REALLY Outrageous Customs fee - what next?

Alidoll

O.G.
Apr 23, 2007
1,238
31
Bought a BIN jacket from a seller in Hong Kong for $269.99 (plus postage). Total Cost $298.86. Seller sent it quickly with a tracking number and today I received a letter from UK Parcelforce saying I owed...wait for it.....


Import Duty £98.35
V.A.T. £160.64
Parcelfarce clearance fee £8

Total = £266.99

WTF?!?!??!?!?:wtf:

How can it be MORE THAN I PAID IN TOTAL for the jacket!!? I'm :cursing:

There is NO WAY I'm paying that amount and have e-mailed Parcelforce customs with the original invoice and have contacted the seller asking what they actually put on the customs declaration (it's a sports jacket not a mink coat!??!?!). Is there anything else I can do as I want the jacket but am not prepared to pay nearly £400 for it! Will the seller refund my money if I wait the 20 days and it gets sent back automatically?:confused1:

Help and suggestions please.....
 
Bought a BIN jacket from a seller in Hong Kong for $269.99 (plus postage). Total Cost $298.86. Seller sent it quickly with a tracking number and today I received a letter from UK Parcelforce saying I owed...wait for it.....


Import Duty £98.35
V.A.T. £160.64
Parcelfarce clearance fee £8

Total = £266.99

WTF?!?!??!?!?:wtf:

How can it be MORE THAN I PAID IN TOTAL for the jacket!!? I'm :cursing:

There is NO WAY I'm paying that amount and have e-mailed Parcelforce customs with the original invoice and have contacted the seller asking what they actually put on the customs declaration (it's a sports jacket not a mink coat!??!?!). Is there anything else I can do as I want the jacket but am not prepared to pay nearly £400 for it! Will the seller refund my money if I wait the 20 days and it gets sent back automatically?:confused1:

Help and suggestions please.....

This makes no sense at all, VAT is always 17.5% and duty can vary, I usually find it's any amount between 3 - 9%. Hope you can get it sorted out on Monday. GL
 
Update - seemingly the seller put the value as $1500.00 rather than $150.00. Customs obviously didn't open the package- just took the value written. I'll phone Parcelforce on Monday but they'll probably say "it's a customs issue" and HM Customs will unlikely alter the value as the package is at the depot waiting payment (in Edinburgh!!) so it'll go back to Hong Kong automatically and the seller is going to send out another jacket. Nightmare but at least I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!!

So, piece of advice to all sellers - check carefully what you write on the package please!!;)
 
The same thing happened to me. I bought a Kooba around a year ago and the seller listed the retail value and not the value I paid so I was overcharged on customs.
You have to contact customs directly. Parcelforce can give you the contact details. It was easy to get it altered as all I had to do was prove the price I paid for the bag, so I sent a copy ot the paypal invoice and a copy of the ebay auction page.

Remember that its bank holiday on Monday so you might not get anywhere until Tuesday so I guess you are better off letting the jacket go back like you suggested.

Good luck :yes:
 
I bought a LV Salsa from HK once and customs charged me more for customs than the bag itself and I could have bought a brand new one from the store for less.

Another time I bought a LV wallet (luckily I wasn't taxed) at all but the sell put the value at their currency instead of US or Canadian.
 
The same thing happened to me. I bought a Kooba around a year ago and the seller listed the retail value and not the value I paid so I was overcharged on customs.
You have to contact customs directly. Parcelforce can give you the contact details. It was easy to get it altered as all I had to do was prove the price I paid for the bag, so I sent a copy ot the paypal invoice and a copy of the ebay auction page.

Remember that its bank holiday on Monday so you might not get anywhere until Tuesday so I guess you are better off letting the jacket go back like you suggested.

Good luck :yes:

I've heard the same thing. Just show them proof of the acutal price you paid and you should have no problem. I would tell the seller that what they did caused you alot of problems and in the future they should declare the value you paid for the item,as that's the correct thing to declare, but I wouldn't have it automatically sent back unless customs doesn't let you alter the value AND you discuss it with the seller beforehand. Otherwise, you will likely just create an on-going problem you'll have to deal with. Good luck! I hope it all gets sorted out soon.
 
I would tell the seller that what they did caused you alot of problems and in the future they should declare the value you paid for the item,as that's the correct thing to declare,
sounds like it was an honest mistake though, they just added on an extra zero to the value, looks like they were doing a favour by undervalueing anyway if they meant to mark it as $150 instead of $269
 
The seller has been really nice about it and has offered to send out another one on Tuesday so to save a lot of hassle, I'll ask Parcelforce to send the first one back to the sender. It's a pain (as I was hoping to wear it on holiday next week) but oh well...hopefully it'll work itself out OK.:yes:
 
Glad its all worked out for you, what I would really like to know, is how parcel force come up with there absurd clearance fee!! Ive never had one at less than £12, no matter the size of the parcel?!:heart::confused1: