Seagate has charges for warranty replacements in UK now

Just a heads up, found this on reddit and figured it might be of interest to people here with Seagate drives...

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder...rders_you_can/

Seems possible that Seagate are not filing the proper paperwork. Indications are that it shouldn't attract import duty.

Quote:

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Calculation of duties: goods repaired or replaced free of charge
No duty is due on authorised OP goods which have been repaired, or replaced, free of charge under a contractual or statutory obligation arising from a guarantee.

Documentary evidence that the repair was free of charge, such as a warranty or other contractual documents, must be produced with the import entry.

---

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...dures/spe14030

Nonetheless, I'd expect you could file with HMRC to reclaim the charges (apart from the handling fee from the courier).

That looks like very mislabelled goods by Seagate. The package should have made clear it was a replacement not a purchase.

IANAL...OAIE. I am not a lawyer, or an import expert.

But, I agree with the above. I had a similar experience many years ago (pre-Brexit). The differences were, it wasn't Seagate, and was review goods not repair. And, the goods were delivered, and only later did I get an invoice (from Fedex, IIRC, on behalf of HMRC).

I contacted HMRC (I luckily already had a pretty senior level contact), explained the situation, and they told me to contact the shipping company (like I said, I think it was Fedex but it wouldn't/shouldn't matter who it was) in writing and explain the cicumstances. Essentially, the PR person had declared the goods at full retail price for custom purposes. They should have declared them as samples or repair replacements in this case, and declared the insurance value as whatever they wanted to insure them for, if they insured them at all (insurance was their problem, not mine) but that the customs value value was nil, or nominal (anything under about £18 was exempt from duty/VAT).

i did so, and the invoice was duly cancelled.