Delivery problems!

[WolstonFlyer]

For anybody interested here is the link to the HMRC website with information about personal imports and internet purchases.

If the total import duty on an item is less than 9 pounds then the duty will not be charged.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm

[Simon Chambers]

Posted by WolstonFlyer on 26/02/2013 21:25:18:
For anybody interested here is the link to the HMRC website with information about personal imports and internet purchases.

If the total import duty on an item is less than 9 pounds then the duty will not be charged.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm

Almost...

 

All other goods

If you order or send purchased goods other than alcohol, tobacco, perfume and toilet water from a country outside the EU then you:

• don't have to pay Excise Duty
• may have to pay Customs Duty on goods with a value that exceeds £135
• will have to pay import VAT on goods with a value that exceeds £15

Note that on all goods from outside the EU, Customs Duty is waived if the amount of duty calculated is £9 or under.

-----

So................

If its under £15, you won't pay anything. Under £135 you pay VAT. Over £135, you will pay duty+VAT - except if the duty is under £9, then you just pay VAT. The value its calculated from, includes shipping costs.

On top of fees payable, you'll pay the admin fee for privilege of the courier company processing the HMRC fee for you...

Si.

Edited By Simon Chambers on 26/02/2013 21:33:45

[Erfolg]

Personal imports can have a value of up to £15 without attracting any charges.

The real issue for ordinary citizens that the government has awarded a number of companies a (lucrative) contract to process imports above this value, at charges which are punitive to the individual.

It is these very high charges which are an hidden tax, as not only do they attract Vat in the so called services, it is a nice little earner for the government as well as the organisation. Why not £100 or £1,000 per import as a charge? It is actions of this type which will encourage some to dishonest behaviours as the government is seen as dishonest. Or curtails activity as it is not worth doing anything.

From a whole series of UK governments who are supposably wedded to Free Trade, their actions suggests, that tax is the main priority.

The EU, in addition to the UK governments are wedded to high taxes. Just like many previous free trade areas, which become dependant on duties, taxes, privileges, they will go into, decline.

[Pete B]

Drifting off-topic here, folks. Following this thread is like watching a slow-motion car crash but whilst it draws inexorably to a conclusion, can we stick to discussing the problem which, IIRC, was an undelivered parcel?

Ta,

Pete

[Codename-John]

You will have a letter posted to you from parcel force within a couple of days, Inside that letter, ( it looks like a payslip from work ) will be your 16 digit reference number, you go onto the parcel force website, to where it says pay my customs charge, put in that 16 digit number, card details etc and it gives you dates which you can pick for your delivery

[Simon Chambers]

I've phoned up ParcelForce before to pay my customs duty without the 16 digit number - only my tracking number. I just used the excuss that the letter hadn't arrived and might be lost in the post... I would imagine saying that you lost the letter too would work!

SI.

[andy watson]

I have had a similar issue to this with one of my early HK orders. The packge got picked up by customs, and ParcelForce- with their usual efficiency- managed to deliver the notification of the fees payable to our next door neighbours. Unfortunately we were in a boundary dispute with the neighbours- so they didn't bother passing on the note.

I vaguely remember HK not really being interested until the 28 day delivery time elapsed, and being stuck without any information about who the UK courier was. In the end I copied the tracking number off the HK order and started pasting it into various courier company tracking systems until I found it with parcel force and was informed it had been sat in UK customs for weeks waiting for me to pay the bill. On the posiive side I kicked up a storm about their incompetence and managed to get the £13 fee waived!

To my mind there is no question that the problem here rests with the courier, not HK- but I do agree with the OP that it isn't always as easy as it might be to identify which warehouse you are shopping from- especially if you don't shop there often.

[Martian]

this is like reading war and peace

[Del Wheatley]

It is but i have learnt something from it,i ordered my toucano motor/esc from what i thought was the uk warehouse and thought the 3 week delivery was a bit exessive but since reading this thread and following some of the how to check your order tips i find i ordered from Hkong.

I agree that parcel force are the problem here but H king need to sort their site out as it seems far to many people get caught out the same way with where they actually order from.

[Erfolg]

I think you have to be wary when ordering anything from outside of the EU, as a personal import.

If the goods cost £100, and the postage £20, the value of the goods as far as customs are concerned are £120.

If the handling charges were £10.

There is a new value of £130 which the VAT is charged on, which is now £26, creating a total cost to you of £156. This is about a 50% increase on the original cost.

It is easy to see why ordering from a EU retailer who only has a modest increase above the apparent Non EU cost makes a lot of sense.

It is worth remembering that for personal imports below £15, the cost of postage is not considered part of the value, for VAT purposes etc. Keep below £15 and live with a 2-4 week delivery time.

[scott cuppello]

Ok, I have looked at this order and this is how things went......

the OP placed an order for a Sonic 64 from the HONG KONG warehouse on the 3/2/13.......the order was packed and despatched by CHINA POST (marked quite clearly in the order history and must have been chosen when ordered?!) and a TRACKING NUMBER was issued which was present at all times in the OP's order history and therefore could be tracked.....this would have given a strong indication that this order had not been placed via the UK Warehouse.....it turned up in the UK and sat at the Parcelforce Hub, at some point a representative of HMRC decided duty was to be paid, it was then sent to a local Parcelforce depot waiting for duty to be paid (therefore there could not have been an attempted delivery for this item, a letter is despatched by the local depot containing the 16 digit number to make duty payments)......where it now sits.

So, we did everything we were asked efficiently and quickly.......can I point out that UK customers are unique in that they have FOUR Warehouses to choose from, as many customers use all four, there is no reason for us to have ever believed this order was unique in any way.

I will hold my hands up and say that the ordering system for those only wanting to order from the UK could be clearer and to that end, we are working on a "Buying Guide" and also a re-design of the Location Tab to make this clearer....however......in our defence, thousands of people use the site(s) without an issue......this is a very recent problem for us that has never happened before, so I am sorry if anybody has been confused, we are working on making it better.

Finally, may I make clear for the last time that orders generated from a particular warehouse will be despatched from the same warehouse ONLY.........if the tracking system had been used in this instance then it would have been very obvious that something was wrong as the item was being despatched from China not the UK....it would have said so very clearly......if the OP had contacted CS earlier by using the information contained in his order system, we may have prevented this from happening in the first place.

Hopefully this subject will now be laid to rest.

Edited By Scott Cuppello - HobbyKing on 27/02/2013 12:20:28

Edited By Scott Cuppello - HobbyKing on 27/02/2013 12:23:47

[Paul Marsh]

I know what I did. Actually did a mock buy again. When I click on uk and go through the process. When I'm about to pay, it goes "global" hence the problem. As said before, Hobbyking can forget my custom for ever and will endeaver never to purchase again.

I did start on the Uk side, but must've gone throught the global side. As everything stays in $$$'s, then I won't know, unless I see the small icon change. Sometimes hard if using a smaller screen(tablet, etc.

Can't be too hard, can it? Ordered internationally from Ebay, etc, both from USA and China, paid customs ok. Interesting to note, if using Ebay.com, the £ is $, a dead givaway that you're on another site.

Oh,well, their loss, considering how much I spend on the hobby each year (see my model collection) Rather go to Al's/Inwoods, etc as their websites are in logical order.

Thanks for all the comments. Paid my customs charge today, so hopefull will arrive. Mods are welcome to close this thread after this entry.