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Post by The Doctor on May 3, 2023 21:31:46 GMT
Kind thoughts.
-Ralph
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on May 4, 2023 10:03:10 GMT
I forgot to report in when my Diaclone Wheeljack arrived. 45 of your English pounds it cost me. At least it didn't get sent back to Japan this time.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 18, 2023 17:17:08 GMT
Man have I just been done over.
When that Mattel Creations BOGOF offer came up over Black Friday I thought I'd go for the 40th Anniversary set as a treat, thinking I'd get two and sell on the second one to bring the cost down a bit. Mattel's FAQ on their site says that for the UK, VAT and customs charges are included in the price paid to Mattel.
So either that's not true or someone's made a mistake somewhere because I've just been hit for VAT not only the £159 I paid for the sets, but also the VAT on the set I DIDN'T pay for. I can't see how else the VAT charge could be the £67.79 they're asking, plus the £12 collection fee. £79.79?! for what I paid £159 for!? HOW?
I know Parcelforce don't enter into conversations about this stuff, but once I've got hold of this and can see the customs ticket someone is going to get an irate email about this. Some offer that turned out to be. That's £238.79 paid for two sets. I'd need to sell the spare one for £90 just to have bought my one at RETAIL price! Absolutely Rubbish!
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 18, 2023 19:47:16 GMT
Down with this sort of thing!
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 18, 2023 19:49:15 GMT
Especially as the first thing you see when you go to the Creations website is a banner across the top saying:
Enjoy £9 standard and £17 Express shipping on all orders. Prices are inclusive of Duty and Tax.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Dec 18, 2023 20:57:41 GMT
Just got charged £5 for a Christmas card to be delivered that the sender tried to send with a clearly recycled stamp. The 'handling' fee was £1.50 of that. Not sure what the other £3.50 was for then. And as ever with these things you don't know what it is until it is delivered.
The sender was from Mossley. Where Ralph lives.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 18, 2023 21:31:02 GMT
We will be personally handing over our Christmas cards!
-Ralph
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Dec 18, 2023 21:55:44 GMT
Especially as the first thing you see when you go to the Creations website is a banner across the top saying: Enjoy £9 standard and £17 Express shipping on all orders. Prices are inclusive of Duty and Tax. Can you not get them to provide documentation that it was paid and pass on to Parcelfarce? I had a similar situation with a Zenmarket package this year, DHL were going to charge but they (eventually) backed down when Zen provided the documentation.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 18, 2023 22:26:53 GMT
Parcel force make it clear there's nothing they can do about it, problems have to be taken up with HM Customs. I'm going to explore this as best I can but I don't hold out much hope. I would think it needs Mattel to give me a VAT receipt to prove I paid it, but I can't see that happening. I need to see the customs declaration on the parcel. Should have it tomorrow.
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Dec 18, 2023 22:36:17 GMT
Fingers crossed!
It was a messed-up customs label in my case. DHL can be complete b******s, I'm not going to compare them favourably to Parcelforce, but I think they're bound by the German love of bureaucracy. Show up with the right documentation and they are powerless before you!
And FTR Zen's customer service was fantastic on this front. They sorted out what was in their power to, and followed up with me a couple of times to check how it had worked out.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 19, 2023 11:33:11 GMT
The parcel has arrived. Now we begin the battle. I've read the info on disputes on the Parcelforce letter and decided to start with Mattel as I think I'll need VAT payment proof from them. So I've started by asking why I've been charged import VAT when their site clearly states "Product prices include duties and taxes to reflect true total product costs" when you arrive as a UK customer, and also asked if they can send me a VAT receipt to prove I've paid it. It also seems the VAT charge was high because Mattel have valued the sets at $183, which is somewhat more than the $150 they sell them for.
Still not convinced I'll get anywhere with this, but it's worth pursuing for future reference. Don't buy anything from Creations valued over £135.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 19, 2023 13:20:44 GMT
THE CHALLENGE IS IN THE CHANGE!
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 19, 2023 13:47:52 GMT
Man have I just been done over. When that Mattel Creations BOGOF offer came up over Black Friday I thought I'd go for the 40th Anniversary set as a treat, thinking I'd get two and sell on the second one to bring the cost down a bit. Mattel's FAQ on their site says that for the UK, VAT and customs charges are included in the price paid to Mattel. So either that's not true or someone's made a mistake somewhere because I've just been hit for VAT not only the £159 I paid for the sets, but also the VAT on the set I DIDN'T pay for. I can't see how else the VAT charge could be the £67.79 they're asking, plus the £12 collection fee. £79.79?! for what I paid £159 for!? HOW? I know Parcelforce don't enter into conversations about this stuff, but once I've got hold of this and can see the customs ticket someone is going to get an irate email about this. Some offer that turned out to be. That's £238.79 paid for two sets. I'd need to sell the spare one for £90 just to have bought my one at RETAIL price! Absolutely Rubbish! Its been a while since I had to deal with one of these (thankfully). Eventually I suspect you will have to deal with HM Customs and prove what you paid versus what Mattel declared and that you already paid customs to mattel. Even then Im not sure you'll get the £12 back from parcelforce. I had a similar issue with ZM a few months back when they basically forgot to tick the box saying I had already paid them the customs charge. They thankfully were quick to refund me what I had paid them, but again left me having to pay the parcelforce fee which I was aiming to avoid by paying in advance.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 19, 2023 15:15:14 GMT
I will try.
I suspect the $183 valuation of the sets is £150 converted back into dollars.
I know we're used to undervaluing parcels to reduce the import VAT but I've never been in a position where the parcel has been overvalued! I suppose from Mattel's point of view they need to cover themselves if the parcel gets lost, but there's a loophole here. From their point of view the value of the parcel is two sets, from mine it's one.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 19, 2023 16:00:15 GMT
FIGHT 'THE MAN'!
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 19, 2023 16:53:19 GMT
I'll try. Although I suspect this will be more like kicking him in the shins and running away.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 19, 2023 16:57:52 GMT
SHIN PINWIGZILLA.
-Ralph
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Post by that_bluestreak on Dec 19, 2023 17:01:47 GMT
I'll try. Although I suspect this will be more like kicking him in the shins and running away. Sometimes the only power you have is to kick the man in the shins and run away. It is the protest that counts!
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 21, 2023 23:00:20 GMT
The war goes well. Creations have apologised and offered to reimburse the customs charge themselves if I send them receipts for the payment. We shall see what happens.
This at least confirms that purchases from Creations definitely shouldn't be charged.
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 6, 2024 22:24:04 GMT
Christmas got in the way of resolving this. The receipt I sent them never got there so it eventually triggered an automatic 'we haven't heard from you' email. I tried sending from another address but that bounced because it didn't match the one I'd contacted them from. In the end I emailed their main customer service address and explained and had a reply less than an hour later saying my card had been refunded, and it has - the whole fee including the royal mail collection charge. Top service from Mattel.
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Post by legios on Jan 7, 2024 12:56:46 GMT
Excellent! Always nice to hear a good customer service story for once!
Karl
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Jan 17, 2024 13:24:01 GMT
I've just had to fill in a C160 declaration, lads. Pray for me.
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Jan 17, 2024 22:17:51 GMT
I have had a parcel trapped in DHL customs clearance hell for a week now. The tax has already been paid, they’re just being awkward for the sake of it I think, but one of the early messages they sent suggested it might have to be “disposed of” or returned to sender in Japan for a horrifying ¥50K which has had me a bit on edge.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 18, 2024 8:49:05 GMT
If you've paid the tax, why they deliver the parcel?
-Ralph
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Jan 20, 2024 8:22:30 GMT
They claim the information on the customs form is incomplete, and have asked me to send documents proving my order, etc.
Personally I think DHL do this deliberately from time to time as they can charge a lot for processing.
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Jan 30, 2024 10:38:39 GMT
I've just had to fill in a C160 declaration, lads. Pray for me. For future reference the HMRC commodity code for 'Goods, Plastic Toys' is 9503009590. More details: www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/headings/9503Could have shaved a couple of weeks off the imprisonment of my latest aquisition if that was in anyway obvious (or if Parcelforce actually responded to their emails in a timely fashion). Also for future ref you can email enquiriesclassification@hmrc.gov.uk to ask what the commodity code is for a given item - the nice people responded in under an hour to me. The website linked above does let you search but I got a completely different code for plastic toys (it was a more generic 'anything plastic' category).
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