Billed for import duty on item of £15.22 by Royal Mail

[cdb]

I recievied a card through the letter box the other day saying I had a packet awaiting collection but there was a customs charge of £12.26.

 

The packet was 2 blu-ray discs on a buy one get one free offer from Amazon.com in the USA, although the packet arrived from Germany:?

I thought there were no import charges from the EU full stop. As the tax has already been paid at their end.

 

Amazon in there infinite wisdom mark the customs declaration with the full price of the 2 discs, so $40 (£20ish)

 

I paid £15.22 for them so there should be no import duty on them full stop.

 

I've looked at the customs website and it says there is no duty on items under £18 and that if you need to work out the value of an item, method one (of six) is the price paid buy the buyer to the selled. £15.22 in this case.

It also says there is a "waiver of amounts of customs duty not exceeding 10 euro (£7) on small consignments"

 

The Postal services act 2000 says

 

Section 83 Interfering with the mail: postal operators

(1) A person who is engaged in the business of a postal operator commits an offence if, contrary to his duty and without reasonable excuse, he—

(a) intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post, or

104 Inviolability of mails

(1) Subsection (2) applies to—

(a) a postal packet,

(b) anything contained in a postal packet, and

© a mail-bag containing a postal packet,

which is not the property of the Crown but which is in the course of transmission by post.

(2) Anything to which this subsection applies shall have the same immunity from—

(a) examination, or seizure or detention, under a relevant power conferred by virtue of this Act or any other enactment,

(b) seizure under distress or in execution,

© in Scotland, any diligence, and

(d) retention by virtue of a lien,

as it would have if it were the property of the Crown

 

A lien from what I gather is the right over anothers property due to a debt charged on it.

 

The biggest part of the £12.26 charge is £9 by Royal Mail.

 

 

 

I just wany my packet with no charges as I am entitled to. Do I have a hope?

 

I tried ringing a manager at the Royal mail today but he was quite ignorrant and hung up on me.

 

What other course of action do I have. I refuse to pay the charge and hope I might get a refund.

 

Can I go to the police and quote the Postal services act and Customs and have them charged with interferring with the mail and fraud as they are trying to make money out of nothing.

 

I can see me just saying send the packet back and stuff your charges, but I shouldn't have to do that.

 

Any comments appreciated.

Thank you

[cdb]

No comments on this?

[1stlifeline]

The charge you have for customs is nothing to do with Royal Mail. The customs and excise department put that charge on when they do the checks. They then pass the item to Royal Mail and they in turn have to collect the payment and return it to customs. Thats where the Royal Mail admin charge comes in. The charge is high for the amount of work Royal Mail have to do but I have seen parcels come into the office where the custome duty is only a pound or so but Royal Mail are not allowed to pass it to the customer without payment as they are carefully monitored and have to send the money. Its just your luck with customs, some items are checked, some are not. But it is them that put the charge on, once its there Royal Mail cant delete it.

[1stlifeline]

I could be wrong on this but as the packet origonally came from the USA I think the limit is £18 you can import without duty. It dosnt matter that it came via Germany and the cost is taken by customs as being whatever the sender has written.

Its also not a case of Royal Mail 'interfereing with mail' as they are only folowing the law as it stands with Customs and Excise. This is not calssed as interfering with mail, they are not allowed to pass it on to you till you pay the duty.

[mcjohnson]

The declared value of the shipment is not necessarily the price you paid for it, but the commercial value of the consignment. This stops people falsely declaring the value to avoid HMCE charges and duty. Thus the commercial value of your package would be the full retail cost of both Blu-Rays.

 

One predicts that Amazon USA ship from the US to Germany, where discs are held to supply any European orders - more than likely in a bonded warehouse. Once the order is received they are then shipped from Germany, but the import doesn't take place until the consignment reaches it's final destination country, in this case the UK.

 

You should check your contract with Amazon US and see whether there is any reference to liability for import duty. Otherwise, it's the Queens money!

[ScarletPimpernel]

I used to buy a fair amount of stuff from overseas. Anything that involved Royal Mail invariably ended up with both duty and a RM admin fee, whilst items coming by couriers such as Fedex, TNT etc. more often than not did not attract duty. Where courier packages attracted duty, and the courier added an admin fee, I always sent a cheque for the duty only, and suggested that the courier looked to their clients (i.e. the sender), for the admin fee, since I had no contract with them. Worked every time. I had some letters from a DCA employed by Fedex, but they backed down as soon as they were asked to prove that there was a contract, or that I had asked Fedex to pay the duty on my behalf and agreed to their fee.

[Intruder08]

Where courier packages attracted duty, and the courier added an admin fee, I always sent a cheque for the duty only, and suggested that the courier looked to their clients (i.e. the sender), for the admin fee, since I had no contract with them. Worked every time. I had some letters from a DCA employed by Fedex, but they backed down as soon as they were asked to prove that there was a contract, or that I had asked Fedex to pay the duty on my behalf and agreed to their fee.

 

I had a similar problem where I had to pay VAT and duty on the courier charges - so a £50 purchase with £80 courier cost had a £37 charge added on later. I queried it, it went to a DCA where I said the charge was in dispute, and Fedex waived the charges because, in their words, they hadn't sent me the right documentation explaining them. I was never going to pay their £8 admin fee but I can't believe I can order anything on Fedex again without them demanding payment upfront... did they keep on delivering your stuff even though they knew you wouldn't pay?

 

I switched to Post and so far everything has come through almost as quick but with no duty at all. I figured even if there was duty, it'd be on the £16 postal charge rather than the £80 courier charge... I can't see me paying their admin fee though, isn't that their responsibility? Just as I don't expect a fuel-surcharge and pirate-repulsion fee to be added...

[ForestChav]

 

Are these "admin fees" legal then? Because they look like it costs a lot less for RM to do this than they charge the customer for, £9 RM handling fee on a £12.26 bill - so them charging almost 3x the actual fee to pay the fee.

[barracad]

 

Are these "admin fees" legal then? Because they look like it costs a lot less for RM to do this than they charge the customer for, £9 RM handling fee on a £12.26 bill - so them charging almost 3x the actual fee to pay the fee.

 

It is a fixed fee per item which is why it seems excessive on a fairly low charge, but it would be the same £9 fee whether the duty to pay is £5 or £50, as the handling fee is charged to cover their costs for the work they do on behalf of HMRC, collecting the duty etc.

[ForestChav]

It is a fixed fee per item which is why it seems excessive on a fairly low charge, but it would be the same £9 fee whether the duty to pay is £5 or £50, as the handling fee is charged to cover their costs for the work they do on behalf of HMRC, collecting the duty etc.

Yes but surely it doesn't cost them £9 to pay HMRC a fee.

[barracad]

Yes but surely it doesn't cost them £9 to pay HMRC a fee.

 

No, but it's not a case of them just processing payments - it's all the manual handling which is involved. This is from the HMRC website:

 

They handle packages for customs examination and, if required, open and re-pack them. The Post Office will also store packages if customs need to make enquiries; for example, when the contents have not been declared properly by the sender.

 

but I imagine that is not an exhaustive list of the work which is involved.