Avoiding Royal Mail's clearance fee?

[julianf]

I have an item expected from the states. Royal mail will be the carrier on this side.

The item will attract VAT and Duty, which i have no issue paying.



The postal services act has been amended, such as the retention by virtue of lien line is no longer applicable, but is there any way to pay the VAT and Duty direct to HMRC?


Again, i am happy for Royal Mail to carry the item, if that is what they have tendered to the foreign postal operator for, but i do not want them to perform a "service" for me, without instruction, and then submit me a bill.

It seems, to me, to be akin to me hanging a banner on the side of my house saying "Royal Mail is great" and then sending them an invoice for services rendered....


But, ranting about what is fair or otherwise aside, what im really wanting is the detail as to how i can refuse their overpriced "service" and pay HMRC direct.

(I have no control over the method by which the item is sent)

Please, again, i know ive had a bit of a rant above, but what im looking for now is detail.

Thank you!

 

[graffian]

I used to bring car parts in and do the clearance myself. But that was getting parts sent air freight.
I used to get a call when the parts arrived, I forget exactly what was said but it was to the effect,
"we will do the clearance and you will pay, or you will have to pay us storage".
I used to go up that morning. I had to collect the airweybill from the shipper, do the clearance at the customs
building, go up stirs and pay the ransom, then go back to the shipper and collect my boxes of goodies.

I can't see how the royal mail would allow you to do any of that.

 

[northwest]

The postal services act has been amended, such as the retention by virtue of lien line is no longer applicable,

In simple terms, what exactly does this reference?

 

[Tangledfeet]

In simple terms, what exactly does this reference?

I think he's referring to the fact that Royal Mail act as agents for Border Force / HMRC. It is explained on the RM website somewhere; they actually pay your import VAT and duty to them up upfront - and then claim it back off you. Their 'admin' fee is to cover their costs. As its HMRC I'd suppose it is, effectively, the law.

I don't like paying it either, especially on smaller items when one might be only a small amount over your import allowances - but they have us over a barrel.

If I do buy something from abroad I'll buy it on Amazon or eBay using their global shipping options in which you pay Duty/VAT upfront and no admin fee.

 

[8ob]

Just cough up the clearance fee, getting in-between the courier and customs will add delays and in some cases win you some storage fees.

Bob

 

[Hood]

Just to say, it doesn't matter whether it is Royal Mail or TNT or DHL or any other courier, you will get a handling charge.

 

[Stueeee]

As Hood says, all the shippers seem to charge a handling fee, it's just a shame that the RM service is ramshackle, where you may or may not (in my experience) actually receive the customs plus handling demand on a postcard. You may need to go to their website and ferret out the UK tracking number -which will be different to the US one etc.

At least one US based car parts supplier is registered for UK VAT etc. which means you pay up front when you purchase and the parts arrive without customs etc delays or any further charges. https://www.rockauto.com/ usual disclaimer, just a customer etc.

 

[steveo3002]

only easy way i know is to use a seller that does the pre paid their end then it comes straight through

 

[maz0]

I have heard of people collecting parcels and paying the customs on the spot but then requesting RM invoice them for the handling fee as it was not technically legal for them to ransom you for the parcel for what is a non-hmrc fee, i.e. a private civil charge.

After leaving you can protest the invoice that arrives in the mail. Some RM depots released the parcel and some did not. It was always too much of a headache for me to bother over £8.

 

[8ob]

Also worth using a proper international one stop shipper like UPS or fedex for a door to door service, you will be incurring stateside and UK handling charges if multiples of couriers are involved, also less parcel football going on.

Bob

 

[armalites]

The problem I've seen with Royal Mail is you don't actually get notified that they have your parcel for days/weeks. I had to then drive to Gloucester to collect one that I had and I still got charged.

It's just another one of the things we have to suck up if we want to buy cheaper stuff from the USA or stuff that can't be bought here. It is easy to forget that many of the items are more expensive here because the seller has done all the hard work with importing.

If we end up with a trade deal with the USA maybe this won't be an issue.

 

[Shox Dr]

You are paying them to deal with customs. If you dont want to pay the fee. Go down to the customs house at the point of import, and clear it yourself

 

[8ob]

You are paying them to deal with customs. If you dont want to pay the fee. Go down to the customs house at the point of import, and clear it yourself

Take a packed lunch and a tent

Bob

 

[Shox Dr]

Take a packed lunch and a tent

Bob

I bought a lathe from Warco about 20yrs ago, they were expecting delivery that week. Turned out they were waiting customs clearance at East midlands airport. So I arranged the collect it from there. Cant remember much about picking it up, but do remember remarking how easy they were to deal with.

If possible I pay UK VAT when I buy the goods at source, most times I don't pay any Duty or customs handling charges. It gets here much faster as well.

 

[julianf]

In simple terms, what exactly does this reference?

There was a line in the 2000 act that restricted royal mail from, in layman's terms, holding your goods to ransom.

It has subsequently been removed, or amended.

To be clear, i have no issue paying VAT or duty. I do have an issue with, what is now, a PLC performing services that ive not asked of them, and billing me far above the odds for doing them.


When royal mail was still government owned, there was a freedom of information request submitted regarding the costing behind the fees. They used a loophole to get out of answering..



For context - the goods im receiving are USD 20 in total. Which puts them slightly over the GBP threshold. So i will get charged duty of about 3% (47 pence) on the goods, then VAT on the goods, the duty, and the postage at 20% (£6.33).

So, £6.80 owed. Plus a minimum charge of £8 to royal mail. But sometimes they charge more for "priority" clearance or something.



Normally im in a rush, but, in this case, im not bothered if it takes weeks. Oh, and these are goods that would fit in a cigarette packet, so its not as if im paying for a crate or something.



£8 is nothing much. Rather like all those £8 bank charges people got refunded. A low enough number that noone cares too much... but its been on my nerves for years, hence asking this time, when im in no hurry, if anyone knows the mechanism for paying the vat direct.

 

[Tangledfeet]

To be clear, i have no issue paying VAT or duty. I do have an issue with, what is now, a PLC performing services that ive not asked of them, and billing me far above the odds for doing them.

Well said. Several years ago I bought something from Canada and they did their calculations on the US dollar exchange rate - and the difference was considerable. At the time I was able to get through and speak to someone, doubt you will these days, and I got it corrected. I should have invoiced them for an admin fee for rectifying their balls-up.

 

[graffian]

I arranged the collect it from there. Cant remember much about picking it up, but do remember remarking how easy they were to deal with.

The customs at Heathrow was like that. They were used to people clearing stuff, the ground floor of the building seemed to be
just people doing personel clearance. There were two customs women behind desks, they were there to hand out the forms,
answer questions and check the completed forms.
The women behind the desks quite liked chocolate, so a few bars of fruit and nut and they would take my badly
filled in form with unreadable writing on it and correct it.

I had some stuff flown to gatwick once. Never again. They were not used to people doing their own clearance and
seemed bit put out when I asked for the forms, I was told to get an agent to clear the stuff! I said I do it at
heathrow no problem.Then to prove their point they kept sending me away to have another go at the forms.

 

[mike os]

The fee is cheap considering the alternatives, cost more in fuel let alone time to diy

 

[Nomad]

Based on personal experience 10 years ago, I'd agree with posts #9 (maz0) and #15 (julianf)

I used to receive electonics from China etc. If they were held by GPO I could visit the depot, offer to pay the (legitimate) HMRC fee, and ask GPO to send out an invoice for their additional "customs" (= handling) charge.
I never received a bill from GPO, but at the time the wording was along the lines of "GPO must not withold an imported parcel once HMRC fees have been paid." ie they could not argue you needed to pay GPO fees before the parcel was released - but many branch staff were not aware hence be prepared for long "chat" before you get your parcel. Things may have changed in the past 10 years.
For info, the sender has already paid GPO for the parcel to be delivered (and any other admin needed), so I regard their "customs" fees as an attempt to charge twice for the same work !

 

[m_c]

I don't mind paying a reasonable handling fee, as there is some cost to the carrier to handle it, but I've had a handling fee of £25 from a courier before, which is quite frankly taking the urine.