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Stung by a customs charge for the first time and confused :|

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Stung by a customs charge for the first time and confused :|
Belle

Belle

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Hi pin traders!

I received a package from a members game here, but before I could get hold of it I had to pay a customs charge :(

Now I am not sure why because the member labeled as a gift and the value as $25.00. It is to my understanding that this somehow waves the custom charges as I have received countless amounts of pins from members here with the same thing written on packages. This is the first one I've had saying I have to pay a charge which was 11.00 GBP which you might think is not so bad but with two kids to feed and a house to maintain its coming from my monthly budget (moan moan moan I know)

I'm looking on the HM Revenue & Customs site and this is what it says -

All other goods

If you order or send purchased goods other than alcohol, tobacco, perfume and toilet water from a country outside the EU then you:

  • don't have to pay Excise Duty
  • may have to pay Customs Duty on goods with a value that exceeds £135
  • will have to pay import VAT on goods with a value that exceeds £15
Click to expand...

The last bullet point is where it has me confused as if this was surely the case then wouldn't I have had to pay the fees for all the other packages?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
I have had to pay before due to mistakes, my partner really got caught out once when a value of $25 was written with a double strike through the dollar sign which made the value look like $125, we couldn't do anything about it though as HMRC go by the form and the mistake was there...

Was the 'gift' box clearly marked? If so then you should be able to reclaim the fees paid (there is a form on the HMRC website) as long as you still have the packaging with the form on as the cut off for gift is £36. If it just said $25 without 'gift' clearly marked then £11 import fees sounds about right as the fees kick in at anything above around $25, so the £8 fee plus 20% of the value. However I would say $25 at current exchange rates should be very close to the £15 cut off...

I also wonder if you had a silly person in the the HMRC office forget to convert the $ to £? I've had this happen with parcels at work, again you should be able to reclaim the charge (so much hassle though!).

Sorry this happened to you, I hate import fees :(
 
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Many country's custom services don't look at the currency, just at the number. So basically, whether it's $25 or £25, it doesn't matter. I always ask to put a value below $19, to be sure. Even labeling as a gift sometimes doesn't matter. Customs suck, basically.
 
Ammonite said:
I have had to pay before due to mistakes, my partner really got caught out once when a value of $25 was written with a double strike through the dollar sign which made the value look like $125, we couldn't do anything about it though as HMRC go by the form and the mistake was there...

Was the 'gift' box clearly marked? If so then you should be able to reclaim the fees paid (there is a form on the HMRC website) as long as you still have the packaging with the form on as the cut off for gift is £36. If it just said $25 without 'gift' clearly marked then £11 import fees sounds about right as the fees kick in at anything above around $25, so the £8 fee plus 20% of the value. However I would say $25 at current exchange rates should be very close to the £15 cut off...

I also wonder if you had a silly person in the the HMRC office forget to convert the $ to £? I've had this happen with parcels at work, again you should be able to reclaim the charge (so much hassle though!).

Sorry this happened to you, I hate import fees :(
Click to expand...

The customs form was all printed, not handwritten so yes very clear. It says Contents: Gift

Thank you for your help with the form, not sure what to actually tick though. I might have to call Royal Mail :facepalm:

Oh and I just converted $25 to pounds it was £14.87
 
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I'm sorry this happened to you!! Customs charges are a joke :/! They wouldn't be so bad if Royal Mail didn't charge £8 for them literally just sticking a sticker on the package :|
 
ive been caught out a lot because they don't seem to look at the currency, ive had countless arguments with them that $20 is not the same as £20 but they've never refunded me. I hope you get better results.
 
This happend to me when i brought my steamboat willie piece of disney movie I had to pay £20 I think as it was a awhile ago now I know how you feel its so frustrating can't you appeal against it?
 
I have to call Revenue and Customs. Currently on the phone waiting to talk to somebody now... Hope they can actually help as Royal Mail have proved to be completely useless.
 
I am so sorry this happened to you. We in the US need to remember to never put more then 20 dollars on any package. As for why this time and not others, just dumb luck. Somebody was paying attention and saw what they wanted to see. You got stuck because of it.
 
Well I was right. It is because on there systems they apparently have labelled it as merchandise but on the form it is labelled as a gift. Apparently even if it was merchandise I shouldn't have received the fee anyway so I have no idea what has happened, I am to appeal it using the form and send in the packaging.
 
I've had packages worth 300 $ and things went perfectly fine.

I then get something that was worth about 20 $, and they charged me 35 $ customs if I wanted to actuallly recieve it!

I keep saying it, there is no system, they'll just be like "let's fool this person today".
Because it does seem to go like that, unless someone knows who works there, we will never know how the system really works.

You can get very lucky, and you can get very unlucky. It's like they just randomly pick out a package, and don't care about the amount on the sticker or what's inside.
 
^^^ yes to that! It's just a case of randomness.

I get more unlucky than lucky, though, lol. :rolleyes: And the amount you have to pay is crazy.

I actually never buy from EBAY.US for this reason (or any other "official" shop located in the US). Many people are rude about it or just go with the usual "no I don't put down a different value, it's illegal and it can get me into jail"-line. So please, oversea traders (also from Asia and areas like that), remember to put a value below 20 in any currency. Just checking it as a gift won't make any difference.
 
I've only had to pay once for something from ebay, 10 €.
Other then that only what my friends have sent me, 10 € on my Lion King vinylmation box, and 35 $ for 2 plushies & 2 blankets in 1 package.
Oh, and about 25 $ not so long ago, but my friend had putted to much items in the box (about 10, so it just didn't add up anymore looking at the amounts she had putted on the sticker).

All this in the past 3 years. So the 10 years before that went just fine, I guess I had been lucky enough that it was about time something was going to go wrong sooner or later, lol.
(knowing, in 2011 / 2012 / 2013 I was recieving mail at least twice a week, the entire year around, haha!)
 
moorhunhe said:
I've only had to pay once for something from ebay, 10 €.
Other then that only what my friends have sent me, 10 € on my Lion King vinylmation box, and 35 $ for 2 plushies & 2 blankets in 1 package.
Oh, and about 25 $ not so long ago, but my friend had putted to much items in the box (about 10, so it just didn't add up anymore looking at the amounts she had putted on the sticker).

All this in the past 3 years. So the 10 years before that went just fine, I guess I had been lucky enough that it was about time something was going to go wrong sooner or later, lol.
(knowing, in 2011 / 2012 / 2013 I was recieving mail at least twice a week, the entire year around, haha!)
Click to expand...

Wow haha, you ARE lucky! We ordered about ten things in a month from the US, from different senders, 9/10 had import fees. Fun times lol.
 
I figured this was the best place to ask I plan to ship a package from the us to the uk through paypal, how would I do it so the person receving it does not have to pay? Any help would be amazing
 
(there's never a 100 % gurantuee the person will not have to pay customs)
People must be aware of this ;)

My friend in the US told me, till 50 $.
But as mentioned, I've had a package, that wasn't worth only about 20 $, said so on the sticker also, and I had to pay an extra 35 $ to recieve it.
 
moorhunhe said:
I've had packages worth 300 $ and things went perfectly fine.

I then get something that was worth about 20 $, and they charged me 35 $ customs if I wanted to actuallly recieve it!

I keep saying it, there is no system, they'll just be like "let's fool this person today".
Because it does seem to go like that, unless someone knows who works there, we will never know how the system really works.

You can get very lucky, and you can get very unlucky. It's like they just randomly pick out a package, and don't care about the amount on the sticker or what's inside.
Click to expand...

Well they fooled the wrong person because the lady who I spoke to from HMRC admitted that it shouldn't have even been dealt a fee, even if it was marked as merch on there systems :dunno:

And I guess it's a case of if you can be bothered to chase it up lol.
 
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I doubt opening a case over here would do something about it.
As it basically already is: pay and you get it, don't pay and we don't care but it'll be sent back where it came from.

Even though the lady said it shouldn't have happened. Any idea how many cases that would be?
Though, thinking about it, might help in the end, lol.
I've been charged twice while it only said 20$ on the sticker.
 
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Let's put it this way if I owed money to them they wouldn't stop hounding me until they got it.. But they seem to owe to me it's all forms, evidence blah blah I think I shall have to forget at this moment because it's not worth the hassle for me right now. I just hope the next batch of pins are ok and have no fees.
 
You know, that's total crap!!! I hate it when guidelines aren't followed because of a lack of training, patience, or attention to detail. I guess you just happened to be "audited" and they didn't even pay attention to their own standards! I'm glad you fought it and didn't just take the fee. Even if it was just a couple dollars... that's sacred pin money! Can't be throwing that around!!! :) If I send an overseas zap I'll need to put down a low value so someone doesn't get stuck paying for customs! And if I ever sell something valuable, I think I'll have to ask the recipient if they want me to put a low value or actual value for the mail insurance.
 
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