Are there any customs charges for me?

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 30 Dec 2018, 09:02

I am waiting on a couple of parcels from online shops in China. It's not obvious to me how long it will take or if there will be customs/import charges. Can anyone give me a clue please? I am in central London. The parcel that was at HWDC should have reached my vicinity by now. But there's no additional tracking data. Has it been held up because they are sending me the grey card? Will they indicate there is a payment to make in the tracking data?

Currently: In Transit Tracking no. RBxxxxxxxxxSG Your item has left our International Logistics Centre and is on its way to you. More information will be available as it travels through the network.
Saturday 29 December 02:04am Item has left our International Processing Centre Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, United Kingdom
Wednesday 26 December 06:25pm Item Received LANGLEY HWDC, United Kingdom
Thursday 20 December 10:09am Item Leaving overseas SINGAPORE S06

=========================================

Service used: Royal Mail Tracked 48™ If a delivery timeframe is offered, please be aware this is our aim and not a guarantee, and it can’t be changed.
Currently: We've got it Tracking no. VCxxxxxxxxxGB We have your item at Atherstone Intl RDC and it's on its way.
Saturday 29 December 01:12am Item Received Atherstone Intl RDC
Tuesday 25 December 05:29pm Sender preparing item

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 30 Dec 2018, 16:45

I've never seen a customs charge from. China

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 30 Dec 2018, 17:02

Based on that it looks like possibly they've got a warehouse somewhere near Heathrow that they send it to. That warehouse then forwards it on using Royal Mail Tracked

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 30 Dec 2018, 19:49

Thanks guys. Looks like I should get them in the next 2 days. It's ridiculous that it takes more time for the parcels to travel inside the UK than internationally. With the 5 eyes declaring war on china, I was worried my parcels would be hit by collateral damage. I am now hopeful there will not be customs charges.

In Transit Tracking no. RBxxxxxxxxxSG Your item is due to leave Romford Mail Centre to go to Docklands DO. More information will be available as it travels through our network.
Sunday 30 December 04:33pm Item Despatched to Docklands DO -- Romford Mail Centre

========

In Transit Tracking no. VCxxxxxxxxxGB Your item has reached Romford Mail Centre and will now be sent to your local delivery office.
Sunday 30 December 09:03am Item Received Romford Mail Centre

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 31 Dec 2018, 15:11

Got both of my parcels today. The tracking system claimed a false "attempted delivery" for the item coming through HWDC. So, I decided to go collect myself and asked them why. They said I would have gotten a card to pay a couple of days later. But what they are doing seems obvious. Essentially they are trying to create confusion so that people call their 55p a minute premium line. I did but gave up after I got suspicious. They would surely have ripped me for a tenner if I waited for an answer. The terminated call cost me £1.75.

There was a customs charge of £3.76 VAT + £8 handling. My packaged was marked as a gift of $32.99. So, I am not sure how the VAT figure was calculated. For anyone who hasn't seen a charge for items from China, well here's one :)

My second parcel was not charged. It was a small packaged marked with a value of $15.

Post by **Snaggletooth** » 31 Dec 2018, 16:48

There is a tax free allowance for importing items, this is probably 15 £ for the items like this. VAT is charged on the balance. More information:

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default ... n-2017.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail’s general enquiry number is 03457 740 740, this is a lo-call rate. If you have called a premium rate number then I suggest that you have gone through some company who is charging you a fortune to connect you through to RM. When I did a search just now for “Royal Mail Helpline”, the top hit is some company trying to charge £6 for the privilege of connecting you and providing a transcript.

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 31 Dec 2018, 20:12

buyer123 wrote:Got both of my parcels today. The tracking system claimed a false "attempted delivery" for the item coming through HWDC. So, I decided to go collect myself and asked them why. They said I would have gotten a card to pay a couple of days later. But what they are doing seems obvious. Essentially they are trying to create confusion so that people call their 55p a minute premium line. I did but gave up after I got suspicious. They would surely have ripped me for a tenner if I waited for an answer. The terminated call cost me £1.75.

There was a customs charge of £3.76 VAT + £8 handling. My packaged was marked as a gift of $32.99. So, I am not sure how the VAT figure was calculated. For anyone who hasn't seen a charge for items from China, well here's one :)

My second parcel was not charged. It was a small packaged marked with a value of $15.

Sg on the end of a code isn't China

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 31 Dec 2018, 20:15

Is SG code Singapore?

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 01 Jan 2019, 10:02

That unofficial helpline looks really unofficial

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 01 Jan 2019, 11:01

arnold cheshire wrote:Is SG code Singapore?

The code for China is indeed CN as every postie knows thanks to mountain of mail China Post sends out at virtually no charge across the world every year.
A good tip may be to not write an economic value on parcels as this will immediately attract the attention of those persons looking for items requiring customs checks. One of my customers had a parcel containing artwork drawn by children related to them in the US sent to them in the UK a while back. The sender had written quite a high value on the parcel and it inevitability got spotted and a customs charge allotted to it. The customer in the UK wasn't willing to pay the charge especially as they knew what the parcel contained so it was returned to sender.

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 01 Jan 2019, 11:35

arnold cheshire wrote:Sg on the end of a code isn't China

It may be possible they felt targeted, so they used Singapore as a proxy. The package was an aliexpress standard delivery some people say would not attract customs charge. Judging by their circumventive action, I suspect they are more likely to attract charges because this kind of packages is guaranteed to be commercial.

The package originated from china. It was sent to Singapore by air. Then the package was given a Singaporean originating PO Box. The PO Box was probably blacklisted by customs and so they applied a charge the minute they saw it. They didn't care for the true value of the item in the package because they knew the royal mail handling charge will be deterrent enough for the recipient.

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 05 Jan 2019, 07:47

I did more research. Customs charging is very much a fact of life when buying from China, and more common than generally believed.

It seems aliexpress is behind the curve, so to speak, on developing countermeasures for the charging. However, other shopping portals have solutions. I ordered from banggood, and they appear to be able to deliver goods without triggering the customs charging. Basically, they send goods from china to one of their warehouses in EU. The goods is then sent on to UK with an EU label, avoiding the customs charging. Their delivery is also covered by a free tariff insurance that will compensate the shopper if they are hit by customs. Some claim they were refunded half of their unexpected additional costs.

For people wanting to avoid customs charging, they just have to shop around to find places that use the right kind of shipping methods. Of course if brexit happens then goods originating from EU will probably get taxed as normal imports.

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 06 Jan 2019, 15:55

If the Chinese company posted to an English address and they forward on you haven't received the goods from China

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 06 Jan 2019, 18:39

arnold cheshire wrote:If the Chinese company posted to an English address and they forward on you haven't received the goods from China

Then the english address gets hit with customs tax. The loophole available to the chinese is another EU country that doesn't lose tax money from the transaction. So they let the goods in and just take the port charges from the chinese. Greece would be a good landing place for the chinese.

buyer123 · Post by **buyer123** » 14 Jan 2019, 15:46

WOOOO WOOOO, who'd thought things could move like the clappers at Langley? Hope they won't hit me with a charge on my £6 wifi card.

Monday 14 January 03:08pm
Item has left our International Processing Centre
Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, United Kingdom

Monday 14 January 08:57am
Item Received
LANGLEY HWDC, United Kingdom

Tuesday 25 December 02:08pm
Item Leaving overseas
China