Page 1 of Help with customs charges.

I know we`ve hads this before, but...

Does anyone know what the custom charges would be for approx £36.00. I`m considering buying a dvd boxset from US and would like an idea of the charges if it gets stopped!

Cheers.



"Stan is my best friend at church"

Off the top of my head it`s around 20% on anything over £18 ( they also include P+P in the £18 total believe it or not!).

However the biggest slap in the face is the collection fee could be as much as a tenner to collect on this parcel.

So if your package is £36 you need to add 20% approx to anything over £18 and then maybe £10 to collect.

Total might be : just under £50 but don`t quote me on this.

I`m sure I`ll be corrected on this but I am only guessing as I haven`t had any problems with customs fees before.

The last time a parcel had fees added the postie forgot to collect it as label was on the underside and I don`t think he saw it which was a bonus for me, I`m sure it was to be about £9 collected on an item worth $45 US.

Official Notice 143 from Customs and Excise here :http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/143.htm check out Section 4.

This item was edited on Sunday, 28th March 2004, 11:32

See if there`s an option on the site to have it sent as a gift. I`ve done that in the past and that gets around custom charges.

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My Top 20 Horror Movies -- My DVD Collection

I received a package recently from DVD Pacific. The value of the goods was £19.43 and I got hit for charges totalling £7.30 - this was made up by Import VAT of £3.30 and 'Royal Mail Clearance Fee' of £4.00.

Quote:
Off the top of my head it`s around 20% on anything over £18 ( they also include P+P in the £18 total believe it or not!).

Just to be clear on this, the £18 limit does not include postage - but if you go over that limit, you`re charged on the total amount including postage.

Mike

Let`s see now -

Import Duty on £36 = £1.26
VAT on £37.26 = £6.52
Royal Mail Admin Fee = £4.00 (took ages to find on RM`s cr*p new website)

So theoretically £11.78.

J Mark Oates

When I wrote my previous message, I had another order on the way from DVD Pacific. It arrived this morning and I got hit again. This time on an order of £18.66, the charges were £7.45.

The real frustrating thing is that one of the (two) discs, cost a mere £3.13 and should have been included in the previous package.

ok. someone recommended dvdpacific to me as i keep getting let down by other suppliers. i had some back orders to make in order to `catch up`. i ordered nine and preordered 3 (so far). i checked out each one separately but selected the `Ship what is currently available ` option so i thought each would go out separately thus avoiding customs charges. but i got an invoice this morning for 6 shipped out (and noticed the 3 remainging joined the 3 preorders on another invoice)...

the guy at dvdpacific says select `Hold till complete (this order ONLY should be sent as submitted now when all items are available)` option when checking each one out separately - this refers to all in that checkout your making, thus if its just one item,
and is in stock the order is `complete` and `not held` (i.e sent out)...

you will pay £2.74 (for a one disc set) postage via airmail....

but i calculated this : if i get stung on my £60 parcel for 20% (import duty and VAT)
then i pay £12 plus £4 collection fee from the PO. the combined postage for this £60 parcel is £6 - if sent separately would have been 6 x £2.74 = £16 (£10 more!) so i aint gonna pay more for my `mistake` (read `misunderstanding of dvdpacifics odd check out options)... plus : the prices at dvdpacific are much better than elsewhere... by a long way.

and yes, customs have recently told dvdpacific to be correct in their values put on packages. and yes customs checks are random (for the most part)...

SO if you want one item less than £18 select `Hold till complete`... no charges...
remeber this must include the postage (aparrently thats the value dvdpacific put on the parcel)...

IF you think the maths say `even with charges, it will save hassle by recieving only one parcel with many dvds in` then select `Ship what is currently available` or `Hold till complete and combine` - the FAQ is confusing!!!!