Just had this reply from DHL Complaints department. Note that she has not actually addressed my complaint... "Good Afternoon, I have put a file on this to stop shipment and get this returned to sender. This is just a request and not guaranteed. you will receive a call from our back line time within 4 hours. Kind Regards Claire Farry" "Some questions you may have: I’ve already paid for delivery – why is DHL invoicing me? This invoice is not for delivery charges. The invoice relates purely to import duties and other applicable government taxes such as VAT that were levied by Customs when your shipment arrived in the country. DHL paid these duties on your behalf in order to comply with Customs regulations and to ensure your goods were delivered without delay. Unfortunately, we are not able to tell you in advance of these costs. Weren’t these costs included when I paid for my goods? Retailers (internet or catalogue) will normally include advice about import duties on their shipping information pages. You may wish to check the Terms and Conditions of your purchase. This wipes out all of the saving I made by buying online! Unfortunately this is sometimes the case. Products sold by companies outside of the UK may appear cheaper compared to UK prices because they do not include taxes. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) advises buyers to check for additional costs before purchasing goods from overseas. You can find useful information and advice at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk"
And very expensive for my buyers! I sort my own now and save them lots. I think Royal Mail / Parcel Force charge £12 - import duty on single items and vat will be charged from America too, best getting an importer for stuff from the states :Angelic:
Do you know one then? A US ebay seller has a few NOS gearbox bits for my BSA but I'm waiting to see how much I get stiffed for duty on the first one...
^ Obviously depends on various factors, including whole costs. I just bought 2 stick coils, even with all the above I got 2 4 1 compared to UKprices.
Just picked up an ebay USA NOS BSA gearbox component from Royal Mail. Seller declared the total value to be $19.95,so nothing at all to pay. I shall definitely be buying from him again.:Happy::Cigar:
My company does a lot of repairs from outside the EU so we have an EOIR number which means we don't pay VAT or Duty on good that are temporarily imported to be fixed and then returned. We quote this number, fill in some forms, and business continues. This is the law. Recently UPS tried to chase us for £180 import duty and tax. I gave them our details again, even though they have them on file, and sent the forms off. They contacted me again for the payment so I gave them the forms again. The third time I told them where to stick it. They tried this 5 times before they gave up. I fired off a very snotty email to the right department and it was delivered the next day. Didn't stop them sending me an "invoice" which got filed in the circular file. They had no legal ground to do this as we complied with the law for imports and they didn't. I swear they just make it up and see who will pay because they don't know any better.
I appreciate that,although as I paid with PayPal I think I'd get a full refund if it didn't arrive. Not too concerned about a gear being damaged in the post..unless the 747 fell on it it would probably still be usable.
okay finally got the bill from the robbing scumbags parcelfarce inline with the import-ripoff. My items were just under $1,000 a little over £700. The bill was £187.81p which I'm feeling rather raw over but other than myself there really is no one to blame. Downside being that I'm fed up pouring my earnings into the tax avoiding pocket of the government & will think twice about any commerce with USA.
