Anyone been hurt by CD-WOW.com import charge?

[bertie]

Bout to preorder Star wars trilogy DVDS from here, as I have £2.50 off voucher, but I get a warning saying I may have to pay customs as its over my import allowance?

Anyone order regularly high priced items from them?

[Knoxville]

Anything worth more than £17 can be searched and tax added when its imported into the country

[Swafe]

anyone know what % is the max they can charge on imported stuff?

[Shogun]

I think normally the import charge is just vat.

[Angus]

I was going to buy a mountain bike from america - i phoned up customs and at the time they said about customs about 5% (depends on the product type) plus VAT.

I didn't bother in the end.

I'm sure there are people on here with more experience of importing stuff though.

[Swafe]

so 22.5% were looking at?

[directhex]

you have to pay VAT on the cost of the item and postage, plus 3-5%, plus a clearing fee with the people who handle the delivery (e.g. royal mail) of 4 quid or more, depending on who it is.

i've been hit on a futurama dvd from playusa, ended up costing me 8 quid in extra charges.

[Swafe]

i was after making a bulk order from the US of somethings, as its worked out so much cheaper, and sellin the rest on ebay, gettin some stuff for myself and making a bit of cash on the side

looks like it might not be worth it

[MD]

FedEx/UPS/DHL clearance process currently runs at 22.5% inc vat and customs duties charges.

m@

[midzt]

I bought a DVD from play.com or cd-wow before, can't remember which. But they charged me eight pounds. When I called them to tell them about this they refunded the import charges to me. I've used cd-wow quite a few times and have never been charged any thing extra.

[Knoxville]

The best way to get around the tax is to get a mate in the u.s to buy whatever it is and send it you as a gift but they do still occaisionally get checked by customs unfortunatly, I'm still gonna try it when i get the cash together though as ESP guitars are stupidly expensive in this country so even if I get had for tax and vat it'll still work out cheaper.

[directhex]

customs tend to pick up on gifts - but your own items is usually okay (i.e. get a friend to buy, and make sure return address is to the same name or surname on the front)

[MD]

Gifts just don't cut it anymore, if anything they are more particular on gifts.

I work for one of the big three courier firms and we have been noticing this lately.....

m@

[Stringent]

Isn't this because Brown has stepped up the tax now on importing things? Becuase things ARE cheaper abroad, we import them at a less cost, now they charge. I think the stupid government of this country has stepped up.

Haven't been hit yet myself when buying things from play.com though.

[directhex]

play.com is fine, guernsey is europe & you've already paid VAT. playusa is another matter

[Rave]

play.com is fine, guernsey is europe & you've already paid VAT. playusa is another matter

They're in Jersey, but that's incidental. From their terms and conditions though:

28.If your delivery address is outside of Jersey you maybe subject to import duties and taxes, which are levied once a shipment reaches your country. Any such additional charges for customs clearance must be borne by you. You should note that customs policies vary widely from country to country; Play.com advises each customer to contact their local customs office for further information.

Jersey does not pay VAT as far as I'm aware, if customs discover that your package is worth more than £18 they'll bung VAT and import duty on it- and then the post office will charge you for the privilege too.

Rich :¬)