General Chat

Sorry chaps, I've only been allowed access to MY computer briefly (bl**dy half-term) so will not be able to read through or respond properly until later.

At the moment I think it is my fault for not reading the small print - usually I am so careful but on this occasion I was fooled by the price being in sterling.

Ebay has just told me to leave negative feedback, no further advice.

I still haven't a clue how to contact Customs, which I feel is the only course of action I can take.

Tracey

Surely you have had a letter from HMCE, otherwise you wouldn't know that the item has been impounded? All the info on how to contact them and what actions to take are in there.

The first I even knew that mine had been seized was when I got the letter from HMCE.

Mary

No letter may be forthcoming, C&E usually just ask the carrier to collect the money on their behalf and that adds another bit to the overall fee.

As I said before if the item location was stated as U.K. and it wasn't then you can claim your money back. That's the key question.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

It really does look like the original fault was mine as the item was listed as being sent from North Carolina, United States.

The REALLY odd thing is, I have just gone to the local parcel office where it is being kept and it was in fact sent from Frankfurt, GERMANY. There is absolutely NO mention of Germany on the webpage and if I had known it was actually being sent from Frankfurt I would have opted to have had it sent to my friend in Munich so she could have handed it to me when she was back in England. I have had the odd thing go mising en route to UK before now.

I would have thought an item coming from within the EEC would have been cheaper to post than coming from America.

I needed to check the package was actually the DVDs I'd been expecting as the card only had "Brown" as the recipient, so there was the chance the package was ordered by the kids. It is definitely mine.

I refused to pay the additional charge when I found out how it had been calculated and now have 2 weeks to decide what to do.

The customs charge itself is reasonable at £4.09 (VAT) and I have no problem with paying that as it is fair...
BUT Royal Mail has slapped on an additional £8.00 handling fee. WHY??? The man in the sorting office says it is because somebody needed to drive a van to the airport and collect the parcel - yes, that is what one would expect when one pays post and packing!

So I'm now having to take it up with Royal Mail. No wonder Mr Crozier is so rich!

Incidentally one of my friends who regularly buys goods from abroad has said there are moves to disregard goods value under £180 before customs charges are applied. This should come into force sometime this year apparently - that will hurt Royal Mail much more than it affects Customs ;o)

(I won't be able to access my PC for the next few hours so please don't think I'm rude if I don't respond for a bit).

Just a quick progress report.
The sorting office advised me to contact the Royal Mail through their website page. Unfortunately the link doesn't work yesterday or today but I'll give it yet another try tomorrow.

There is an 0845 number but at 10p a minute when normal local rates are free is not really an option. No-one at my local sorting office has the authority to handle my enquiry - I've already tried that route. Too many monkeys and no organ grinder :o(

If it's been shipped from the US I hope you have the correct format on the DVD. The US is region 1, the UK region 2.

Rose

Rose, it IS a region 1 as the DVD isn't available in any other format. It seems that many of the cheaper DVD players are multiregional these days. I did try out one on my daughter's £14 player and it worked, but not on the main household player.

Here is a useful link someone has sent me on this subject.
Hope others find it helpful.

http://tinyurl.com/aqwft