Page 1 of Customs Charge with PlayUSA

Just had to pay a tenner extra for my Indy boxset cos Play marked it as merchandise and not a gift, first time they have done this to me. Will think twice before using them again. Be wary if you guys are buying stuff in the run up to Christmas.

Nick

Did they previously mark them as gifts?

Mike

If I were you I would seriously consider sending them a letter telling them what has happened. Why should you lose out on a tenner because of their incompetence of not labelling the title as a gift. They should at least offer to refund half the custom charge as a gesture of goodwill.

Every other order I have had off Play (and other online retailers) have been marked as gifts. There is nowhere on the order for you to tell them it is a gift but they just used to do it.

Nick

If they mark an item as a gift and it`s merchandise, they`ll get a bollocking from HMCE - or worse still, everything they ship will get held up in Customs while it`s checked. They`ve probably had a warning from Customs as it is.

J Mark Oates

I always thought they got round the problem by shipping from the Channel Islands.
Has that changed now and they send direct from North America?
I must admit I don`t like their splitting of Region 1 from their main site and you can`t buy R1 and R2 discs on the same order.
I`ve used Play many times before but being hit with hefty custom charges will certainly make me think twice about using them again.

No, they still have to have a C22 declaration on packets from the Channel Islands. Play appear to ship R1 packets from Brussels Airport (having bulk-shipped from Canada). As long as packages are valued at less than £18, they will get through Customs unmolested. It`s when you try ordering box sets from them that things get hairy. I currently use Loaded247 (nee Future Entertainment) for R1 box sets as they still ship from Sittingbourne for the moment, and therefore don`t have anything to do with HMCE.

J Mark Oates

I`ve never bought anything over £18 from Play or PlayUSA. When I want an R1 boxset, I either go to Movietyme or CD-Wow, because they get round Customs.
Movietyme have a depot in the UK where all orders enter the Royal Mail once they arrive from America, so they never have anything to do with HMCE either :D

Been stung myself recently by UK customs.Ordered a tv series box set from PLAYUSA and was charged nearly £10 in Royal Mail costs and customs. Ordered large items and boxsets before from PLAY and i`ve never been charged before. Don`t think i`ll be ordering large items from them again. :-(

I`ve just been stung on my Simpsons Series 3 from Amazon. Had to pay an extra £8 even though I used a $10 gift voucher which brought the total charged to my credit card to £17.87. Did have the option of refusing the item and having it sent back to the US and a full refund but the wife needed a birthday present for me so she paid it. Customs should spend more time and resources tackling the real problems like drugs or illegal immigrants instead of trivial matters like the import of DVD`s.

Rocky..