CUSTOMS CHARGES & Delays

[JAC]

Parcel mail in the UK is handled separately from letter post and small packets. Recently EVERY SINGLE parcel has had import tax and clearance fees attached. Today I had to pay 8 GBP tax and 13.50 clearance fee. FFS!

I have had enough of being reamed by UK "customs." It turns out the parcel branch of the postal service actually clears all the parcels themselves. When they were busy I think they used to let parcels through to clear space....

. now I think the order is every parcel must be checked for the potential to CHARGE TAX ( that I have no big issue with, but of course I dont like paying it ) and the scope for charging CLEARANCE FEES - this has the Leprechaun bean counters rubbing their hands with glee and this makes me mad. Not only do I end up paying far more, but I also have to wait a long time. I am also waiting for a parcel, online tracking shows that it has been in "UK Customs" for over 10 DAYS, arriving in the UK 11 days ago.


Is it like this now in your country? The bend over and take it up the ....


(I only have problems with parcels coming from outside Europe.)

[D.8080]

It's mad, they think that trying to take money in any way they can will make the tax payers happier??

Strange political choices.



Customs are often Kafkian places.

[JAC]

Oh this gets better.. just spoke to Uk customs, and I was told there is a special operation underway, and all parcels from CHINA coming into the UK are currently being separated from the parcel stream, and are being inspected, probably for any food, drugs, illegal and fake goods etc....

[cocoe]

Yes, no only from China, I received today an envelope from San Diego (US) and customs declaration was Other, value 98 USD. It means I needed to pay 14,70 EUR (21,50 USD) for that.

If we don't declare a gift inside or declared value is more that 25 USD it means we will pay customs recharge.

cocoe

[debs3759]

Blimey! I put £50 as value on most packages I shipped this last week, which is far below what some people paid. I hope that value doesn't incur charges for anyone...

[el_gecko]

From Europe to Europe no problem, hopefully

[CPUShack]

they charge you a tax, and then a 'clearance fee'? how is that legal?

Thankfully I live in a country that doesnt do such things.

[JAC]

Yeah, the fee is to cover their costs associated with recovering the import tax from you to pass onto the Customs people.

The Customs dept. in the UK does not actually hold the parcels. A large carrier like Parcelforce ( the parcel arm of Royal Mail who handles regular mail) has their own team of people to deal with clearance. A favorite tactic by Parcelforce when people complain about their parcel delay is to say "it is in customs delay".. whichis actually bullshit, as they are all sitting on their thumbs and the delay is down to their handling procedures or staffing problems.


Some people have bitched about the clearance fee, and have had it refunded. I dont think it has been tested in a court - and lets face it, who will want to spend a lot of money to challenge them in court only to save a few GBP. I am pretty sure the fee is a bit excessive. There are lots of arguments about it on google, but I dont think it will change unless someone takes them to court. If I win the 100million euro jackpot tonight, I'll spend a few quid on it, otherwise, I'll just bitch a bit and cough up the dough.


We had a similar thing here about banking fees a few years ago.. the banks eventually pissed so many people off, they decided that some bank fees were excessive, like unauthorised overdraft fees, and that the fee imposed was far in excess of the cost involved to the bank. So people threatened to take the bank to court.. the bank usually paid back the fees or a percentage of the fee to avoid the cost of going to court. The end result now, is bank fees have been dropped.

[CPUShack]

yah, when a fee, exceeds the charge of the tax, it isnt right.

Granted, there should not even be a fee, as its a mandatory tax (a bank you have the option to use or not, a tax, you do not)

So its in essence, mandatory welfare for Parcelfarce.

[D.8080]

Fake goods? Man I really hope you don't have some fake Intel chip in your parcel... Or have some ES mistaken for...


I thought that Italy had the lead on bad customs. We have good competitors.

[Wizzard1]

The only thing I can think of worse than these customs problems is the girlfriend/wife inspecting all parcels and finding you are spending far too much on old computer parts

[andamus]

[debs3759]

So far, I am only aware of one package that I shipped out being stopped by customs. It was marked with a value of £50, most of which could have been said to be the cost of shipping! The largest of all packages that I shipped weighed almost 10 Kg (although DHL claimed it weighed 13.5 Kg and charged accordingly), took about 2 days from my door to receiving a signature in Hong Kong and had no complications in customs.

[smithy]

Doesn't the UK have a minimum tax free threshold? We can import upto A$1000 (about US$800, EUR570) without paying tax, duty or customs charges. To go to all the effort of collecting a few pounds seems crazy...

[debs3759]

I have never had to pay a customs charge, so cannot comment, which is why I was surprised to find the value of £50 is considered high by Chinese customs.