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Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!)
GlynG	Post subject: Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!) Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:22 am
Brood Brother Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:27 pm Posts: 5602 Location: Bristol	I could really do with some advice on how UK customs works and whether the following sounds fair - basically I recently placed an order with US mail order to get hold of a load of old epic bits before they stopped selling them. I bought a fair amount of stuff ? approximately 550 bits but since they were small and light I didn?t expect to have to pay too much. I also knew it would be expensive to post over but I wasn?t expecting to have to pay customs charges on top, and certainly not to the level of fees their asking for ? I?ve received a letter asking for an extra ?97 ($181 for you americans out there) in customs charges! ! Apparantly thats made up of ?customs vat? of ?84.27 and ?clearance fee? of ?13.50. Is that a mistake, have they overcharged me or is that what I should expect to pay? If thats right then why is it so much, is it based on the value of the goods, the weight or a combination of the two? What can I do about it now (I really can?t afford to pay the fees), the letter says if they are not paid by 21 days the item will get posted back to the sender ? could I do that and ask US mail order for the money I paid for the order back maybe? Or if its due to weight could I ask them to post it over in several small parcels rather than one big one? Would that help?... Anyone else in the UK ordered US before, did this happen to you too? Thanks in advance for any help or replies (quite stressed and not sure what to do about it) Glyn
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Sam Coles	Post subject: Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!) Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:29 am
Brood Brother Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 4:37 pm Posts: 44 Location: Berkshire, England	VAT, 17.5% Payable if the goods are worth more than ?18. ?480?? Ouch, that's not some small order you made! _________________ -Sam aka Garcon
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GlynG	Post subject: Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!) Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:40 am
Brood Brother Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:27 pm Posts: 5602 Location: Bristol	Ah... I actually work with GW and we get a certain discount on own products, I really can't talk about it but the price I paid was a reasonable bit less than it would have cost me otherwise. Thats how I was able to afford to by so much basically, accept I'm now wondering how much they declared the stuff to be worth on the customs forms - would they have put the value I paid for it? Or the value it'd cost normally?... Glyn
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Binky	Post subject: Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!) Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:22 am
Brood Brother Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 6:00 pm Posts: 12	You should pay VAT at 17.5% plus import duty which is probably about 2.5% (it varies between different things), this would be paid on the whole amount of the order including postage. Then there's the administration charge, which seems fairly high in this case. I would have thought they should have declared the value you paid rather than the actual value. Hopefully that will give you some idea as to whether what you've been charged is correct, I believe there's some sort of appeal system if you believe you have been overcharged.
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Jimbo

Post subject: Advice on UK Customs?... (Please Help!) Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 11:25 am

Brood Brother Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2003 11:01 pm Posts: 3495 Location: Wessex

You may find these links useful http://www.hmce.gov.uk/public/shopping/shopping.htm http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/143.htm#P180_11274 Duty is charged on the price paid for the goods including any local sales taxes plus postage, packing and insurance costs. This is charged as a percentage of the value. The percentage varies depending on the type of goods and their country of origin. Basically you can query the charge, but from the sounds of it it might not do much good. Of course GW US may accept the order back. I would have thought they should have declared the value you paid rather than the actual value. Duty is charged as a percentage of the actual value the goods are worth, not what you paid for them, as gifts are subject to duty as well and you generally don't pay for them! _________________ Jimbo Felix's Gaming Pages Felix's Gaming Pages Blog Almost Always Right...

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