Buying from the USA

[yorks5stringer]

In a rush to get some strings late at night I ordered them off a US Seller unintentionally.
The strings cost £25, the postage £7.25 and now I have had a card from Postie saying they want a further £13.25 off me! The strings are £38 here!
Is there anything I can do other than pay more attention in future and "suck it up"?

[Musky]

Sadly not, unfortunately.

[stu_g]

Ive just had the same thing i ordered some pickups from only music.com and got hit for £13 something they charge £8 handling fee thats what pisses me off,tax me fair enough but idont have many options left to me regards handling fee and it doesnt make alot of sense i ordered pickup rings from fretsonthenet.com these cost more but i paid no tax or handling fee? I cant work it out.

[BassBus]

You will pay anything up to 25-30% on top of the total price plus postage. That covers VAT and any customs charges. Have a look around on the Royal Mail web site. There is a page that explains it very clearly.

[KiOgon]

I was lucky - I placed an order with Stewart Macdonalds, about $78 IIRC, then started wondering if I'd get clobbered for the VAT & PO Charge.

Fortunately the parcel arrived with the proper value/details on the customs form, but it had been posted from Sweden where I presume the tools I ordered were made, anyway I didn't get stung, which was nice

Edited April 13, 2013 by KiOgon

[Musky]

[quote name='stu_g' timestamp='1365865127' post='2045370']
Ive just had the same thing i ordered some pickups from only music.com and got hit for £13 something they charge £8 handling fee thats what pisses me off,tax me fair enough but idont have many options left to me regards handling fee and it doesnt make alot of sense i ordered pickup rings from fretsonthenet.com these cost more but i paid no tax or handling fee? I cant work it out.
[/quote]

It's luck of the draw, in that not everything gets picked up. Basically allow for 20% on the initial cost including postage, plus £8-£15 admin charges. If duty comes to more than £9 then that has to be added plus the VAT. Then if you don't get charged it's a bonus.

Got to agree that admin charges are a kicker on low value items, although nothing is payable if the goods cost less than £15.

[mentalextra]

I've ordered a few computer parts and got away with it. I have a friend who ordered clothes and got hit badly!

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1365863875' post='2045346']
In a rush to get some strings late at night I ordered them off a US Seller unintentionally.
The strings cost £25, the postage £7.25 and now I have had a card from Postie saying they want a further £13.25 off me! The strings are £38 here!
Is there anything I can do other than pay more attention in future and "suck it up"?[/quote]

Happened to me once with a scratchplate; after speaking with the supplier in the US they offered me a full refund. So I told the post I wasn't prepared to pay it & send it back. I was then given a lengthy speech as to "do you realise how much trouble that will cause them? etc etc etc" which admittedly did sweeten it a bit.

[yepmop]

It's luck of the draw, I recently ordered some vintage Fender tuners for £60 from America and didn't get stung which was lucky. I think customs just pick on certain flights and run a check a bit like they do at the airports when you go through customs.

I have in the past (at my risk) got the seller to declare the items as used and under £37 (which I think is the up limit for no custom charge), but not all sellers will do this for you.

[kevin_lindsay]

It's the luck of the draw whether you get stung with import duty. The limit at which charges are levied is now £18. I've had items arrive with no charges, and had many others with big charges compared to the actual buying cost (compounded by tge Parcelforce admin charge).

If you factor in the charges and don't get hit, its a bonus

[SpaceChick]

Some sellers will mark it as a gift so you don't need to pay tax.

[Musky]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1365925288' post='2045925']
Some sellers will mark it as a gift so you don't need to pay tax.
[/quote]
Marking things as a gift only works for goods up to the value of £36 and if it's sent by a private individual.

The limit for charges used to be £18 (it had stayed at the same amount since at least the 90s, in spite of inflation) but has now been reduced to £15.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&propertyType=document&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1365925288' post='2045925']
Some sellers will mark it as a gift so you don't need to pay tax.
[/quote]

Hmmmm... are you sure. The sender can mark it as a gift but I have a vague recollection (used to buy from the States frequently) that this doesn't make it exempt because that loophole was being abused by all and sundry. I do know that if the value is declared nil or virtually nil and the item goes missing you'd get nothing back i.e. don't try it with basses!

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1365926248' post='2045937']
Marking things as a gift only works for goods up to the value of £36 and if it's sent by a private individual.

The limit for charges used to be £18 (it had stayed at the same amount since at least the 90s, in spite of inflation) but has now been reduced to £15.

[url="http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&propertyType=document&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014"]http://customs.hmrc....=HMCE_CL_000014[/url]
[/quote]

Snap!

[Musky]

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1365926329' post='2045941']
Snap!
[/quote]