Royal Mail Scam

[PAWUK]

Hi All

 

This is mostley directed to the UK as a warning to anyone ordering anything from overseas , just been stung by a Royal mail scam the mob would be proud of.

 

Ordered a AC powerpack for my laptop from a US company ($36 approx £20) , had a note pushed through my letterbox telling me the post office had a parcel that had a customs charge on it of £11.30..... they wouldnt let me look at the parcel untill I paid upfront.

 

The sticker on the side says IMPORT DUTY £0.00

EXCISE DUTY £0.00

VAT £3.30 (FAIR ENOUGTH)

 

OTHER

ROYAL MAIL INTERNATIONAL

HANDELING FEE £8.00...WHAT!!!

 

The package had the correct postage from the US so no problem with that

 

The basic upshot is they can hold back any package over £18 and charge this fee (from outside the EU).

Edited August 6, 2008 by PAWUK

[Mat@MDI-Digital]

"The sticker on the side says IMPORT DUTY £0.00"

 

well, It may say £0, but it sounds exactly like import duty, this sometimes happens when you order stuff from outiside the EU. Its not a scam, its been like this for as long as I remember.

 

Its a risk you take though, be thankfull you didnt get charged on an item that was worth £1000s, the tax on that would really piss you off! BTW, if you mark the item as a "gift", it has more of a chance on making it though without any charges.

[PAWUK]

"The sticker on the side says IMPORT DUTY £0.00"

 

well, It may say £0, but it sounds exactly like import duty, this sometimes happens when you order stuff from outiside the EU. Its not a scam, its been like this for as long as I remember.

 

Its a risk you take though, be thankfull you didnt get charged on an item that was worth £1000s, the tax on that would really piss you off! BTW, if you mark the item as a "gift", it has more of a chance on making it though without any charges.

 

It was Just me having abit of a rant...

 

Ive ordered stuff before but this was the first time Ive been hit and to be honest it never even occured to me.

 

What I was trying to get at is for others who are probably in the same boat hunting the net for the cheapest price they can find to make sure they consider the extra cost that may come there way.

 

And the item was maked as a gift...but they still pulled it

 

Anyway leason learned

[Jim Mann]

The post office does seem to have gone overtly officious recently, spending more time checking against some obscure set of parameters. I sent a birthday card with a badge on first class but because the badge made the envelope thicker than 5mm, the recipient had to pay an excess of something like 10p and then a £1 admin charge. I didn't even know the rules had changed. The post office just made a few hundred quid extra this week because the stamps used to send out a newsletter didn't cover "large letter".

 

I have had to pay excesses for import duty before so that doesn't sound too unusual, That was when you used to have to buy RPC's on a disk via Fedex rather than downloading them...that said, its usually just the VAT that you pay, not admin.

 

JM