So 2 days ago my misses got a letter from Fedex saying she owes £40.69 £12 of it is a charge from fedex themselves the rest they claim is customs duty. Her sister who lives in the USA sent her a book from a company over there the book cost $14.99 which is around £11 our money. From reading it would seem that my misses can received a gift from outside the EU and not pay any duty on it so long as the item is less than £34.99. Yet fedex insist its worth higher value $27.99 and claiming an individual didn't send it the documents show the importers name as her sisters name. Fedex will not back down on this By my calculation even if duty was due on this which it shouldn't be it would only come to around £2. It seems fedex is trying to get away with daylight robbery and charging 4 times what the book cost. She has the book the invoice arrived after it was delivered.

Getting ready for the Customs Declaration Service READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/getting-ready-for-the-customs-declaration-service

Hi, Wondering if anyone can offer advise before we go into what will I am sure, become a battle for compensation. My business partner & I went to Indonesia in February to design and buy goods for our shop and online business. As it was our first trip doing this we took a couple of weeks to set up our contacts etc. We shipped the goods back in 6 crates. The goods arrived and were cleared through customer by a broker called Global Fallow. We organised pick up of the goods, it was very stringent and had to give the registration number and drivers details of the vehicle collecting as the goods were being held in a bonded warehouse owned by Hemisphere. When the driver arrived he was told they hadn't been released through customer. After a few phone calls this was sorted and he went again only to be told that they couldn't fond the pallets. This was 2 weeks ago. Apparently our goods were stored under a mezzanine floor and weren't fully visible to the CCTV. They have apparently contacted all haulage companies who came through. {over what time span I don't know, not sure if t was just the day or from when the goods arrived] and they have all said that they didn't have any extra pallets. They have done a warehouse sweep and can't find them either. This is not a small shipment, so I am finding it hard to understand how 6 pallets can disappear. Noe comes the fun bit. We called FSB who advised us to claim for loss of profit. We would have marked up x 5 and this would have covered the cost of our trip, the shipping etc. I know that they won't want to pay this so I am asking if anyone on here has any experience of this type of case. I am reading all sorts of things on google about consequential damages etc but it would be great if we could know how to word our letter to them so that we can speed things up. We timed it so that the goods would be on our shop floor for our very busy season, we are in Cornwall and this is our best selling time and now we have missed that and even if we get the money quickly the goods will not arrive in time to maximise the selling opportunities. Naturally we are very upset and cannot understand how this could have happened in what is meant to be a secure warehouse. Any help or advise will be much appreciated, Best Rebecca

Regarding Ebay. I purchased an item from an American seller. The total cost of the item including postage came to £31. I got a card through the door today from royal mail asking me to pay a customs charge of £14.10. When I looked at royal mail customs online it clearly states on there that goods purchased below £135 would be exempt from customs duty. What should I do!?

Hi My wife has received a letter today from Past Due Credit Solutions saying that HM Revenue and Customs have asked them to contact my wife on their behalf. It asks me to call a number and pay in full or if I am finding it difficult they can discuss whether I can spread the payments. It says all discussions and payments now need to be made through them. Any advice about this would be welcome as there is no way I can pay the amount that it says off and also I do not know if this debt is my wife's. Please advise? Thanks in advance.

I had a replacement tooth/crown sent over from US to UK to have fitted by a dentist here. I paid in full and an extra £12 Post Office charge for Customs clearance. It broke and two weeks later the US dentist sent me a replacement tooth/crown with no charge as it was under guarantee. He put" Replacement//Under guarantee" on the invoice and I later got a bill from FEDEX asking me for £30. Do I have to pay for replacement goods under guarantee and how does FEDEX justify that charge? They blame Customs. The invoice bill is unreadable and I had to phone the US Dentist to ask what it said. How can I be charged 11 pounds for a declaration of 40 dollars on the first tooth then 30 pounds for a zero amount on a second replacement tooth shipment which said that the tooth was under guarantee and a replacement. Thanks .

when i signed for the first time at Ingeus the other day they took my job search diary off me, i got told its to check if i have done enough. does this mean they'll contact every the employer of every job i apply for and write on the diary? :S

In October i returned from a holiday in the USA. My last port of call was Las Vegas. On my return to the UK, i noticed i had left my jacket in my hotel room in Las Vegas. The jacket was brand new and cost me £160.00 so i decided to get the hotel to return the jacket. I went into my local mail forwarding chain company (mail boxes) and asked them to collect the goods from the hotel in America. They stated no problem and arranged collection through Federal Express at a cost of £54.00 which i paid. Two weeks later i received my jacket, along with a bill for £20.00 customs charge. I ignored this as i had paid the price and customs does not apply as i had not purchased the jacket in America, but the UK. Three weeks later i receive a letter from a solicitor stating i will be hung, drawn, and quartered if i do not pay £20 within 7 days. I responded by email to the solicitor putting the account into dispute, and i received no reply. Yesterday i received another solicitors letter saying pay up in 7 days or its court. So i phone them and recorded the call. They asked me to send them again my original email, which i did. I then receive an email back as confirmation and that they were going to take instruction from their client. The point in all this is they are trying to charge me an extra £20 to put the item through customs, its a management charge and nothing to do with any VAT. I paid the charge quoted by Fed Ex to have my property returned at £54.00. Their was no mention i would have to pay a Fed Ex own charge to put the item through customs comment people

I have been watching customs programmes in Freeview channel 11 Pick TV recently and it has given me a lot of concern. Can anyone throw some light on the following. I must admit it is probably quite unlikely to happen but \I| just wondered what would happen in this case. I have noticed that sniffer dogs go round the passengers going through the nothing to declare exit but frequently people are pulled in because the dog has found something. This could be just a simple case of a taxi driver handing the case who had been taking drugs or some similar thing like that. I was wondering what would happen if a passenger put a light package in my coat pocket when I was in the toilet on the plane hoping to retrieve after I had gone through customs. If I was pulled in I would no doubt be asked if I had anything to declare and the answer of course would be no. Once the package was discovered obviously the customs officer isn't going to believe me when I tell them that the package is nothing to do with me. I could in fact be imprisoned for quite a long time. I would expect the package to be found on the scanner when they themselves went through the security but what if it was not detected? Am I being paranoid about this? I really don't know how things work at airports. I am travelling to Agadir in April and am getting quite concerned about this even the idea of a hotel porter or taxi driver handing my luggage. I am almost 70 years old now and obviously they are only trying to help but if they are used to taking drugs this could be spotted at the airport and cause me unnecessary delays.

dear all. I`m due to fly to Poland, country I came from with visit. I`m planning bring about 10 000 cigarettes back. Based on information on custom website there is no limit on them from eu country, but if someone have more than 800 they will be asking questions. which is ok, cigarettes are for myself, but burden to prove it is on me. Facts are as follow: last time I been to Poland in dec 2010 never been stopped by customs What kind of questions should I expect? how likely is that they will seize all my cigarettes? Should I go through red channel ? how can I prove that they for myself? I smoke about 40-50 a day, don`t know when will be my next trip to Poland where they costs a lot less than in the UK. I lived in the Uk for 8 years now. I don`t wan`t any trouble with customs at the airport. Thanks