UK customs clearance myths busted

[Buttner]

I've read a few posts on here of people asking for ETAs for items ordered from outside the EU which are awaiting customs clearance. There have been varying timescales that have been thrown around so I thought I'd shed more light, given my personal experience. It's not going to be reflective of everyone's experience but will be pretty close.

I ordered a couple of items from China, as recently as 1.5-2 weeks ago. The first item was valued at $15 and tracked into Heathrow Worldwide DC at 10.30am on the 27th. The postie attempted delivery the very next morning but I was out so I collected it this morning. So within 24 hours of the item being checked in at the Heathrow distribution centre, it was at my doorstep. Pretty impressive but it should be taken into account that the value of this item was low enough not to attract any VAT/duty.

The second item I ordered was shipped a few days later. This is valued at around $45 so will likely attract duty/VAT and Royal Mail fees. It was tracked in at Heathrow Worldwide DC at 11.44am this afternoon and was delivered to me the next working day.