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exessive handling and shipping charges


michael72

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I’ve come across on-line adverts for inexpensive items where the asking-price of the item is cheaper than that of competitors but (and not immediately obvious) there’s an absolutely enormous supplementary charge for carriage/delivery.

 

Presumably the £734 has not been debited from your account yet?

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Not clear from the OP what the circumstances were but I've noticed that EBay has taken to calculating postal charges automatically and in the case of items from the US, their estimated charges are often discouragingly high. And then of course you have to pay customs/import duty and fees as well as VAT on top of shipping - and indeed applied to the shipping costs as well as to the purchase price.  This all tends to make buying things which will be posted from the States (or indeed anywhere outside the EU) not worth buying.

 

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Customs import charges are applied by HMRC to items from overseas over a certain value. I can't remember the exact amount, but it is fairly low, somewhere in the region of £20 - £30 IIRC. The Post Office then add on a charge of around £8 for processing the item and collecting the customs duty on behalf of HMRC, which can make a fairly low priced item not worth the bother, as the cost is often double the original price in the country of origin.

 

£734 must be a mistake however unless the item cost you a few thousand pounds! I would be querying that.

 

On the subject of foreign Amazon purchases, I have bought a few items and always ensure that I am buying through the Amazon Global scheme. They give a total purchase price including postage and estimated import duty. Although the import duty is estimated however, Amazon Global guarantee that they will either refund the difference if their estimate proves to be higher than the actual duty, or that they will swallow the difference if their estimate proves to be lower. I've never had a refund, but I've never had to pay any more either, and their prices are competitive. Not all items or foreign sellers are eligible for the scheme though.

 

The last item I bought was an Endless Breeze fan from the States, which cost me about 2/3rds of the UK prices all in, and was delivered within 8 days.

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Can anyone answer this question please.

 

When a purchase is made online, there is a quoted charge for postage/shipping. VAT is then added to that ... why?

 

If I take a parcel to the Post Office, it is weighed and a cost given. The PO does not add on VAT afterwards.

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No doubt someone will be along shortly with an authoritative answer, but I'm pretty sure that a VAT registered trader has to add VAT to anything they bill you for unless it is specifically exempted or zero rated.
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747 - 2018-06-08 4:46 PM

 

I expect you are correct but I am wondering how they have added value by sticking it in a jiffy bag and putting a stamp on it. :D

 

I suppose they could argue that it was of no value at all to you until they put it in the jiffy bag and posted it.

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the money was taken from my account . amazon after a lot of pressure have refunded the £734 to my account today. The action i took was to identify the directors of .com and .co.uk and to email them with the facts and copy it to major people in the states and the uk eg all the press and busisness and in this country

ripoff, resolver, watchdog,and others.

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