[FAQ] Customs and Import Duties

[Guest 24319]

Originally Posted by Floop

Worked for me.

They sent you a cheque to clear the fees casued for inconvenience?

Or they just wrote off your bill?

[Floop]

They sent me a cheque. I nearly framed it, but I'm too tight ;-)

[DeadWalk]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post but I have a query regarding how to find the whereabouts of a parcel sent to me from the USA.

The parcel is from SecondSpin.com containing second hand cd's. The value is $70 so I'm aware I will need to pay import duty and VAT, etc. It was posted by standard airmail on 02/02/2005 and still hasn't arrived. I've contacted Royal Mail but they say they aren't able to trace incoming international mail. I've contacted SecondSpin and they are investigating from their end.

Do you have any ideas as to who I should now be in contact with to find out where my parcel is? Would HM Customs keep it for weeks and not let me know?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest 24319]

Originally Posted by DeadWalk

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post but I have a query regarding how to find the whereabouts of a parcel sent to me from the USA.

The parcel is from SecondSpin.com containing second hand cd's. The value is $70 so I'm aware I will need to pay import duty and VAT, etc. It was posted by standard airmail on 02/02/2005 and still hasn't arrived. I've contacted Royal Mail but they say they aren't able to trace incoming international mail. I've contacted SecondSpin and they are investigating from their end.

Do you have any ideas as to who I should now be in contact with to find out where my parcel is? Would HM Customs keep it for weeks and not let me know?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry, there is no way to track items sent by air mail. It possible that customs have it. I have been waiting weeks for a item from DVD Soon that will have a customs charge. On the same note, I have been waiting a month for a DVD from DVD Pacific with no customs charge. I know DVD Pacific are slow but DVD Soon normally deliver to me in a week. I would contact Second Spin and ask them what their policy is on lost items as it has been around six weeks for you.

[Paul Moran]

After HMC&E had agreed to refund the VAT on 3 packets for which the actual price was under the £18 limit, I wrote to Royal Mail, on 28 Feb, to ask for a refund of the clearance fees. Got their cheque for £12 today.

In the meantime, I've had another 2 incorrectly charged packets. Just waiting to see whether a 3rd packet, shipped on 9 Mar, gets charged, before writing about them.

[Guest 24319]

Originally Posted by Paul Moran

After HMC&E had agreed to refund the VAT on 3 packets for which the actual price was under the £18 limit, I wrote to Royal Mail, on 28 Feb, to ask for a refund of the clearance fees. Got their cheque for £12 today.

In the meantime, I've had another 2 incorrectly charged packets. Just waiting to see whether a 3rd packet, shipped on 9 Mar, gets charged, before writing about them.

Perhpas it would be a good idea if every one who has had to obtain refunds courteousy of DVD Soon wrote again to point this out in the hope that Customs would contact DVD Soon to change their policy. DVD Soon has gone from one extreme to the other.

[Guest 3483]

Can anyone help.
I'm negotiating with a private CD seller in the US. I want to buy off him a 15 CD set, and we've agreed $450. He's said he'll mark it as a gift, total value $60. What are the chances of me "getting away with it"?
Second, regarding admin charges, who is it that determines who delivers the parcel once it reaches the UK? Ho, for example, would I ensure that it comes via Royal Mail as opposed to Parcel Force?
Thanks

[Boink!]

Originally Posted by Paul Moran

After HMC&E had agreed to refund the VAT on 3 packets for which the actual price was under the £18 limit, I wrote to Royal Mail, on 28 Feb, to ask for a refund of the clearance fees. Got their cheque for £12 today.

In the meantime, I've had another 2 incorrectly charged packets. Just waiting to see whether a 3rd packet, shipped on 9 Mar, gets charged, before writing about them.

Got my letter today saying C&E will refund my charges. Will post a letter to the Royal Mail tommorrow.
8-] Many thanks, mate.

Aside: A bloke at work looking at the new budget said Brown is looking at raising the customs import level from £18 to .... £1000!!! Haven't checked whether this is true, but bloody hell, if it is, then

B!

[SimonI]

On the BBC News site it says

The chancellor confirmed that he has written to the European Commission, requesting that the tax-free limit on goods brought into the UK from outside the European Union be increased from £145 to £1,000.

Not the same thing as our £18 limit though?

[Guest 993]

Originally Posted by Boink!

Aside: A bloke at work looking at the new budget said Brown is looking at raising the customs import level from £18 to .... £1000!!! Haven't checked whether this is true, but bloody hell, if it is, then

Unfortunately not.

The £1000 applies to goods you bring over personally not items through the post. The current limit, as said, is £145 and this is being raised to £1000. It's really just a cost cutting exercise as it means customs at airports etc don't have to bother so much about the thousands of travellers who bring in stuff over the £145 excess (I brought in £500+ worth of skis on my last trip, sneaking through Nothing to Declare , but wouldn't have needed to worry if it was £1000).

The £18 on posted items I believe still stands.

[JCTurner]

Question is from what date will you be able to bring £1000 worth of goods in ?

[Guest 46034]

Is there always a delay when customs look at packages.
I bought the scorsese box at 19.77GBP inc delivery (18.20 before I think) so am expecting to be charged as I understand that dvdsoon put the price before discounts (+10%).

It was sent on the 12 march 2005 using standard.

[LouBarlow]

I believe it delays things at least a week.

[Porsmond]

Hi All, this is probably a really stupid question, but do you get hit with customs from DVD's sent from Jersey if they are over £18???
Its just I got sent a DVD coming from Jersey with dvd.co.uk which was £17.99 and while I didnt get charged extra which I didnt think would happen, there was all sorts of custom references on it saying Customs Value,Weight,what the item was, and there was a signiture saying this package does not contain anything dangerous blah blah and it looked like it was signed by customs.
Strange thing is, I've never had this sort of thing on my packages with other stuff sent from Jersey, but then again the value of products hasnt been over £18 to know if I get charged or not.

Just curious to know if I should be more careful on what stuff I order from Jersey nowadays???

[Guest 993]

Items sent from Jersey are consider imports into the EU, so they should have a customs declaration (regardless of being over or under £18). However if they are sending items sourced from within the EU where VAT has already been paid there's no VAT due. I guess in that case they are exempt from a customs declaration.

The reason you may see a declaration with DVDs is if those DVDs are R1. If they're R2 you probably won't.

[Choccy]

For dvdsoon is a printout of the "details of your order" page enough to send with a letter along with photocopies opf the box or is it something else ?

[Guest 48013]

Can anyone explain this for me:

I recieved 3 packages from dvdsoon, each marked $46.98 that were hit by customs. But each one had a different customs charge £7.41, £7.52 and £8.37. I know the RM fee is a standard £4 so the problem lies with C&E.

I was under the impression that the exchange rate used to calculate customs was fixed for a month and as I recieved all these packages within the last week I struggle to see reasons for the differing charges.

Im going to be claiming it all back anyway, but its confused me all the same!

[Boink!]

Originally Posted by Choccy

For dvdsoon is a printout of the "details of your order" page enough to send with a letter along with photocopies opf the box or is it something else ?

I also included the receipt from the Post Office showing I had paid the charges.
Got my refund for Dream On box set, but look slike I'm going to have to do it all again for the Munsters Season 1.

[Choccy]

Originally Posted by Boink!

I also included the receipt from the Post Office showing I had paid the charges.
Got my refund for Dream On box set, but look slike I'm going to have to do it all again for the Munsters Season 1.

Thanks. I didn't get a receipt so hopefully the box will do.

[Guest 49671]

Had a sift through the thread, may have missed something, but has anyone else ordered from DVDAsian.com? Last week Tues 29/03 I ordered two DVDs, 1st was $26.95 and the 2nd was $19.95 The site said both where in US Dollars.

When I went through the shopping cart process, there was no info regarding whether the DVD's would be posted together or seperately. The dispatch email I received on 30/03 had the same 'Shipped' date and time for both DVDs, so I have a feeling they've been dispatched in one package. If so, I'm probably going to have to pay a fee when they arrive in the Uk. The seperate price for each DVD when converted is around £10 and £14.

can anyone/people here confirm whether they dispatch DVDs seperately? Then I'd not have a customs fee to pay.

Cheers



**edit**

The DVDs arrived together later today, in a single secure package. I wasn't expecting them to turn up till next week, so the delivery time was pretty reasonable. Didn't have to pay any customs fee either.