Anybody savvy with Royal Mail charges?

Ninja Elephant said:

I bought some stuff from America a couple of weeks ago and paid what I thought were hefty P&P fees, but I thought nothing of it considering it's coming from American you'd expect to pay a bit extra and that's not a problem.

Royal Mail attempted delivery yesterday but I was at work and we got a little card through the post, which is nothing unusual. But there's a £13.48 fee to be paid, £8 of which is a "handling fee", which I think is absolutely outrageous. £8?! REALLY?

I've emailed the company to have words, but it does seem a bit much. The other £5.48 is a customs charge, which I thought I already covered (didn't have to pay any charges the last time I bought from these people).

My question is whether this is a fair cop and it's to be expected, or whether this is a bit naughty.

Click to expand...

The Brighton Bear said:

The UK Border Agency randomly go through packages from outside the EU and apply a VAT charge if the value of the goods declared is over £15. Royal Mail pay the money up front and charge the customer £8 for doing this.

There doesn’t seem to be a way of avoiding this if your package gets charged.

Click to expand...

clippedgull said:

Bought some NASA videos a few years back and got stung. Asked the postie what would happen if I refused to pay, he said the items would be held for 3 months then sent to auction! Paid up holding a grudge.

Click to expand...

The Brighton Bear said:

I think that some companies avoid paying the VAT up front because they know that some of their packages will slip through the net.

If you decide to pay the fee you should ask for a receipt as evidence and then take it up further with the seller.

Click to expand...

amexee said:

You are lucky you did not have to pay duty as well. check out Calculate your import duty in a few quick steps for free | DutyCalculator Well worth looking at that site before purchasing from outside the EU, as VAT plus duty can add a huge percentage to the initial price.

Click to expand...

carlzeiss said:

When you import goods from overseas , you as the buyer are responsible for paying Vat , Customs fees and or RM handling fee .
The fact that you did not pay before is irrelevant , you were just lucky .
.

Click to expand...

Ninja Elephant said:

It does seem ridiculous though, my previous order from them was worth a lot less and there were no problems.

Click to expand...

carlzeiss said:

When you import goods from overseas , you as the buyer are responsible for paying Vat , Customs fees and or RM handling fee .
The fact that you did not pay before is irrelevant , you were just lucky .
.

Click to expand...

The Brighton Bear said:

The other thing that I will say is that the UK Border Agency must have employed more staff. I work in the callers office in the Rottingdean Delivery Office and I used to receive about 4 of these items per week. I have been receiving 4/5 of them every day since the start of the year.

Click to expand...

carlzeiss said:

When you import goods from overseas , you as the buyer are responsible for paying Vat , Customs fees and or RM handling fee .
The fact that you did not pay before is irrelevant , you were just lucky .
.

Click to expand...

Springal said:

This. Nothing to do with the company you bought from

Click to expand...

Ninja Elephant said:

Then my question is at what point are you charged the VAT? Maybe I'm just wrong, which is entirely possible as I haven't ever paid much attention (or had to) to VAT and such things, I just assumed you paid for it when buying the product and when you agree to pay a certain fee you then get the product delivered. Rather than paying what I consider to be perfectly fair and reasonable as a total and then getting hit with ANOTHER £13 charge to complete the transaction. I consider that to be pretty poor, so far as I was concerned the transaction was completed. Is that a wrong attitude?

Click to expand...

beorhthelm said:

you brought the item from US where there is no VAT. you pay VAT in this country and on items brought in EU, anywhere else wont have to charge you VAT so wont. then theres duty, different for different items and theres various minimum values before they start charging but its not alot. Royal Mail then charge their fee for effectivly acting as an excise duty collection agency.

so in a nut shell, your supplier is outside the VAT system and doesnt concern itself with that or duty, just ships to the address.

Click to expand...

Ninja Elephant said:

I understand to a point, but my argument would be that I WAS charged VAT, Total US$55.00 (includes US$1.43 VAT). Clearly, this wasn't enough and I don't dispute that. The website linked in this thread confirms the amount I have subsequently been charged is fair, I understand that now and I thank the posters for sharing the site.

I'm just a bit suprised to get hit with additional fees having already paid, I've only ever had to pay customs charges once but that was on a CD from Korea so that was fair game. I'm not saying this time isn't fair game, I just wasn't expecting it.

Click to expand...

Ninja Elephant said:

I understand to a point, but my argument would be that I WAS charged VAT, Total US$55.00 (includes US$1.43 VAT).

Click to expand...

fataddick said:

Lucky it's only £8, they charge more (£14 I think) if it was sent by express post. They can't withhold the package until you pay the fees, there's a specific postal act clause that this is in contravention of (in the same act that gives them the right to levy the charge it specifies they can't actually hold onto the package awaiting payment). Google the subject for advice, which in general is that you need to quote the postal act when you pick it up and only pay the customs stuff not the £8. They'll argue but as long as you quote from the postal act they'll cave in and send you a bill for the £8 later (to chuck in the bin). Apparently. I just pay it myself.

Click to expand...