Pocket LED torch...

[dennis]

That isn't an issue as the courier will charge you the fee to process it, about £14 IIRC.

[Colin Wilson]

[Bruce]

You are liable on import duty and VAT on all goods imported to the UK, without exception.

However, HM Revenue and Excise publicly states that it doesn't bother to collect import duty and VAT on goods for personal use up to £18 in value in a single package. There is no stated £50 minimum, however I have had some items up to £50 delivered without any demand for import duty and VAT.

On the other hand, I have recently been charged import duty and VAT on goods with values of £22 and £32. That leads me to think that the limit is still £18, but that the sheer volume of imported goods is defeating HM Revenue and Excise's efforts to collect all the duty and VAT to which they are entitled.

[Andy Hall]

If it's a private courier firm then the processing charges normally comprise an admin fee plus a percentage.

Royal Mail, which is probably what is being used by this Hong Kong caper, sometimes doesn't do either. The problem is that one then has to put up with the lousy service of Royal Mail.

[Bob Eager]

Arrived today! (actually, may have arrived up to 3 days ago, giving a total time from order of 7-10 days). I'm not sure because it went to a PO box and I haven't checked it much this week.

[Andy Hall]

Yes, I think that's exactly it, up to the point where you say that HMRC is *entitled* to collect the duty and VAT. They think they are, the government thinks they are and I suppose the law says that they are but I don't recall voting that they should. In any case, we know that they will only waste it.

Therefore if they aren't capable of handling their affairs and don't charge the VAT, so be it. I am not going to cry for them.

[dennis]

Royal mail do collect customs duty and they do charge admin, if you haven't been charged you are lucky.

[Bruce]

[Andy Hall]

Then I've been very lucky.

However, their service is still crap.

[Bruce]

Incoming international mail and parcels are handled by Parcelforce International. They do make an admin charge, but it is generally about half (or less) of the charges from courier companies like DHL, FedEx and UPS.

[Andy Hall]

With a level of service to match.

[Peter Parry]

RM handle HK Post items and charge £8.00, however, as others have pointed out, a lot seems to leak through without charge.

[Peter Parry]

Over a few hundred packages in the last 12 months I have to say that RM beat the likes of Fedex and UPS by quite a significant margin. It's a bit difficult to compare them with DHL as an inebriate rat with asthma could do better than that particular pack of gibbering incompetents.

"Why isn't my next day parcel here"

"Because it's in Reykjavik"

"Why?"

"Because that's where the aircraft went"

"Ah - it was broken was it?

"No - that's where it was going"

"Why was it going there with my package?"

"Because there was space"

"But I want it here - you promised delivery the next day and someone in the USA paid a fortune for it"

"Ah, that wasn't a guarantee but an aspiration"

"So it's aspirationally in UK although actually in Iceland?"

"Yup"

"When will I see it?"

"Some time soon, we have met our aspirational warranty by delivering it to Iceland which is Europe so it's now a non-priority task"

"But I'm not in Iceland, it wasn't sent to Iceland, I don't know anyone in Iceland"

"That's OK, not many people do, but we don't deliver a lot of parcels there as it's very efficient for us".

"eh?!!"

"It's a 9/11 elfin safety issue so you can't question it - have a nice day"

It actually turned up a week or so later having (according to their tracking system) spent three days in transit between Reykjavik and Stansted so I presume it Robert Lindbergh delivered it in the "Spirit of St Louis" as nothing else is slow enough.

It then spent 5 days in the hands of their "Home Delivery Service". This appears to be run by a weird collection of people whose main qualification is that they like working at night and own a 1967 Ford Capri with commensurate reliability. They must also have no form of communications with the company whatsoever.

"Your tracking system shows my parcel has left Iceland and is now "delivered" on your home delivery service. I haven't received it"

"No good asking me - if it's on Home Delivery its delivered"

"But it isn't"

"That's your problem, we stop tracking when it goes onto Home Delivery because its delivered"

"But it isn't"

"No problem, we have it marked as delivered so you have it"

"But I haven't"

"Well we know you have, because that's what our computer says"

"You have proof of delivery?"

"Yes - our Home Delivery man signed for it"

"But he hasn't delivered it to me"

"That's probably because he is busy- he will any day now"

Eventually a creature who looked like an extra from "The Outer Limits" but with worse quality clothing turned up at 22:00 one night clutching a water soaked package announcing he was sorry it was late but his clutch went and sorry it's a bit damp but his boot leaked (It didn't leak in the conventional sense, it simply didn't close).

[Andy Hall]

My experience has been consistenly the opposite over many years.

Every time that I have attempted to have something delivered via a combination of USPS and RM it has failed miserably. Your Reykjavik experience pales into insignificance when compared with the games I have had with these two joke outfits.

I now insist that any supplier from whom I buy in the U.S. uses Fedex, giving them my account number if necessary.

For UK suppliers, I am insisting that they don't use RM or I shop elsewhere. It's that bad.

[Rod]

Funny how experiences can vary so much - even with one company in one country.

Local RM are pretty good. Most things sent to us arrive as expected without fuss or problem. The odd thing takes an extra day.

Everywhere I look I see criticism of City Link, but we have nothing but sparkling praise. Always delivers on time. Always in good condition. Always friendly. And their tracking is now pretty reliable (was a bit shaky a few years back).

If you want to talk about crap carriers - try HDNL. Tracking? What's that? Same day? Ah - same week, if you're lucky. But even then, most things do get through eventually - don't hold breath waiting.

[Huge]

And me.

Indeed, I've had items delivered which had stickers on them saying things like "Post Office: Do not deliver without collecting duty". Since I see our postie about 3 times a year (our letter box is down the end of the drive, about 200 yards away), I guess she can't be bothered.

[Peter Parry]

Ah, Fedex, the ones who managed to try to charge VAT of GBP25.37 on an item costing GBP14.50 and then suggested that the easiest solution (for them at least) was not to correct the error but for me to simply deduct the VAT on my next VAT return.

Having failed to send an invoice for several months, when they finally did, they sent two. One to me and one to their debt collectors at the same time "In the interests of efficiency". For a time some years ago a local auction house had the contract for a number of courier companies to sell packages which had gone astray but later been traced after compensation had been paid . Most "losses" were packages simply misrouted within their own systems. As all the couriers are a bit sensitive about this activity they deliberately select small auctioneers and rarely stay with one auctioneer for long so it no longer happens but it was good while it did. The sale which caused most amusement was of what appeared to be a complete set of brand new petrol forecourt pumps and GRP mouldings complete with the petrol station name all over them.

[Andy Hall]

Curious. I've had no issues at all in several hundred transactions with them.

[John Rumm]

I think that is often the crux of the difficulty. There is so much local variation. Probably because many of the "big name" services operate branches on a franchise basis. So much depends on how good yours is.

Yup, our City Link is very good as well here.

[Owain]

I had a delivery where the postie collected duty. They do this by selling you stamps. So I ended up with the parcel and lots of stamps.

I think they're *supposed* to cancel the stamps so they can't be used for postal purposes.

This postie didn't.

Owain