Random Rants
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I have been told the customs were told to "tighten up" for the Olympics for some reason, and they have not slacked off yet.
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Ha ha, probably.
My shipment was released with charges last night, and there has been no further update since…..quality 24 hour service that Parcelfarce offer
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Not always. For instance in Germany and Switzerland the paperwork is often ignored and the customs clerks go to the WWW and look at the list price of an item and charge the duty on that price. It does not matter what the paperwork accompanying the shipment says. You pay what they say you pay or you don't get the shipment. Because guess what? Some people underdeclare…...I know, it really does happen.....
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Giles is as knowledgeable as we always know him. What you describe neatly sums up a totally ghastly experience I had with German customs, who absolutely ridiculously wanted to overcharge me for some used jeans I got from no other than our Corporal Clegg. They refused to believe they were used and calculated charges at the very highest price they could find. Customs fees would have been several times the nominal charge (hardly more than the postage) I paid to CC. His jeans were heavily damaged from skating, inexpertly repaired, unwashed, but for our dear customs officers, they were brand new…..
What ensued was legal correspondence (thank heavens I have an attorney among my more distant friends), penal proceedings against me for customs dodging... the battle we did lasted a full year. Yes, you read right, twelve f***ing months, during which Clegg's denim was confiscated together with real criminal loot. I prevailed in the end, paid next to nothing and the charges were dropped. But it was a totally nerve-wrecking experience, and the daftness, the incompetence, the sheer arrogant impudence of some customs people was mindboggling. Beware!
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Yeah, I know that people underdeclare…
I said "Should"...that obviously doesn't apply to german speaking bureucrats.
One should be very careful with that and know what you are doing. That is why I always go to customs office to declare my goods myself when they get stuck in customs.
If it's an Ebay item, our customs personnel check the auction by number, so no use to cheat on those.
If it's person to person deal, all I have ever needed is a copy of PayPal "invoice" Quite often that goes with normal webshopping as well.
Usually the tax is so low, that there is no use to underdeclare for taxes, it's the VAT which is ouch...
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Throw in the "reluctance" -this must qualify as the understatement of the day- of German customs officers to admit they were wrong. As I corresponded with them, spoke to them several times in person at their Berlin HQ (the hours of work that went into this, the taxpayer money wasted, all for three very old pairs of jeans….) I often felt it was no longer "on the merits", it was a "you or us" very hostile battle. Including using interview techniques on me like I only knew them from TV crime films, making me seemingly contradict myself and treating me very much like a criminal.
Clegg's old skating jeans now are somewhat of a trophy for me.....
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UK customs also "reserve the right" to investigate any packages whose value they don't believe.
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UK Customs is the reason I don't order from Rakuten very often. But, every time I do I get hit for a customs fee :(.
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Wow, I'm getting kinda dizzy reading all this customs talk. I definitly take for granted the US delivery system.
Probably because I havent had any problems with them yet..And I am very confident that you won't ever unless you ship tons of packages. I have lost a package only once in my many many transactions and they don't really seem to care about incoming value.
I moved to Canada and immediately had to start paying import fees, etc for things labeled with worth over $20.
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Just don't use DHL. I got a pair of shoes from Trickers and they decided I owed $15 in taxes (which didn't upset me) and $30 in administration fees (which did upset me).
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£75 in import and "handling" fees
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I'm going to look into it, as what they have done is charged the full value of a new pair of Smoke Jumpers, rather than the value stated on the package (doing a little research), but I don't rate my chances.
Handling was £12 from Parcelforce….assholes.
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How much was the "handling"??
Don't you have possibility to go to customs office yourself with all necessary paperwork?
Handling would have been about GBP13.50.
And no. Parcel Force (EMS) brings all their stuff in through East Midlands airport. It is there that they customs charges are applied. They do not get applied at the local level. By the time the shipment get's to the local depot it will only be released if you pay all the charges levied upon the parcel by the Customs people in East Midlands.
At this point you have 3 choices:
- Refuse to pay in which case you never see your parcel again
- Bitch and moan but this will get you nowhere as it is not the local depots responsibility
- Pay and then try and get a refund (hardly worth the effort because they make it that way)
