Airmail Parcels stopped @ Mount Pleasant for Duty & V.A.

norbert · Post by **norbert** » 24 Apr 2008, 08:40

Firstly , I do Ebay & Amazon and I've no problems whatsoever with the Service and I'm acutely aware of what goes on.

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with Joe Public playing Merry Hell as they've had to pay duty and VAT ,and of course it would be the staff's fault and RM !.

Some people state on their listings that they won't falseify the value , nor declare something as a gift so don't ask , fair enough ;and the recipient is responsible for paying taxes .

VAT = 17.5 % , DUTY =5% + Parcel surcharge of Â£8 , factor all that in , is it a bargain or not ?, this I got from Yahoo Answers

bandit650 · Post by **bandit650** » 24 Apr 2008, 08:50

When people come in and pick up custom charge packets at the callers they are always kicking up at the charge Â£8.00,what are we supposed to do about it we explain that the charge is for handeling and that because people are not as honest as they should be is why they have to pay for it ,because of that RM have to have duties in place to deal with that work load,we advise that in future to try and purchase thier goods in the EC!

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 24 Apr 2008, 20:42

Royal Mail could save itself a lot of trouble by abolishing the Â£8 charge and either (a) delivering the items without any VAT being collected or (b) handing the items over to Customs for them to deliver and collect the VAT.

norbert · Post by **norbert** » 24 Apr 2008, 23:12

bandit650 wrote:When people come in and pick up custom charge packets at the callers they are always kicking up at the charge Â£8.00,what are we supposed to do about it we explain that the charge is for handeling and that because people are not as honest as they should be is why they have to pay for it ,because of that RM have to have duties in place to deal with that work load,we advise that in future to try and purchase thier goods in the EC!

I'd put that Â£8 charge as a "fine " , you'd get stopped if you came off a boat or a plane and people accept that , two , noone would be complaining if they took advantage of the strong pound and got something at a discount from the states , they'd be bragging about it if it went straight through .

Those parcels will get stopped , people aren't going to fall for the less than the Â£18 number and all those "gifts" from Auntie Joan in the USA that's been tried thousands of times before .

That's a interesting point about letting Customs & Excise collect everything , I wonder if they'd be so gobby with their officers coming round for a "chat " ?