I deal with a dvd company that only declares $5 per disk....I use their USAF mail service. Got 5 at a time and pay no charges.....but today Consigna slapped a £14 charge on the disks
What the fuck I though, but local postman said forget it but give me a good xmas tip, I said OK
I never heard of customs deciding how much the order is, they didn't open the package!
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Rumplestilt Skin Deactivated User
931 Posts 7/02
Posted - Dec 7 2002 : 9:10AM
It's been done before. Worst still is when you buy bargain disks at say 3 to 5 dollars each, and customs value them at £18 EACH. Ahem, and they say's it's a free country. Rump.
That story is not good news, but it does mention that this would perhaps be announced in the chancellor's pre-budget statement, which has been made since the story was written. So if the decision had been taken, we'd know about it now...right??? Perhaps some reading of Mr Brown's waffly declarations would be to our advantage.
Incidentally, I don't know if any of you read about how HMC&E, as happens remarkably often, bungled another set of court cases which it's estimated will cost the tax payer millions of lost revenue as well as millions in legal bills (the cases were to do with alcohol meant for export being resold in the UK). Another major fiasco, but they seem to remain beyond criticism. Then there's the harrassment of cross channel shoppers. Hopefully the government will be forced to reform this disgraceful agency, but if HMC&E get their way, I'm sure they'll grab every last penny of extra revenue they can.
So, in short, to get back to the point of this thread, it doesn't surprise me one little bit that they are being unfair to adult DVD shoppers. It's just the way they are.
Still wanking after all these years. 8082 Posts 10/00
Posted - Dec 9 2002 : 8:26AM
All this makes me think we EU talkers will have to seriously consider ordering American DVDs from within the European Union. At least when more European online stores have reasonable prices...
There is no custom duty for DVDs ordered within the EU.
That's a good point. But individual member states have different taxation regimes, so you're paying some tax somewhere - I guess the likes of EroDVD still have to pay some import duty on their stocks (or their wholesaler will) brought from the states, hence they can't provide such competitive prices on US discs.
I also looked at material on the treasury and HMC&E websites to see if there was any mention of this change to the threshold - all I could find was stuff about measures to prevent VAT fraud. Does this mean we're in the clear? I wouldn't bet on it.
Hi all, i'm a newbie, just found this site, going to be doing my first order from the US soon, i'll keep you posted on how i get on with the dreaded customs, fingers crossed!!
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Rumplestilt Skin Deactivated User
931 Posts 7/02
Posted - Dec 14 2002 : 4:04AM
Wait until after Christmas. I have two orders currently washing around in the festive postal system!
Joey, thanks for posting that link. That's just another on a long list of scandals. Search any news site and you'll see them going back months and years: I don't think any other government agency breaks the law with such regularity as Customs. It may seem laughable, but it is pretty feasible that seized DVDs have been nicked and flogged. If boxes of booze and fags can just "fall off the back of a lorry" what's to stop a few discs being lifted.
About a year ago I ordered three DVD's really cheaply (The total was way under the £18 threshold), and I got charged as though they were about £15 each. I downloaded the relevent page from the website and sent it off to the tax people and about a month later I got my money back.
So if you've been overcharged then it's not that hard to get your money back. However, you don't get the collection charge (£2ish?) that the Royal Mail slap on you back too easily though...
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Rumplestilt Skin Deactivated User
931 Posts 7/02
Posted - Jan 8 2003 : 5:27PM
@Pessy...NICE MOVE, sending the page off as proof. However, some people would rather not go down that route. I personally would probably forget it and put it down as bad luck. Good for you Pessy that you stuck to your guns, m8. Regards, Rump.