What is the correct way of receiving goods from America without the risk of getting slapped with an administration fee from the mail handler? Can the sender pay the duty in advance?
Pinball info
Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Import Duty
- Thread starter Carl Spiby
- Start date
You can't get out of it. If they pull it you have to pay.
The only way is to ask the sender to put a lesser value in the customs label, the only thing with that is if it goes missing you can only claim for what's wrote on the label.
Better just to cross your fingers and hope it gets through.
Or have a holiday in the States and bring back loads of stuff yourself.
The only way is to ask the sender to put a lesser value in the customs label, the only thing with that is if it goes missing you can only claim for what's wrote on the label.
Better just to cross your fingers and hope it gets through.
Or have a holiday in the States and bring back loads of stuff yourself.
OP
OP
I was sure I'd seen packages from overseas with "Duty Paid" on them but maybe that was done this end.
RM and Parcel Farce are robbing gits for charging £10 for sending you a letter.
RM and Parcel Farce are robbing gits for charging £10 for sending you a letter.
Yeah Parcleforce put the mockers on it with there handling charge.
Ahh interesting. Was just about to post a new thread, but I'll jump in here...
I ordered a bunch of pinball stuff from the USA, chose shipping by FedEx. Was expensive, but really happy with the three day delivery. Was less happy when the VAT invoice turned up a week or so later. Not at the VAT charges (can't argue with that) but the cheeky 'administration' charge. So I paid the VAT and sent them an email:
One day later I get reply:
This was almost disappointingly easy?! Not sure it will work as well with Royal Mail as they tend to hold imported goods hostage until 'administration' paid, but I really doubt that these hidden 'administration' charges would hold up in law. If it's a known and fixed fee, they should surely be adding it onto the shipping costs up front. Not trying to backdoor another fee into the shipping costs.
I ordered a bunch of pinball stuff from the USA, chose shipping by FedEx. Was expensive, but really happy with the three day delivery. Was less happy when the VAT invoice turned up a week or so later. Not at the VAT charges (can't argue with that) but the cheeky 'administration' charge. So I paid the VAT and sent them an email:
One day later I get reply:
This was almost disappointingly easy?! Not sure it will work as well with Royal Mail as they tend to hold imported goods hostage until 'administration' paid, but I really doubt that these hidden 'administration' charges would hold up in law. If it's a known and fixed fee, they should surely be adding it onto the shipping costs up front. Not trying to backdoor another fee into the shipping costs.
Good for you Paul.
Never seen anything like that before.
Never seen anything like that before.
so you still owe them 25p
I think I paid £50 ish for my CPR playfield. But didn't pay a bean for the backglass. Luck of the draw perhaps ?
God I'd forgot about bleddy duty when I ordered me backglass
£109 for my FG pf from the states, I sh*t you not!!!
I think the people in customs have got an old fruit machine and they've replaced the fruit symbols with random numbers.
When an item arrives, they pull the lever and charge the customer whatever number rolls in
When an item arrives, they pull the lever and charge the customer whatever number rolls in
Ask a mate who's travelling to the states
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2011
- Messages
- 11,336
- Alias
- Ive
Done that before - had a ton of stuff in hand luggage .....got pulled going thru security .....they were very interested in my 'suspicious' looking collection of wires, LEDs, shooter rods, etc etc. Had to explain they were pinball machine parts and not parts for some sort of explosive device
Best way is a US relative or friend who can repackage it all as a 'birthday present'
that's what i do. my friend repacks it all and marks it as a gift worth $20 and i never get any problemsBest way is a US relative or friend who can repackage it all as a 'birthday present'
Oh yeah! I'll let them write me another letter if they really want it.
Breaking the law...breaking the law!!!!!
Bad boy bad boy what ya gona do,what ya gona do when they come for u!!!!
That seriously sucks. 
I'm expecting a charge coming my way as the tracking has been stopped since the 31st and last time that happened was cuz customs had it grrr
I got had buying parts from Classic Arcades Inc. About $75 including postage (you pay VAT on the shipping too). So, £44 became £63, almost half as much again.
But to answer @Carl Spiby's question I'm pretty sure there are delivery packages available from the likes of FedEx and UPS where the import duty and a handling fee are all paid in advance such that the package goes straight to your door. Problem is paying for this premium service (because the courier is doing all the arsing around with HMRC) is likely to cost just as much paying £9 and the VAT to Royal Mail for doing the same job once it's arrived here.
Unfortunately for our very US-centric hobby ordering from the US is an expensive business, especially since the massive increases in international USPS postage charges for US sellers that are passed on to the buyer.
It's hard and heavy reading but all the details for import duty and VAT are here:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/tax-and-duty.htm
But to answer @Carl Spiby's question I'm pretty sure there are delivery packages available from the likes of FedEx and UPS where the import duty and a handling fee are all paid in advance such that the package goes straight to your door. Problem is paying for this premium service (because the courier is doing all the arsing around with HMRC) is likely to cost just as much paying £9 and the VAT to Royal Mail for doing the same job once it's arrived here.
Unfortunately for our very US-centric hobby ordering from the US is an expensive business, especially since the massive increases in international USPS postage charges for US sellers that are passed on to the buyer.
It's hard and heavy reading but all the details for import duty and VAT are here:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/tax-and-duty.htm
You can buy items from the American amazon site and you have the option to prepay the import duties so no surprises when the postman knocks on your door. Purchased furbies for £21 including postage and fees when they were selling at over £40 here.
Still a waste as the kids only played with them for one day.
Sent from my Windows Phone using Tapatalk
Still a waste as the kids only played with them for one day.
Sent from my Windows Phone using Tapatalk
I don't object to paying fair taxes, but I feel that charging import duty and/or VAT on the shipping prices as well is a massive p***-take.
The last parts I ended up getting from Marcos almost cost me double the initial price by the time i'd paid the taxes and the fee for them to collect said taxes.
The last parts I ended up getting from Marcos almost cost me double the initial price by the time i'd paid the taxes and the fee for them to collect said taxes.
Ruddy effin' Furby Boom. My 5-year old daughter wanted one so bad after seeing them on YouTube (the first thing she'd ever really taken a specific shine too). She eventually spent all her birthday money (£60) but the disappointment was palpable when it transpired they don't understand a blithering word you say, they just occasionally make the odd noise back in response to any noise you make. The videos were very misleading as my daughter genuinely thought it was going to be an intelligent and interactive learning toy. More to the point so did I at that price. Integration with the iPad app was nice but didn't make up for it. Needless to say this was the first and last "Christmas Toy Of The Year" we've ever bought in 11 years of having kids. Don't believe they hype and always try before you buy.
