I am not expert in these matters but a thought came to me. all items collected by any carrier is where they get the money. so all items from other countries are being done for nothing. All the fees at this end are applied by Customs before any carrier sees the item, they might have a price they are informed must go on, but Customs are now in control of the item and could decide to only charge VAT and not any clearance fee. So you now have an item that HM Cutoms has taken added there charges to and then passed on. Who is paying to collect from them and take it to you. Personally I think that 8, 10 even 13 pounds to do that compared to some of the standard charges these companies do charge is accually not that bad. If you take a step back for a moment and look at it from any parcel carriers point of view, I am not suprised that they are all trying to get somthing for doing all the work at this end.

I buy off e-bay all the time and have never been charged , why? simple click the UK only button on the left hand side Parcelforce are not the ones who set the charges - that's HM customs Parcelforce are not the ones who even send the letter , its on their headed note paper but not sent by them. If a Policeman turns up at your door , without a serch warrent , you have the right to send them away. If a customs officer turns up at your door you do not have the right to refuse entry - its for the secuirity of the country HM customs are heading towards 100% of items coming into the country being checked, to stop bombs and other prohibated good comming in. therefore your item is no longer in the mail system. you can either pay for any your VAT ect before customs get it ( no idea how) and then pay 15+ to get it sent from customs to your house or pay the courriour at the cheaper rate

Parcelforce do pay out if the fault it theirs. but read the T+C's as many things are not included if a Post office take extra and its not a coverd item then you need to get your money back from them as you have been miss-sold this extra.