VAT is what it is, VAT.

I've ordered from the USA on 2 occasions, first time I didn't get charged, second time I did. Irony is the second time it was a replacement for the first one which broke

After that I always bought from the UK.

Gochos The Greek wrote:Hi

Why is this pathetic and unfair?

The assumption of most is that they can make a saving by purchasing from the states instead of their local dealer. Ever wondered why dealers in the Uk charge more for their products than the current exchange rate for the same goods in the USA?

When you purchase something from abroad and it enters the UK you are charged 17.5% VAT of the Stirling value. Why should you get away from paying this? You also have a custom fee added. Usually a fixed amount.

You can see that your argument against the Royal Mail is not justified. These charges are charged by all companies, Royal Mail, Parcel Force, UPS, Fedex, etc

Royal Mail doesnt keep this money apart fromt the handling charge or sets the amount they charge you, as VAT is what it is, VAT.

Firstly, the things i purchased are only available in America, and therefore i was left with no choice.

Secondly, after doing a little research, i found that the majority of this charge is pointless costs.

I do not mind paying VAT, but the fact that i have to pay the RM a charge for them dealing with charging me, and then a holding charge on top of that whilst they process the package, i think its pathetic. On top of which i had to wait an extra week before they even sent me the notice of the customs charge, it even dated when they recieved my package on the card...

So my argument is completely justified thankyou, this is just another extortionate example of the government sapping money from us needlessly through channels we have no control over.

I do not think that your comment was entirely worthwhile, i was only discussing an experience that frustrated me, and unless you work for the Royal Mail i can not see why you are so protective over what is obviously a dieing service.

My argument is perfectly justified

Costas is a uk dealer, and so,he has good reasons to point out why going to a uk dealer is often the better option in the long run.

And He's just pointing out that the dealers get charged it too.

Well it came across as though he was criticisng me for making such a comment in the first place...

It just frustrate me when i these stupid little costs crop up, i dont mind paying the VAT but the rest of it is stupid.

Apologies if i came across too strongly

Sk8r St3v3 I full appreciate were you are coming from. Your frustration is experienced by all of us at times.

I wasnt having a dig at you. I think the Royal Mail should get some credit at times and i felt this was one of them. Many people dont realise the dealers point of you. We see people always try and save money on their purchases, and when they find that they could of saved money by purchasing from a UK dealer, they complain of the import duty they paid etc

To avoid deveating from your original thread ill stop here. Maybe another topic is due for

Nah... Anything bought in the UK has already had VAT applied. And that's why it's more expensive than over the Pond.

Anything coming into the UK from outside of the EU is subject to VAT or duty or whatever. And if the Royal Mail, FedEx, UPS or whoever needs to handle that payment, they'll charge an admin fee on top.

I've just paid a hefty customes charge on an order I placed online. Like you, this was an item that's unavailable on these shores. I wasn't happy about the expense, but it's the first one I've been hit with in ages. The sheer volume of international mail has meant that most of my international purchases slip through the net and come through without any additional fees.

So, additional customs charges are something that you need to consider any time you buy from a retailer outside of the EU.You might not get hit with the charges, but you must accept that it's a possibility - and that you're lucky to get away with it most of the time (as opposed to feeling unlucky when yours is one of the few parcels checked and charged).

And the charges aren't the doing of the Royal Mail - it's the fellas in the Westminster, and in the customs and taxes department who make those rules and set the rates.

Pete

The basic point is that ALL goods imported will incur import duty and VAT plus clearance costs unless they're rated specially as non-dutiable, and even then VAT may still apply just the same as if buying in the UK. The main exceptions are with things like books which incur no duty or tax and, as a concession (not a right!) parcels under a certain value marked 'Gift' are allowed in with no charges.

When sourcing abroad, this aspect is usually overlooked but it's a fact of life that the UK governments (and most other governments) raise revenue and protect home industry by charging import duty and some kind of VAT.

I agree that the 'Admin charges' levied by freight agents and the Post Office are punitive but they always have an answer along the lines of it being the true cost of administering the fees etc.

Some years ago at work we received a fees note from the Post Office relating to legitimate import of industrial items which we’d paid for in advance and which we knew were non-dutiable. I phoned and pointed this out and quoted the relevant Customs and Excise classification as proof but was told that I'd have to pay everything first then claim the fees back afterwards as once the paperwork had been done it couldn’t be changed! As this was clearly ridiculous I told them I’d give them 4 working days to deliver our property otherwise our Solicitors would be in touch and we’d be claiming for loss of profits, compensation payable to our customer who was waiting for the goods as well as a fee for our time and trouble in dealing with the matter. The person on the other end said they’d see what could be done. Next morning the parcel arrived, the fees note was still on it but had the word ‘Cancelled’ across it and no more was said until almost two weeks later when we had a letter to say that they’d considered the matter and, as a special arrangement, would be delivering the item without charge. Two weeks to tell us what they’d already done and it was all their mistake in the first place! OK rant over….

I'd be more worried about them complaining about not getting paid enough even though they are quite willing to let recorded delivery items go missing, have mail stolen by their postmen and letters/parcels partially ripped open by their staff so they can see if it is worth anything to them before they come through your door.

The amount of missing, damaged or tampered mail is disgraceful and I have absolutely no faith in the pathetic service they give and while I'm sure there are lots of good employees within the service, I think they need to stop ignoring it for the sake a quiet life. When they do that, I'll have some sympathy.

Ooo, can I moan too please?!

A few weeks back, I got a red card through the door from the postie saying they couldn't deliver a parcel as I was out and it needed a signature.

So, I went online and got it redirected to my local post office. I went to the post office on the allotted day and....no parcel. After visiting and ringing the post office every day for a week, I had to give up. It never arrived.

The real sting in the tail is this: Because I couldn't tell them who the parcel was from and the value (because I wasn't expecting anything specific), I couldn't even fill in their stupid bloody claim form and therefore nothing ever came of it.

I'm still mad.

P.S. +1 What DaveM said.

How many others on TM have had Recorded Delivery items pushed through the letterbox without Postie getting a signature? In recent weeks I've had well over half a dozen Recorded Delivery items where no signature was obtained......

Worst one I had was the postman delivered a court summons (it was a silly debt problem, now completely sorted) to an old address of mine and let a non-friendly ex-housemate sign for it.

The court used the fact that I had supposedly signed for it as evidence that I knew about the summons and when I didn't show up in court, it defaulted against me leaving me with a hundreds of pounds of fees I ended up paying.

Obviously, it was daft of me not to keep my address up to date but it is still shocking.


Mandrake - I often get them left on my doorstep.

Sk8r St3v3 wrote:Don't you find it pathetic how they strike about not getting paid enough and then incur extortionate custom charges on everything?

I don't see how these two things are related.

HMCE is the border force that extorts large amounts of money to release legally bought goods - seemingly at random. Royal Mail is the UK's national post delivery service.

If you've ever had a pint with a postie, it usually turns into him/her ranting about internal cuts to manpower, longer hours, management that doesn't understand the business it runs, and the slow deterioration of a national institution. The current dispute in London (if I'm remembering it correctly) is about management shedding workers by firing or suspending them on charges that don't seem to hold up to scrutiny, but which happily mean no redundancy money has to be paid out. the trigger for the latest walkout was the suspension of a driver.

This is what happens when you put accountants in charge of something that has grown organically and have set ideas about how things should be done: it begins to go wrong. The only people who work for peanuts tend to be monkeys who don't give a stuff, and so the whole thing gets worse.