Fuming at UPS!

[Hazey]

Hey all,

So here's the story - I find a couple of rugby products I really like the look of on an American website. Knowing that there would be postage and packaging, and VAT to pay when it arrived in the country, I asked for quote from the website, and finding the total inc. P&P to be £70, which was still cheaper than anything I could find in the UK (plus two of the items weren't available in the UK), I thought I'd go for it.

Unfortunately (I had no choice), the vender sends the package by UPS.

So when, whilst tracking the parcel online, I see it's being held at the Midlands Airport, I know I'm going to have to pay VAT (sometimes you can get lucky, and they don't charge it on your parcel) - I think to myself, no problem, I expected this: the order came to £50 worth of goods, so that'll be a charge of about £7.50, plus a couple of quid of processing.

UPS gets to my door this morning - £38 in VAT and charges!!!! on a £50 order!!

Not impressed one little bit.

Thanks,

Hazey

 

[Prestwick]

UPS lost my PC when I had it shipped back south to home from University digs. It turned up in bits.

Nice that they gave me £120 compensation though.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

Make sure you try and claim it back!

 

[Wellycane]

Never heard of this company before but funnily today this dark brown van sped right pass me but I was able to read a shade-yellow coloured text "UPS" printed on the window. Is this them?

 

[QKXV]

Are you sure it's not import tax instead of VAT? I thought VAT only applies to products bought in this country, you would've had to pay import tax at entry point so VAT would not apply.

UPS would've paid the import tax to get the items released from customs and now charging you for it. These charges are usually applied at the door on receipt of the goods. The seller would've put a value down on their invoice and customs decide what amount of import tax from that value, often sellers put a higher value so they can claim back more should the items get lost.Interestingly, if the sender had put down "GIFT" or RETURNING GOODS TO OWNER" you'd have most likeley not have paid anything.

Why not phone HMR Customs and find out how much you'd have to pay, it's possible the sender had inflated the invoice like I mention above or even worse, it might be that UPS is skimming money off the top or adding to import tax.(although it's highly unlikely that they would do that)

Carriers like UPS, DHL and TNT undergo very rigorous auditing by HMR Customs, chances are very small that they'd make a blatant error, especially when it comes to tax. It could cause massive harm to their reputation and the industry is very competitive.