Customs Charges

L

Leemcl

Jedi Master
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
654
Hi Guys

I purchased a MoC ( as pictured ) for £172 + shipping

D716997C-CB0A-4737-AFA2-E72264354FB9.png


I have just received a customs charge on it of £18.97 ( £8 of which seems to be a Royal Mail handling fee )


Two questions -

How is a second hand toy attracting such a cost

How do I appeal the cost or is there even a way to do that ?
 

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There's a form to download and send off - a bit hit and miss but 90% success rate. What annoys me is the randomness of the charge.

You should have been charged 20% by their rules - they just make it up as they go along, and you can't claim the parcelforce holding fees back

As you have only been charged around 5% I would leave it as you may get charged more, but for future reference here's a good link

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19613
 
They class it as collectable that's why they charge I believe, the price for the that moc seems high, is it a variant that I'm missing?
 
I paid the premium as it's the Canadian Cardback

A61B9017-37BD-487D-953D-AD6759815504.png


I had one before that I sold for £100 but was a no pop and as this figure is a bit of a focus of mine I went for it, paying a bit of a premium - shipping and now this charge makes me feel it's less of a "bargain"

I am tempted to just let them send it back.
 
Something has occurred to me - what actually happens with a customs check - do they open the box. Open the packaging and have a check ? If they do how do I know they won't duck about with something that's 40 years old and damage it - i'll Pay the fee and have zero comeback.
 
I've got a MOC that was damaged during a customs check. Only a bit of litho but to get compensation you need to hand over your vintage goodness never to be seen again.
 
Years ago, Jim Stevenson told me a sorry tale about a very rare and valuable mint vintage box he was sent from America. I can't remember exactly what he said it was, but apparently it came flat packed and you assembled it yourself (and btw, if anyone can work out what it might be, I'd love to know!). For some reason, rather than sending it flat and unassembled, the seller decided to assemble it and then sent it as an empty box inside a larger mailing box. Her Majesty's Customs then got their sausage-fingered mitts on it and opened the outer box, saw another box inside, and then ripped that one open too to find nothing inside. It never even occurred to them (or if it did, they didn't give a ****) that the box itself might be the contents and be valuable. So when Jim finally received his previously mint box, it was badly torn :evil:
 
I'm afraid that those changes seem about right, if you want the item then I would suggest that you just pay up.
One reason I don't buy from the US, dread to think what's going to happen when we leave Europe, heaven help us buying from there after that!
 
Mini99 said:
I'm afraid that those changes seem about right, if you want the item then I would suggest that you just pay up.
One reason I don't buy from the US, dread to think what's going to happen when we leave Europe, heaven help us buying from there after that!
Click to expand...

That's a very good point. I bet we get ****ed up the pipe on that big time come next year. Still I will take some comfort in the fact that my additional tax money will be well spent by that Crow May and her gang of absolute cretins.
 
A MOC I just got from the US arrived with a £15.50 customs charge. The seller had put the value at $30 (it was worth several times more). So the customs charge was almost as much as the item was declared for. Piss-take.
 
Interesting thread I have just ordered a few items from the States value $600 Inc shipping . It is now sitting in Customs at the moment unopened (from what I'm told). I had to contact them on Friday to confirm what the contents were. Now I'm told it's released and should be delivered Monday. I am now bracing myself for the extra costs.
 
I paid £60 for a £300 item last week. It didn't bother me as I was expecting it... but what really pissed me off was that they delivered to the wrong No. 26. Luckily I managed to work out that it was the street next to ours that had it delivered to. ParcelForce were extremely useless when I called them up earlier that day to ask who the hell had my parcel!
 
Iv'e just paid £20.50 for a MOC that cost me £77 because the seller decided at the last minute not to send it as a gift like they said they would, because and I quote "I found out it's illegal to send it as a gift"...... :| gotta watch out for that SWAT team smashing into your house because of your 'gift' package I suppose lol.

And to top it off when I examined the bubble I found a split in it which the seller told me they actually knew about but couldn't be arsed to describe in the listing. :( :( :(
 
If you ever go into Royal Mail to pick anything up, there's a good Custom Charges leaflet they produce explaining how the charges are broken down and the different costs from Europe, USA etc.
 
subzero said:
Iv'e just paid £20.50 for a MOC that cost me £77 because the seller decided at the last minute not to send it as a gift like they said they would, because and I quote "I found out it's illegal to send it as a gift"...... :| gotta watch out for that SWAT team smashing into your house because of your 'gift' package I suppose lol.

And to top it off when I examined the bubble I found a split in it which the seller told me they actually knew about but couldn't be arsed to describe in the listing. :( :( :(
Click to expand...

What a bloody winner they were!
 
stormcab said:
subzero said:
Iv'e just paid £20.50 for a MOC that cost me £77 because the seller decided at the last minute not to send it as a gift like they said they would, because and I quote "I found out it's illegal to send it as a gift"...... :| gotta watch out for that SWAT team smashing into your house because of your 'gift' package I suppose lol.

And to top it off when I examined the bubble I found a split in it which the seller told me they actually knew about but couldn't be arsed to describe in the listing. :( :( :(
Click to expand...

What a bloody winner they were!
Click to expand...

The other moron comment they told me in response to the bubble was "the listing did say the bubble was in used condition"...

Bit of a difference between the words 'used' and 'split' ( damaged ).
 
subzero said:
Iv'e just paid £20.50 for a MOC that cost me £77 because the seller decided at the last minute not to send it as a gift like they said they would, because and I quote "I found out it's illegal to send it as a gift"...... :| gotta watch out for that SWAT team smashing into your house because of your 'gift' package I suppose lol.
Click to expand...


If the package was coming from the States then it is true that it's illegal to mark something as a gift when it isn't. Sellers do seem to be quite reluctant to do it as well. I don't quite know why, as you say the SWAT team is unlikely to raid their homes. I have heard of a lot of sellers over the years who refuse to do it, as is their right of course, we are asking someone to break the law. Even if it is a stupid trivial law it is still illegal.
 
weasel said:
subzero said:
Iv'e just paid £20.50 for a MOC that cost me £77 because the seller decided at the last minute not to send it as a gift like they said they would, because and I quote "I found out it's illegal to send it as a gift"...... :| gotta watch out for that SWAT team smashing into your house because of your 'gift' package I suppose lol.
Click to expand...


If the package was coming from the States then it is true that it's illegal to mark something as a gift when it isn't. Sellers do seem to be quite reluctant to do it as well. I don't quite know why, as you say the SWAT team is unlikely to raid their homes. I have heard of a lot of sellers over the years who refuse to do it, as is their right of course, we are asking someone to break the law. Even if it is a stupid trivial law it is still illegal.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah I do understand that to be fair, i'm all with it being their right to choose to do it or not. It just slightly annoyed me when the seller said they will happily do it which was the only reason why I bought it from them, then they decided to do a u turn on it and not tell me and let me find out when I got the VAT demand weeks later. Apparently not a single person has ever been prosecuted or fined for sending something as a gift, but like you say it is their choice which is true.
 
Yeah, understandable. Common courtesy dictates he could at least drop you mail to say he hadn't marked it as a gift.
Though given it has a cracked bubble, I assume you're sending it back, or looking for a partial refund. If it's the latter, I'd be looking for a little more than normal given he has cost you a few extra quid in customs charges.
 
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