Unlucky import tax on bass parts - am I stuffed?

[Cat Burrito]

I bought two Precision ashtray covers from the US for $24.37 which at the current exchange rate is £15.55 and got stung for over £11 in duties because it was over £15 today.

Unlucky or what?

The seller listed the items at the correct rate, the import tax was £3.24 and the Royal Mail charge an £8 handling fee for this. I had a look around and it looks like I'll have to take the hit. The seller correctly priced the customs declaration (I wouldn't ask them not to), the value is over £15 and I don't appear to have a leg to stand on. Unless anyone has any bright ideas? It's getting harder to buy stuff these days!? Even the two guys at the sorting office seemed genuinely sympathetic

[flyfisher]

Send them back and wait for the FX rate to move in your favour?

I know, not very helpful.

I can feel your pain, but I guess there will always be 'boundary issues' like this wherever the tax brackets are set. Ttill a bummer though.

[pobrien_ie]

No ideas, but I feel your pain! It happened to me a few times since I moved the UK.

The £8 fee is a joke. My future US purchases will be sent to Ireland first and then to me here. The extra postage won't come near £8.

[kevin_lindsay]

Yup, you just need to grit your teeth and pay the fee mate. No fun, as I know from my own experience.

[Billy Apple]

The fee is extortion. Plain and simple.

[Stacker]

And that £13 Parcelfarce handling fee is ludicruous. I recently bawled them out as the kept a set of custom pickups up at the Edinburgh depot for a week without updating their status: they were still showing as being 'held' at Coventry all the while they were languishing in the Edinburgh depot.

[BetaFunk]

I recently bought a pickguard and pickup for an old 60s Teisco from the U.S. for $27 and got stung a whopping £14 when it landed in the UK!!!

Edited August 21, 2013 by BetaFunk

[the boy]

It's a bummer dude....
"I'm sorry it went down like this,
And someone had to lose,
It's the nature of the business,
It's the smuggler's blues."

[3below]

Unlucky this time Sometimes you get lucky, typically up to $32 I have got away with it, sometimes well above. I have taken the hitt as well. The handling fee is just 'gouging', a well known treatment of the customer in the UK sadly.

[Cat Burrito]

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1377107558' post='2183502']
Yup, you just need to grit your teeth and pay the fee mate. No fun, as I know from my own experience.
[/quote]

Oh I paid it, no choice really