Arrgghh. Customs.

[soop]

This might only be relevent to England, but I just got stung on customs for importing a handful of games.  Someho the want me to pay £25 of tax and handling on £60 worth of games, which is frankly, ridiculous.

I'm going to refuse to pay parclefarce's £13 handling fee, but I still want to dispute the £12 customs fees.  I can't see how they worked that out when videogames are supposed to be 3.5%.

Anybody have any record of challenging customs on anything?

Agh, jesus.  I just realised, it's 17.5 % VAT added as well.  So much for a bargain.

Also, I'd forgotten exactly what I'd ordered (I was after the cute-em-ups), but google translate tells me I got these:
Star Parodier (boxed)
Bomberman '93 (boxed)
R-type 1 (loose)
Detana! Twinbee (boxed)
Parodius (boxed)
Street Fighter 2 (boxed)
Fist of Dragon and Tiger?! World Heroes

Well, we'll see.  But if I can get out of the handling, that's £73 ish
I think that's probably more than it would have cost me straight from Hit Japan

[BuraiFighter]

In the UK also and I've gotten stung a good few times on customs, it's especially a pain when what you bought wasn't that expensive to begin with. It hasn't happened too much for me though, I'd say on my last 20 import orders I've only had to pay customs 3 times. Fortunately a lot of sellers will put a low value price down on the postage forms and you miss out on getting taxed.

If you dispute it I'm interested to see what happens, the fees are absurd.

[soop]

In the UK also and I've gotten stung a good few times on customs, it's especially a pain when what you bought wasn't that expensive to begin with. It hasn't happened too much for me though, I'd say on my last 20 import orders I've only had to pay customs 3 times. Fortunately a lot of sellers will put a low value price down on the postage forms and you miss out on getting taxed.

If you dispute it I'm interested to see what happens, the fees are absurd.

I'll do it later today.  I actually got stung on one of the most expensive things I've bought too - a boxed Super CD-ROM2 and boxed Core Grafx.  Luckily it was still a bargain, but it added about £40 to the total price :S

And luckily it was so damned exciting I didn't mind as much!

[RegalSin]

That is old news.

This is why I barely want to get deal with Europe. They have all kinds of fees/Taxes/crap on everything. While part of the Common wealth, when shipping with UPS you have to pay the same shipping again to recieve a package for Canada. Europe is on my list of "avoid".

Did they open your package, or was it marked on the package?

£25 of tax and handling on £60 worth of games, which is frankly, ridiculous.

but it added about £40 to the total price

So the bigger the value the bigger the tax? That is almost $80 dollars. 

Another places on my list of avoid, do not go, and do not have children with. It would be a burden for me to have family in one part of the world where everything is taxed like no tommorow.

[soop]

Well it's weird.  The handling fee would remain at £13, but the custom tax is a proportion of the value.  so the SCD and Core II were I think about £120 shipped?  So I'd have paid £30 plus £13 extra.  Still a good price for the condition.

Also, you should visit somewhere in Europe at least once.  Everywhere has it's pros and cons.

[Arkhan]

[soop]

Arkhan that's f*cked up.  That would never happen.  Everyone always drinks tea.  Even in the pub.

[arromdee]

I think that's probably more than it would have cost me straight from Hit Japan

Wouldn't you still have had to pay this if it came from hit-japan?

[soop]

I've never had to pay customs on anything from hit japan.  It gets here ridiculously fast, and through the post office (so it either comes through my letter box or to the depot round the corner).

Unforunately somehow other things go through parcelfarce, who customs process it, charge you extra money for shipping even though you've paid, refuse to deliver it at a sensible time, charge £13 ON TOP for Saturday delivery, and if you want to pick up, their depot is miles away in the middle of nowhere.

if you can't guess, I REALLY REALLY HATE THEM.

[soop]

f*ck.

I just called up a bunch of people, some helpful, some not, and was really polite and asked them to waive the fee.  Eventually got transferred to "the managing directors office" too, who refused my request to waive the fee.  It turns out that they changed the law last last year to make it legal to hold the goods pending payment of handling charges.

I might just keep banging my head against the wall knowing that legally, they're entitled to hold my package to ransom.

I tried telling them that I couldn't afford to pay the extra and it would just end up getting sent back, and even though that would leave me out of pocket some £20 shipping, it would be an expensive lesson.  I doubt I could even resell them at market rates and get the total back.

I need to think.  There must be something I can do.

[Necromancer]

I need to think.  There must be something I can do.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't sound like any of this is the fault of whoever you bought from.  I'd say it's time to pay up and move on from an expensive lesson.

[RegalSin]

So you told them the product was not worth the value written on the box, and they probably said. Well what is done, is done. Because changing the value on the box is probably the only thing you can do, which I doubt they are going to allow you to do.

if you buy any goods on which tax was paid in another EU member country, you don't have to pay any more tax in the UK.

So you are paying UK duty?

I do not think their is any way out, but to explain the value of items is not it seems, if you could prove otherwise.

You have to understand that a nation is really a business ( or in a lesser sense a gang ( a group of indivisuals with huge sums of money and weapons stored in one place )) and you have to pay your fair share.

They gave you the option, that you did not know about. Like fine print in a contract.

A long shot thing would be to contact the person you recieve the items from, and ask them to some how revalue the items sent. That is a real long shot thing.
However that also defeats the purpose of express mail if that is how you recieved it.

Another idea, might be to send it to another nation you can hop skip across, and not pay taxes. Anyways that Queens land, and that is it.

I think in the end your going to eventually have to pay the fine.

[soop]

I need to think.  There must be something I can do.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't sound like any of this is the fault of whoever you bought from.  I'd say it's time to pay up and move on from an expensive lesson.

No, it's not their fault at all.  But charging £13.50 for "handling" a package?  When they've already been paid by me (via the retailer) for shipping?

Why the f*ck do I have to pay them for something I've already paid for?  The least I'm gonna do if I have to pay it is get them to deliver it to my door as many times as possible when I'm not there.

[SignOfZeta]

I don't think that actually is £60 worth of games, honestly...maybe.

BTW, "Fist of Dragon and Tiger" is Art of Fighting, not World Heroes.

I have no understanding of these issues you are having since I live in the US, but I sympathize. I'd say let these ones rot and next time use Hit Japan. They write like "$3" on the package, which is far less than the already low prices you actually pay for stuff from them.

Maybe they can mark it as "cake*"?


* In joke based on another thread.

[soop]

I don't think that actually is £60 worth of games, honestly...maybe.

BTW, "Fist of Dragon and Tiger" is Art of Fighting, not World Heroes.

I have no understanding of these issues you are having since I live in the US, but I sympathize. I'd say let these ones rot and next time use Hit Japan. They write like "$3" on the package, which is far less than the already low prices you actually pay for stuff from them.

Maybe they can mark it as "cake*"?


* In joke based on another thread.

I've read the thread

Yeah, unfortunately I think I'm actually gonna have to soak this one up and chalk it up to experience, but there's no way I can pay £13+ over the odds every time - it would make buying games prohibitively expensive.  Looks like it's here and Hit Japan from now on O___O

But honestly, there's now way I'm ever going to use that courier again if I can help it.  Way to lose custom.  I think it might also be redundant with SAL, which I can live with.