I know this is a very old thread but it was relevant and maybe someone still looks at it? I just got through a letter today from lovely parcelforce telling me that I owe VAT and their fee for paying this VAT. It would be bad enough if I bought the items, and then had to pay their fee on top of VAT...but this was a gift sent to me from my best friend in the States. I am completely perplexed by this as she has sent me gifts since Oct. 2008 for my birthday and Christmas - none of which was ever subject to VAT or this bizarre fee. I was suprised that the fees are calculated on such low amounts like £15 for purchases and £34 for gifts?? That is crazy when you can sell something to the states and be within $800. Seems like a crock that the other way around, even for gifts, is crazy low. So UK gov is making money on people who are apparently stupid enough to have friends elsewhere and are kind enough to send you a gift? Really? Should the government profit because your friend lives elsewhere, hasn't for some bizarre reason purchased a gift in the UK!, and had the audacity to think to send you one? Worse still PF holds my gift ransom - on the letter says they won't dispute the charges and I can write somewhere for a refund. So my guess is, is that even if I am stupid enough to pay VAT on my own gift, just so I can get it, then dispute the VAT after the fact, win, I'll never see that PF fee again. Why should I, receiving a gift, never selected the shipping company, never asked PF to do anything on my behalf - BECAUSE I DIDN'T ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH THEM! - pay them for this service? Can anyone answer this as this is this biggest crock I've come across on both the gov and PF. The amount levels, that it is a gift, the inability to discuss this BEFORE, that I didn't contract PF, that the gov [removed] fining people not in the UK, for not being in the UK. I mean I know Americans can be a little insular but this one takes the cake in the UK - fining the good Brits for having friends who don't live, and therefore don't buy, here.

thank you!! : )

Hello, I am writing about a company Parcel2Go...the number of issues with them grows and the worst is that you can never reach anyone other than online and it just goes so badly with what seems almost intentional poor service - if they can act like they don't understand, it never has to be remedied? But the reason I come on here is one in particular that I am sure cannot be right, though I cannot get anyone to address it - with intelligence and common sense as the landscape from which to work... 2 years ago I received bad service from Yodel, and this was commissioned through Parcel2Go as a comparison website. As they are the mediator, all complaints, issues, queries must go through them...not much was ever really resolved and the parcel which was delayed getting to it's recipient, I eventually picked up and personally delivered, 2 hours away. Seriously. Parcel2Go offered a 10 pound goodwill gesture for my experience. I am sure they are compensated by Yodel, but I'll never know that. I'll explain that any goodwill gesture goes into a pre-pay account for you to use with Parcel2Go (and only Parcel2Go - so it is a blackmail goodwill gesture that has you continue to use your bad experience money, with them). That's fine and I did. I also since replenished my account, paid for other shipments, and on and on. Fast forward 2 years later, and after a number of times working with Parcel2Go, and some of them going very badly, I said - please may I exit from working with you. I'd like to cash out my account and have it returned to my bank account. They reported that any goodwill gesture would be forfeit and I would receive the balance. I said, well I received something 2 years ago, used it and now the money in this account is mine, that surely cannot be subject to this 'policy'. No, they contended with lack of understanding bordering on insanity - they cannot refund you money that was paid in goodwill. I explained, again, the money in my account was no longer part of a goodwill gesture. I wanted to know that when I was refunded after leaving, that something given 2 years ago, was not going to be minus from my account. Apart from the fact that a goodwill gesture is not often seen as a loan, to be paid back if you should ever leave a company, when it is used - you can't hold the person ransom, nor their bank account. I explained this to the person, online, and again they contested it is P2G's policy. I said, so if my pre-paid account was zero - would you debit my bank account for this? No, answer and round we go. Finally, I wrote to some names of higher ups at the company I found online. I was responded to and again, after explaining very detailed, that the goodwill gesture was long since used and now they are holding my money ransom, I received the following message from same evasive message about policy, and not how it was corrupted or misused. Please someone tell me I am not insane with this, that it is illegal, immoral and that something stinks of intentional incompetence so that areas of sensitivity don't have to be addressed? I feel like I am losing it with something that seems rather simple, but has been over-complicated by evasiveness and/or incompetence in general reading comprehension.