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You have to rail against the Man, the Machine, the Establishment, the Tax. It's a Human Right!
Customs annoyance
- Thread starter wintoid
- Start Date
- Messages
- 1,582
- Location
- ??? dinnae ken
No he paid the tax the man the establishment what he is doing is arguing semantics with a company with the way they are pursuing him for there service cost!
I never had any issue with paying the duty, and fully expected to do so. I do object to paying an admin fee which almost doubles the cost of the duty, because it seems to me that for DHL this is simply an additional profit stream, rather than a genuine fee for providing a service, and to the aggressive way DHL demand it. Bear in mind that I'm not their customer - the sender is; I wasn't given any opportunity to agree to their charges, (and for the record, wasn't aware of it beforehand) so there is no contract, and thus the fee is unenforceable.
DHL choose to do the customs clearance, so the cost to them of doing this, which will be minimal, should be factored in to the prices they charge for delivery - as they do, for example, with bridge toll charges. Or they could simply charge the actual cost to them. A while ago some companies were charging significant extra sums to customers paying by credit card; this is now unlawful and they can only add the actual cost to them of processing the payment.
DHL threaten action they cannot legally take; this is contrary to the law. You may think this acceptable, and challenging it semantic, but I do not.
I'm sure that every time you place an order you spend time trawling through the courier's website to discover their charges, and immediately pay any sum demanded without question. There's a word for that, but it escapes me at present. Thank you for your good wishes, but they are unnecessary. I do not often buy from overseas, but when I do my orders are usually placed with businesses who use the delivered duty prepaid method, which avoids the unpleasantness of speculative charges.
- Messages
- 3,477
- Location
- Cumbria, England
I agree with Anubis, I don't object to paying the duty so much, I only buy stuff from overseas because it's not available in the UK not because it may seem to be cheaper, it's the additional spurious charges laid on by the courier that annoy me, I think Parcelfarce charge about £14!
That said, I bought a watch from overseas and was very happy when the seller helpfully marked the value as $50 which saved me a fair bit in Customs molestation.
That said, I bought a watch from overseas and was very happy when the seller helpfully marked the value as $50 which saved me a fair bit in Customs molestation.
- Messages
- 166
- Location
- Somerset - UK
I have to agree .... I have no objection to paying import duties whatsoever. I just hate that couriers (in fact the worst are Royal Mail) jump onto the band wagon and use it as a mechanism for withholding your parcel until you pay a fee which they determine and which is non negotiable is paid. The value of the admin fee can literally be any value they fancy - it's a case of pay any level of charge we ask for or you won't get your property.
These fees will (and have already) increased, purely because they are not under any regulation and there is no alternative to paying them. The sender isn't informed of them (and probably won't care); the recipient isn't involved in the contract and therefore has no say in whether the parcel is sent with that courier even - therefore despite not being in contract is the one liable for admin charges ?
I have to say there ARE some couriers who are fair and transparent. Generally, the couriers which operate globally and therefore have employees on both side of the pond, tend to handle all of the process in both countries - so the parcel comes straight through without a delay. They occasionally then send an invoice after they have delivered speedily - but the admin isn't as high as the ones that sit on your parcel for a week trying to find an opportunity to withhold it.
The worst in my experience are companies who e.g. have an operation in the USA but don't have a facility in the UK. USPS is an organisation like this. If someone pays them for an expedited service, they use the services of Royal Mail as soon as it gets to the UK. Royal Mail hold it in London where they will go through every single parcel individually - hence the week or so delay on a 48-72h service. They do this not because they are conscientious about taxes - but because every one they find means they can levy a massive "admin" charge on which subsidises other parts of their failing service.
The end of the day, I've now taken the policy of only buying low value items from the USA which stay under the threshold.
I have also taken the decision to consciously avoid certain couriers and will even pay a higher rate to use companies that offer a decent service. It's not always about the cost - I generally don't mind paying a premium for a top service - the worst part is the companies with the highest "admin" charges are generally the slowest in terms of delivery !
Best wishes,
Jay
These fees will (and have already) increased, purely because they are not under any regulation and there is no alternative to paying them. The sender isn't informed of them (and probably won't care); the recipient isn't involved in the contract and therefore has no say in whether the parcel is sent with that courier even - therefore despite not being in contract is the one liable for admin charges ?
I have to say there ARE some couriers who are fair and transparent. Generally, the couriers which operate globally and therefore have employees on both side of the pond, tend to handle all of the process in both countries - so the parcel comes straight through without a delay. They occasionally then send an invoice after they have delivered speedily - but the admin isn't as high as the ones that sit on your parcel for a week trying to find an opportunity to withhold it.
The worst in my experience are companies who e.g. have an operation in the USA but don't have a facility in the UK. USPS is an organisation like this. If someone pays them for an expedited service, they use the services of Royal Mail as soon as it gets to the UK. Royal Mail hold it in London where they will go through every single parcel individually - hence the week or so delay on a 48-72h service. They do this not because they are conscientious about taxes - but because every one they find means they can levy a massive "admin" charge on which subsidises other parts of their failing service.
The end of the day, I've now taken the policy of only buying low value items from the USA which stay under the threshold.
I have also taken the decision to consciously avoid certain couriers and will even pay a higher rate to use companies that offer a decent service. It's not always about the cost - I generally don't mind paying a premium for a top service - the worst part is the companies with the highest "admin" charges are generally the slowest in terms of delivery !
Best wishes,
Jay
Paul
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- Messages
- 726
- Location
- Suffolk, England
Royal Mail charge £8 std or £13.50 I think for a priority parcel. They certainly aren't loosing money but I can't see a company their size making much money on this. They are acting as an agent for HMRC, you do not want your parcel dealt with by them. So Royal Mail are the lesser of too evils. The main issue is that we have a very low import allowance compared to the US or Australia, hopefully that will change soon.
DHL - Based on my calculation HMRC would require you to pay £35.84 for importing a Rockwell 6S + the £11 DHL fee. So I would pay them & hope they don't notice their mistake.
DHL - Based on my calculation HMRC would require you to pay £35.84 for importing a Rockwell 6S + the £11 DHL fee. So I would pay them & hope they don't notice their mistake.
- Messages
- 1,582
- Location
- ??? dinnae ken
The fee is not for customs clearance it is for paying the money to hmrc and for collecting this money from the customer which can be costly in cases like yours. If you don't like it pre pay the duty yourself! Not hard.
Buying from eBay from sellers using there world shipping is not buying from business who prepay duty. The charges are also not speculative the vat duty and handling charges are set