Customs United Kingdoms - Customs on BIG orders : Advice needed on ordering

In the UK it tends to be hit or miss with customs. Speaking from experience and what I've heard, anyway.

I bought a doll on eBay worth £200, and didn't get charged. When I bought a lot of clothes from the US worth about £70 I got charged £30, so I'm not sure what goes on really!
I suppose... if you're not at home when it's delivered you may end up getting charged customs as they'll have to look after it at the Post Office for you.

Sorry I couldn't help more, but good luck!

 

Im really confused about this aswell - I've ordered about £500 worth of stuff from luts and Im buggered if they charge a percentage of that. I went on their website and it had a list of stuff like 17% charge on toys and such.... so Ive emailed them to ask what they might anticipate my chare to be if it is retained.. they havent replied but if they do I'll pm you!

 

I've never actually had customs problems from Hong Kong, Singapore or Asian countries I don't think. In actuality I think all customs I've been charged are from purchases shipped from the US. Is there something to that, or am I being paranoid?

If you could PM me if you find anything out, that'd be great as I will need this information at a later stage. :3 Good luck.

 

I've definitely been whacked with customs fees from Japan before, but not Hong Kong. Don't know if there is a reason for that though. I recently ordered a doll from Korea worth quite a lot of money and wasn't charged customs, but I ordered one from the US costing $400 and was charged 70GBP. Ouch.

It's hit and miss I think, and depends what the item is marked as and its value. Companies usually wont mark an item as a "gift" if it is not because they get in trouble should they be found out. There's a chance your item might not get hit by customs but you should anticipate it and factor it into the price.

 

Luts do mark down packages, I live in the UK and my Kid delf was marked at $70, so only npaid £24 in tax and fees. SOOM mark down even lower so I got no charges for my boy who is worth over $1,000

 

A lot of companies do mark down, but on such a big order, you'll probably get hit for at least £30ish in customs. There is a formula you're supposed to use to work out the amount you owe, but frankly, since you have no idea what the delivering company marked the box value at, you'll never predict it accurately.

 

If you get hit with customs (and tax too, don't forget that!) you're looking at the third of the total cost (including shipping) of your item. For a £300 order you'll pay about £100. That's how it works out roughly though. There are a few other threads about on this but as a rule of thumb, you should always be prepared to pay it.

With group orders, you would just divide the customs tax as you would the shipping costs to each person I'd imagine, so you won't be paying £100 each at least.

 

this all makes me wanna cry. I still think its robbery in every sense of the word.

 

I think nearly all of us have had extensive rants on this before now, it's appalling that they can fleece us for it, but there you go. Depressingly, Parcelfarce have the monopoly still. :/

 

The actual customs fee you should be getting charged should be VAT...so 17.5% of the marked value but I've often had to question the IQ of those working out the charge (for example one doll I had caught in customs, they worked out the VAT based off the Dollar price... thus ripping me off completely).

Parcel Farce of course then add their own handling fee which is usually around £12ish.. I think. I could be wrong though.

tbh customs taxes are just a fact of life and you're best off simply putting a bit aside for if the worst happens.

 

Customs does not check all packages that come in to the UK. They only check a random sample of them, which is why it is so hit and miss.

For example: My unoa flourite (marked at $400) cost me £40. My Dollfie Dream ($550- parcel also contained a lot of clothing) cost me £800. My Sidhe (which is not a BJD and cost $1300) cost me nothing. >_> And she was the only one marked at full value...

Parcelforce do also add a handling fee, which is usually £12.

My advice would be to make sure you have the money on hand to pay the charge. With an order that big, I suspect you would be at risk of gaining a customs charge anyway even if you and your friend ordered seperately, so it might well be worth the risk to save on shipping.

 

alone from the past year i believe customs have taken £1,000 from me, its shocking, my items never seem to miss customs fee’s, but its now something i consider before i buy, sadly. a letter will arrive through the post, with the charge you have to pay, if you do,
from an old invoice letter; doll value $625 us, import duty £17.90, excise duty n/a, v.a.t £69.81, other n/a, parcelforce clearance fee £13.50, total £101.21
sadly there is a high change of paying a fee, if you order individually or together.

given information taken from invoice
‘explanation of these import or vat charges can be found on the hm revenue and customs web site www.hmrc.gov.uk or by emailing [email protected] or by telephoning 02476212860. please include the upi' located on the invoice ‘given in any correspondence with hm revenue and customs

you can pay this invoice in the following ways; by telephone, using credit debit cards or business cheques, please call 08700 844 575 lines open 24 hours. by post, send a personal cheque to the above address’ address will differ due to the depot holding the parcel ‘please write your address, contact telephone number on the back of your cheque. in person, by cash, cheque or credit debit card

following payment, deliveries are normally made the next working day. if you choose to have your parcel delivered using special saturday service, this can be arranged for an additional charge of £12.00, which will be added to the total when paying

if we have not heard from you within 21 days of the date of this invoice, we will assume that you no longer wish to receive the parcel and will return the parcel to the sender.’

i was informed once by a postman that’s its possible to claim the money back, but i’m not sure in which context it would be possible and its something i’ve never perused myself, hope i helped a little, good luck

 

It took a bit of looking to find it since the search feature didn't work for me.
This link is about the appeals procedure for VAT in the UK

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...pertyType=document&id=HMCE_CL_000167#P44_3369

This link gives you the rate for standard things bought on the internet. (does not include parcelforce fee.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ent&id=HMCE_PROD_009989&propertyType=document

good luck!

 

Guide, you seriously had to pay £800 in fees?! Why?!

I have serendipity freyja coming to me soon, and she is roughly £200 including postage, what sort of costs will i pay? I worked it out at £30 roughly, using 4.7% for duty, and 17.5% VAT and £3 for post office charge. scary how much they seem to charge people!

 

i’ve been charge on both the smaller and larger parcels, so i’m not sure that it does, there’s a chance luts will have marked the value down, but sadly just prepare for the worst, and hope for the best

 

It is hit and miss, so must be as mentioned before that it is at random - the first one I bought which had an extra head was well over £100 customs/fees etc which was a shock, the second, my Dollstown body - nothing (much to my relief).

Looks like my CP Lu-Wen has been caught and tracking states that currently the delay is 'Customs retention reason : Invoice missing' which doesn't bode well *maybe* I'll have him for the weekend ... if not will be another week without faceups as light is so bad when I get home after work can only do this at the weekend ...

Best of luck with customs with your combined order, may it wing through safely

 

Every parcel I get from Japan has had customs charges, but I'd say only 60-80% of my parcels from Korea.

Also I think but I'm not sure, that if you pay your customs fees in advance you don't have to pay the Parcelforce handling fee. But I can't remember how you do that I'm afraid. It was through Revenue and Customs direct. Useful for lower value parcels where the Parcelforce handling fee is nearly as much as the bloody item.

There is nothing you can do to avoid the fee, but personally I try to remember to ask US sellers to mark my things 'second hand toy'. I have no idea if that would make a difference or not.

 

Nearly all my parcels from the US have been caught by customs, Korea is hit and miss, Japan - well majority of items I have bought from Japan have been VAT free, so doesn't count ^^

I actually contacted Customs/Excise this morning with the query on how to go about paying in advance, and it was various form filling with needing an agent(?) to collect on your behalf, etc (had switched off by then and was giving my apologies to the very helpful person on the phone as I knew I wasn't going to do it) - Was thinking, as it is going to cost well over £100 in fees, Parcel Forces isn't going to be much of a further dent >_<' call me a coward ^^

Does anyone know if Parcel Force is affected by the RM strikes? I was thinking not, but ...

 

Parcel force are still working in full, but from talking to my local PW man it's causing them alot of trouble, but they are still on track. They have loads of signs up saying things like 'do not make complaints regarding Royal Mail to Parcel force'.

 

Thought they might be more indundated, eg people using standard parcels using PF instead, for example. Glad to hear that they are still on track

thanks for that, babytarragon

 

hummmmm I might be naughty for typing this.... but...

Do people in US have to pay a charge of extortionate rates like we do if they recieve something from within the US or Asia?

I was thinking... if they dont... and you had a trusted friend or family member in the US... you could have the shipment sent to them.... and have them wrap and repackage to look like a gift and send it to you marked as a gift?

And on th box... write "Not to be opened before your birthday" or "Christmas"

Customs are less likely to charge for gifts which are obviously gifts.

And... if you dont want to look too suspicious... and want multiple delivers through out the year.... put it to different names under the same address (if its clear that you have more that one person living there). That way they'll think that each person in the household is recieving a gift from a family member in america.

There is still a chance that it'll get caught in customs... but less likely.

Like with my DZ order... to avoid the custom charges... I'm doing this with my friends in HongKong. Was thought better to leave it until now so that it would seem more realistic as a gift cause of loads of chrsitmas presents are being sent everywhere at the moment.

 

My overall with parcel from all over the is that the faster shipment like UPS, DHL there's almost 99% that the package will get caught in customs.

If it is standard shipping my experience is that it usually more like 30% that'l get caught by customs.

Hope that someone has had the same experience as i have.

Cheers
Lars Hansen

 

If you wanted to get technical about it, that, as well as marking down an items worth on the package would be classed as fraud if you where ever found out and you as the receiver will be the one held responsible. Besides... the law still applies to gifts, there's just a higher threshold for the value (and its not even that big a difference). If you're going to do that you may as well go the whole hog and have them mark it as worth below &#163;20/$40.

If you're lucky enough to have someone in America and don't mind adding a week onto your waiting time and another &#163;20+ shipping then I don't see why not.
I have noticed though that items coming in from America seem to get caught by customs far less than those from Asia. Though that may be a complete fluke and me getting lucky.

 

It could be... but likely hood of getting caught on that is very slim. Do customs both dragging you over there, making you call up/get in contact with the person its being sent from to provide proof of perchase? Is there any way they can prove that these arent gifts?

Yea youcan still pay a charge on gifts, but as I've heard, gifts get past more?

Though I wouldnt go for the mark down. Too worried should something happen while in transit >.<

 

It has happened where people have been requested to provide proof of purchase to prove the marked price is correct (it's the price you paid not the items actual worth they want).

Either way it doens't change the fact that gifts will still on occassion get held up in customs and charged for. Anything worth over &#163;18, gift or not, is fair game to customs.

 

Hi sorry to bump up a oled thred but i thort it woud be beter than starting a new one,

Its been awhile since i have had a doll on its way and the box has got stoped at custems,last time this happend (2 years agoe) i had to pay the carge at the dore when thay delliverd the box.

But now i hear you need to wate till thay send a letter to you ?
How long duse it genrally tack them to do this and how log do thay holed the box in custems ?

Do thay open it and has ther been eney damige done to items pasing thue UK custems?

Im geting wureyd lst time i was hit with £100 fee.

 

Yeah, they now send you a letter, takes around 2 days. Then you can pay for it through debit card,credit card, or cash.

They don't open it and there is no damage.

 

ah thank you very much ,is that 2 days from the pakige ariving at custems or 2 days from it ariving at my local parcelforce depo ?

 

the letter for the charge will come for the depot itself. You can then phone them with your credit/debit details and they'll deliver the doll afew days later, or you can take the letter with you and go to the depot to pay there and then and they'll give you your package.

The customs will be valued on the declared amount AND the postage you paid to get it here (believe it or not!)

 

Another thing you can do is just take your EMs number to the depot once the parcel is there and before you get your letter, you can get your parcel a couple of days earlier if you do this.

I'm nearly always too impatient to wait for the letter myself ^^;

 

Thanks evribodey the informatin is really helpfull
Im just wating fore hear to be relised from custems at the moment ,i live way to fare from my local depo so i gess im going to have to wate fore the letter .

 

If you do take the letter to the depot take some form of ID too, they often ask to see it.

Customs have been known to damage items, this is OT but might be of interest - my other hobby is model horses and my partner has just bought a beautiful resin horse from the US, total value of horse was $400 and customs was £56 although the seller actually marked the box a hunded dollars higher. Now this would be just 'oh well' BUT customs have damaged the horse when they checked him, he is missng an ear, and it is not in the box or the packing - and trust me we've looked - the seller assures us that the ear was there so the only possible explanation is that Customs damaged him.

Now if she wants to make a claim they are saying that the horse has to be returned, you get the money or you get the item - not both! This, like many doll faceups is a OOAK item.... to sort this out it's going to take some wrangling between my partner and the seller - who has to do the chasing up from her end, and to be honest at the end of it they'll probably just turn round and say well you can't prove where it was broken so we can't pay out.

With the dolls of course it's easier sometimes, depending on make, to just get another hand or whatever, but has anyone had the problem that they tried to claim and were told that they had to return the doll? and if they did need to send the doll for inspection did they get it back? I always worry when I'm importing dolls because it's absolute hell trying to get parcelforce to admit to anything - and sellers don't need the extra hassle of having to deal with claims.

 

Well I'm not from the UK or anything but I do know when my sister and I ordered from Luts they marked the package as GIFT and had said it only cost so little money when it was a full doll and extras. xD So do you guys get customs charges if there is a gift mark?

 

I recieved a parcel from luts worth $500 but they marked it as $40 and a gift so I wasn't charged.

 

Gifts worth over £34 or so are still charged.

 

oops, I already said what I was going to say...

um...stupid customs lol

actually as an update: I just got a call from revenue and customs to say they are approving my refund so thats a positive. Try claiming your overcharges back

 

I'm not in the UK, I'm in Sweden.. but here too we need to pay roughly 30% on both the item and the shipping. First a 4.7% fee and then 25% taxes.

 

All my parcels from USA are scrutinished intensively and guaranteed a hit with customs even over a ridiculously low "gift" amount.

i am told by my parcelforce guy this is due to the trade war between the EU and the USA so customs are always quick on the draw for high alert countries.

 

custems have been holding my pakage fore about 3 days now ,(well 5 but im not coting the weak end.)

What is the avrige length of time thay wil holed a pakage ? is there a point where i shud contact them and see if there is a problem?

 

When I ordered my doll, she got hit by customs and I had to pay about $28 all together. And it took another two weeks for them to deliver her after the charges were paid.

 

I've paid customs charges before on my dollfie dream. I paid about $400 for her and got charged £30 in customs fees. I paid the fees over the phone and I got my doll the next day.

 

It seems to be pot luck. Ive ordered two dolls and didnt get charged customs, but when i ordered a head from the USA i got hit with a pretty hefty customs fee... I think ordering from the USA does seem to increase the chances of getting caught in customs

 

Ehh I'd love to do a Iple.UK only Group Order one day, but the customs would put me off, I think.
Although,*touchwood* I've never been attacked by customs, and my family orders lots of overseas stuff.
There were my 2 IH Dolls~$160, NDS game~$15,Wii games~$50, Doll wigs~$30&shoes~$12, and an electric nail file~$4...and none were hit by customs and they were all from overseas.
It's pot luck, it really is

*~$ means the marked down price.

 

Iplehouse mark down on all their packages. ^^

 

I got my Kdoll Kamyu through, he was marked at being worth $200. By the time I'd got him (tax/handling/parcelfarce raep charge) I'd paid about an extra twenty-seven pounds.

 

If you order something from the US the chances of being caught are higher. ^^; Hence my $750 in charges.

 

Sakura, yup, I've already ordered from Iple. and I didn't ask them to mark down, I knew they would already.
They were "worth" $160US, thats less than 1/10th than what I paid for them

 

You should see angell-studio packages- My momo was apparently worth $5 XDD

 

So IH marks down? That's nice to hear... I would never encourage anyone to commit fraud, but if they voluntarily save me from excessive custom fees I'm all for it.

 

My Souldoll was marked at full value, so I got hit for £92.64 in customs fees Well, to be honest, most of that was VAT, not customs duty!

I paid over the phone, it was very simple, the line was secure and I found out within a minute that my payment had been accepted and I was told that my doll would be delivered on Tuesday, 16th September 2008...so that remains to be seen!

 

I have to say that if you import boxes likely to be marked over $500, you're probably gonna get pulled. A lot of companies will mark down, but on an order the size of the OP's, the chances are that for security reasons, the box will be marked at roughly half of it's contents actual value and is therefore more likely to attract the attention of the customs man.

Sadly, unless you know exactly what the box was marked at, you have no way of knowing how much you're going to have to pay either. At the very LEAST tho, you'll end up paying 17.5% VAT and parcelfarces quasi-legal "handling fee" which seems to have recently gone up to £13.50 of pure daylight robbery. If you're VERY unlucky, and your box REALLY irritates the parcelfarce morons, you may also get stung for Import Duty, which appears to have no rhymne or reason behind it whatsoever.