I have encountered this same scam. THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW.
Section 104 and 105 of the Postal Services Act 2000 clearly state that they cannot hold up the post and it cannot be held to ransom for fees (lien) payable. Section 83 and 84 state the offence carries a penalty of up to six months imprisonment.
I challenged their legal department:
Lynn Gawthorpe (Parcelforce legal at the HQ) 01908687000
and was able to pick up my parcel without paying a penny.
The upshot is that they are legally able to charge a fee for paying your Customs bill, BUT they are not allowed to hold your mail to ransom until you pay it. They can only go through the standard civil procedure to obtain the debt.
I am currently looking into taking criminal action against the directors of Parcelforce for instructing their employees to break the law.
If you wish to join in, please text my mobile on 0790 25526777
Posted by: Mark at August 22, 2007 17:12
I'm preparing myself for the zombie invasion, rule number 1 - Cardio
This one keeps popping up every six months or so but I will only give them the item, without payment, when directed to do so.
Thing is if people push this too much then Royal Mail may wash their hands of all underpaid items with regard to customs charges and then these moaners will have to deal direct with HM Customs and Excise. Undoubtedly this will cause more delays and hassle for which RM will be blamed for.
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts. Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility. If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
From what I can see, this isn't a RM scam, it's just a flaw in the UK customs charging procedures. Maybe they'd prefer to pick them up from an airport or port in future, and pay the charge there?
As I understood it - we are the appointed agents for HM Customs - as such we pay the import charges and recover that cost plus the handling charge from the customer. All uncollected and refused items are returned to HM Customs for a refund. I always used to tell customers that there was a contact number on the item if they had a problem with the charges.
dvbuk55 wrote:As I understood it - we are the appointed agents for HM Customs - as such we pay the import charges and recover that cost plus the handling charge from the customer. All uncollected and refused items are returned to HM Customs for a refund. I always used to tell customers that there was a contact number on the item if they had a problem with the charges.
There is IIRC its Royal Mails Customer Service Number 08457 740 740.
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts. Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility. If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
There is a seperate number for Customs on the label (020) also the items all have an individual reference number. Not too many people complain, I normally say they've been very unlucky as apparently only 1 bag in 10 are checked. I must admit its very embarrassing to charge people eg £9.10, £1.10 VAT & £8 RM Handling Fee.
We've only just found out that Customs stuff paid for online is'nt actually recorded anywhere, well not in my office as the D.O. does'nt keep the CLEO's, so according to Rev Pro we are now in defecit..........we bought this up with Rev Pro last year but of course they have forgotten
So keep on moving, moving, moving your feet
Keep on shuf-shuf-shuffling to this ghost dance beat
Just keep on walking down never ending streets
k66yla wrote:There is a seperate number for Customs on the label (020) also the items all have an individual reference number. Not too many people complain, I normally say they've been very unlucky as apparently only 1 bag in 10 are checked. I must admit its very embarrassing to charge people eg £9.10, £1.10 VAT & £8 RM Handling Fee.
We've only just found out that Customs stuff paid for online is'nt actually recorded anywhere, well not in my office as the D.O. does'nt keep the CLEO's, so according to Rev Pro we are now in defecit..........we bought this up with Rev Pro last year but of course they have forgotten
I also find that embarrassing, im sure the handling fee doubled at some point last year
I have had an instance this year where someone has got their wife to send them something that belonged to them(the guy lived in jersey) and customs hit him with a charge, over £20 inc the RM handling
something i was looking at suggesting was rm group employees be exempt from the handling fee.
would at least be some form of staff benifit
as an aside all carriers charge a fee of some sort.
to my knowledge dhl is cheapest at £2 or 2% whichever is higher.
some like UPS invoice people after the item is delivered
way i see it is if people have an issue then they should approach HMRC given they release the item and allow
carriers to charge as they like
