Anyone know about import duty?

[amigafan2003]

So, parcelforce delay your parcel and are entitled to their fee, Fedex bring your parcel sooner and aren't entitled to a fee. I see the legal argument, but it doesn't seem fair to me.

I wouldn't say ParcelForce are entitled to thier fee - holding your goods hostage until the fee is paid doesn't sound fair either.

At the end of the day, when Fedex pay my customs fee for me, they are providing a service I neither require nor one that I have asked for. Therefore they don't get paid.

I'm quite happy to pay the customs fee directly myself - customs do have the facility to invoice directly - once the payment is recd they then release the parcel to the delivery company - it just takes a bit longer - but the delivery companies (not all) have decided to expediate the parcel by paying the customs fee in advance and make a quick buck on excessive "admin" fees.

 

[Jeremy]

OK, that seems to be fairly definitive, couriers who deliver first have no legal entitlement to a fee, but a moral entitlement to a small fee. I noticed on another forum that most businesses tend to pay the fees and consider them reasonable.

I'd guess that, for a business, this isn't a major issue, as their orders are likely to be of a greater value and the handling fee may well be a small proportion of the extra cost. There's also the added factor that a business will just pass this cost on to the customer, secure in the knowledge that their competitors have to do the same. In the case of individuals receiving low value packages the fee can often be 50% of the extra charge levied.

It's a little like the bank charges issue, where a charge is rounded up to a nice round number that bears little in common with the actual costs associated with the charge. The banks have been kicked in line with this, it's about time the courier companies were, too.

 

[Scimitar]

There is the major consideration that these 'handling fees' from the likes of DefEx, PUS, etc are a significant revenue stream for them and they make a point of 'special handling' of parcels that would be liable for duty, in the fairly sure knowledge of collecting their nice little earner on every one.
In contrast, the PO only hold parcels above a certain value, and by no means every one of them.

 

[eHomer]

I've just been hit with a Fedex invoice with their "handling fee", so I did a search on the forum and found this thread.

So here's an update on the level of the problem, September 2013:


"Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT" GBP 3.90

"Clearance Administration Charge Vatable at 0%" GBP 10.50

Total to pay = £14.40

So the admin fee is now £10.50, or in my case, plus two and half times the VAT itself.

 

[amigafan2003]

Stern letter time I think.

FWIW - my £500 value parcel (and stated on the customs decleration) from em3ev went straight through customs with FEDEX with no fees. It really is random some times

 

[eHomer]

I thought I'd got away with no charges, nothing mentioned at the time of delivery,then this through the post, two weeks later.

The unpredictability makes buying from China far less attractive, but no fault of the supplier.

 

[Zebb]

I thought, i would have to pay about £15.00 odd through RMail, but they didn't charge me when I collected parcel, though of course they still could send an invoice, but nothing so far. goods were about £50.00.

 

[eHomer]

My experiences with Royal Mail is the same as others have said on here, they don't normally even attempt to deliver it until the duty and admin fee is paid !

I had it once for a couple of small brass drain taps (for a boat engine) from the USA, which I couldn't get anywhere in this country.

They were very cheap, but the customs and admin charge quadrupled the cost, and I had to drive 15 miles to the sorting office to pay it...