Author Topic: customs charges - logic?!! wtf... (Read 6969 times)

gwEm · « **on:** April 09, 2008, 01:37:26 PM »

i've never been charged by royal mail/parcel force for customs ever... until today - 13.28 for a 30 quid item!!

ridiculous. i likely won't complain though, the amount of stuff i've had posted over the years. for example the other week, i had a £150 steinberger body sent - bigish box - no questions asked.

the item is a steinberger leg rest, and probably fits in an a stout envelope. it must be the least likely item ever to be hit with a charge. oh well.

sorry for rant :)

WezV · « **Reply #1 on:** April 09, 2008, 02:24:51 PM »

It that random £8 (or £13.50 for express parcels) clearance fee that makes it silly on small items

Sifu Ben · « **Reply #2 on:** April 09, 2008, 02:43:29 PM »

Yeah, I just got a bill from Fedex, the customs was what I expected, but they've tagged £17 on! For what must have been all of 5 minutes work on their part. When I've already paid for them to ship it in the first place

Why don't they just charge it up front with the shipping? As it is it's like one of the flight price cons that they cracked down on last year.

mikeluke · « **Reply #3 on:** April 09, 2008, 04:18:57 PM »

Bad timing for this post.... I am awaiting a guitar from the USA.......

Fingers crossed!

ToneMonkey · « **Reply #4 on:** April 09, 2008, 04:25:37 PM »

I've got 2 parcels comming from the US, one has a pair of mini humbuckers in it, the other has a set of steinberger gearless tuners. Hope they get here alright. Should have got them both to tape a birthday card to the front. Don't think they can charge for some things if it's a present.

WezV · « **Reply #5 on:** April 09, 2008, 04:49:11 PM »

the admin charges are annoying but easier to swallow on an already expensive parcel. . . its the repeated admin charges on small items that gets really annoying

7thSon · « **Reply #6 on:** April 10, 2008, 01:40:42 AM »

Somehow I don't think the employees who do the admin get paid £100 an hour! Perhaps it's very stressful work.

ToneMonkey · « **Reply #7 on:** April 10, 2008, 02:43:04 PM »

Pickups arrived with no extra charges. Fingers crossed on the tuners.

Sifu Ben · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2008, 07:49:49 PM »

My bill arrived 2 weeks after my guitar.

mikeluke · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2008, 09:12:14 AM »

Did the guitar come from the USA? If so, how long did it take to get to you? Mine left Miami on April 5th but no sign of it yet.

mikeluke · « **Reply #10 on:** April 12, 2008, 09:13:07 AM »

Ah... just checked - it cleared customs yesterday morning.

mikeluke · « **Reply #11 on:** April 16, 2008, 08:38:46 AM »

OK - charges break down for anyone that might be interested:

Guitar plus postage was $613 - which was £318 at PayPal rates.... but that is another story!!

Guy put down $520 for Customs

Charges were

Import Duty - £8.18 = 3%

VAT - £46.19 = 17.5% on the price including postage but excluding the import duty

Parcelforce Clearance Fee = £8.00

So roughly - it will have cost me £380 all in.

Hope this is useful to anyone looking to import a guitar from the USA - will pick it up later and post some pictures

Andy RV · « **Reply #12 on:** April 16, 2008, 01:07:27 PM »

I've had 2 guitars from Japan, both with around £150 customs charges on each. :(

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #13 on:** April 16, 2008, 08:29:29 PM »

anything under £36 can be sent as a gift and is therefore exempt from any customs charges.

7thSon · « **Reply #14 on:** April 16, 2008, 10:30:24 PM »

Quote from: mikeluke

OK - charges break down for anyone that might be interested:

Guitar plus postage was $613 - which was £318 at PayPal rates.... but that is another story!!

Guy put down $520 for Customs

Charges were

Import Duty - £8.18 = 3%

VAT - £46.19 = 17.5% on the price including postage but excluding the import duty

Parcelforce Clearance Fee = £8.00

So roughly - it will have cost me £380 all in.

Hope this is useful to anyone looking to import a guitar from the USA - will pick it up later and post some pictures

Why must we pay VAT on postage? That doesn't make sense, especially when import duty is paid also.