Sodding Customs!

[Jonathan]

If you've got £126 of parts without getting charged by customs then you've been very fortunate, as the threshold for them to charge VAT is just £18. I'd have expected you to be charged 20% of the £126 (if that was declared on the cusoms form), plus £10.50 wasted on FedEx, so £35.70.

I had one recently where the VAT I owed was about £3, which was fine by me, except I also had to pay Fedex £10.50 which doesn't seem fair.

[m_c]

Fedex will most likely send you a bill within a couple weeks for the fees.
Which reminds me I've still got one to pay!

[John S]

I have stopped dealing with the US all together as EVERYTHING gets hit for VAT and clearance.
At least China is pretty good but having said that they have lost 8 drivers somewhere in the post. not worried bought loads off this guy before and I'm certain he'll come good.

[birchy]

Yeah, I thought I'd got away with charges on my order from Chai, but Fedex had paid them and billed me a few weeks later.

[HankMcSpank]

Perhaps I could set up a CNC outlet in somewhere like Portsmouth.....

[m_c]

£10.50 Fedex fee isn't too bad. Parcelforce is £13.50. I'm sure I had one that was around £18 a few years back.

I'm sure you can declare goods yourself, but then you need to deal with all the paperwork, which when you look at it from a commercial point, it's cheaper to pay the handling fee, unless you're dealing with lots of imports.

[asbo]

Yeah FedEx will send you a bill in about a month, happens every time
I now get everything from China sent with DHL, not only do they not charge you a handling fee(or whatever that £10 FedEx charges is), but they also pay the VAT and don't charge you!

[~andy]

Fedex are the worst in my experience. Very efficient.

[Musht]

Trust me DHL`s handling charge is also 10 GBP.

Ooops , UPS, used to have annoying habit of wanting payment on doorstep.