My order is only for £50 so no big shakes its a risk I know I take when I order. They have offered a refund if they fail to ship but as I said its a known gamble.
Surely sea freight would still attract import duty/VAT ?
I spoke to Ping who said he was now offering sea freight shipping of his batteries.
Regards
Jerry
It does, but the way VAT and import duty is calculated is very unfair (EU rules enforced on UK) and means consumers (and small businesses such as myself who import small consignments by air freight) are paying what amounts to 30-35% tax, because the VAT is not only charged on the goods value (which often HMRC estimates higher than cost price comparative to UK prices) but is also charged on the air freight cost, which has already been taxed.. so you're effectively paying Duty on goods+shipping+VAT then import VAT on top of all that. They even estimate the shipping cost and don't go by the actual shipping cost you've paid, couriers have fixed scale of shipping charges supplied by HMRC (set by EU) which they work to and will "adjust up" shipping cost to determine import VAT. It's a racket. Ontop of that you have the "deferral fee" racket (usually £15 a time) which nearly all couriers engage in (which incidentally I've had confirmed by HMRC is totally unnecessary as consumers and not obliged to pay VAT/Duty through deferment accounts and can pay it directly to HMRC).
I've challenged these unfair import tax practices with the Department of Trade via my MP and they claim their hands are tied due to EU law and it's the same across the Union. I'm now pursuing it at the EU-level and think all small businesses across the EU should bring a class action to reclaim all the VAT they've been overcharged over the years. What's really unfair is that big multi-nationals like Tesco, Amazon etc, are engaging in VAT and import-duty tax avoidance schemes using off-shore company fronts and getting away with hundreds of millions in unpaid taxes which the government is ignoring, and it's us smaller businesses who are getting hit.
So anyway, if you can bring goods in bulk by sea freight (which is a substantially cheaper way to transport goods, often 10 times cheaper than air freight) the overall duty and VAT is much less. And smaller businesses or small consignments can be combined into one container load so the cost is even less then to individual businesses who share the cost.
