Here's an invoice I just got this morning from Parcelfarce. Bear in mind - TOTAL ITEM VALUE WAS LISTED AS $39.95 or about £20!

Begins...

We are holding an International parcel for you... blah, blah...

V.A.T (Value added??? Where's the value?)    -    £12.90
Parcelfarce clearance fee    -    £8.00

TOTAL  £20.90 !!!

That's tax and charges at 104% Under any other circumstances this would be called theft or racketeering - but not when the government is involved. Now I need to spend time on the phone arguing it out with a robot - so far I can't even get through! So I'm venting here instead and  wondering if anyone has come up with a reliable tactic to keep these jackals out of other peoples' business?

megnelwil wrote:Here's an invoice I just got this morning from Parcelfarce. Bear in mind - TOTAL ITEM VALUE WAS LISTED AS $39.95 or about £20!

Begins...

We are holding an International parcel for you... blah, blah...

V.A.T (Value added??? Where's the value?)    -    £12.90
Parcelfarce clearance fee    -    £8.00

TOTAL  £20.90 !!!

That's tax and charges at 104% Under any other circumstances this would be called theft or racketeering - but not when the government is involved. Now I need to spend time on the phone arguing it out with a robot - so far I can't even get through! So I'm venting here instead and  wondering if anyone has come up with a reliable tactic to keep these jackals out of other peoples' business?

There is no questioning customs and taxmen. You can't win. For example, in Italy books and magazines should be VAT free, but sometimes customs slap a nice    4% tax on the goods value and - rarely, I admit, but sometimes it happens - the full 20% VAT     . I remember some years ago receiving a parcel of Space Gamer magazines with a nice bill of... 138 euros!!!      . When, outraged, I called my accountant and then the customs office involved - not an easy task, mind you, with the Italian bureaucracy being very similar to the Borbonic one - they simply told me having 'misinterpreted' the difference in usage of commas and full stops in Itally and the US. To be clear, for Americans and Britons 135.50 means one hundred and thirtyfive bucks and fifty cents, here means ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND BUCKS (and some change...)!!! If your parcel meets some custom clerk with below average education - very likely - just guess the consequences. I filed a claim and of course never got my money back      

Is ParcelFarce part of the UK postal system? I've never heard of them before.

Cushionsnbeans wrote:Yes they used to be Royal Mails Parcel Division but then split off.

and are more shite than they were already shite

Al

My brother-in-law works for Parcelfarce (as one of their suicidal van drivers). Even he thinks theyre crap.

Cheers,
malc

What was it that you bought?

Cheers,
malc

lawrenson wrote:What was it that you bought?

Cheers,
malc

Hi Malc, Cthulhu Orient Express. I'll have to auction it now and hope for the best. Bought another one a week ago - that made it through the government lines unmolested. It's a lottery.

lawrenson wrote:Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but once theyve got you, that tends to be it.

We never get a parcel now thats not been VAT-ed and Import Duty Taxed  (roughly 30% for the pair) plus whatever blood money the carrier asks for.

And the futher bad news is that, if its new, or less than 6 months old, then all the taxes are valid. VAT is payable on games - tho not game books, just boxed games.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Retail...

Cheers,
Malc

Yup, I figured. At first, no problems with customs, then one quickly followed by another and now another. Basically means I can't trade overseas because adding the shipping and customs cost is almost always going to put the item out of reasonable resale range unless I can snag some dirt cheap bargains. Even then, to justify shipping costs means bidding on several items from a single seller in the hope you don't get left with just one. Shame that because all the people I've dealt with outside the UK have been stand-up types and I'd be happy to deal with them again. So now I get to watch all the great US stuff go through the shop window but no touching. All on 2nd hand goods that have already been taxed once where relevant and all paid for by money that has also been taxed at source. Great scam if you're on the right side of it. I have a few US orders outstanding and on the way (some fairly large) and I'm wondering just how many of those are suddenly going to turn from good deals into write-offs.

Same applies to FedEx.

Just talked to C&E via another tel. no. Here's what the guy said regarding the Coventry office that handles Parcelforce imports, "They only take calls in the morning because they have such a backlog they switch the phones off in the afternoon to try and clear it."

So:

1. Their phone message about technical difficulties is misleading at best and an outright lie in reality.
2. The taxpayer is funding a help centre that offers half the service it claims to. Do we get a 50% tax rebate? Do we hell.

These people take the cake, take the piss and then they take your money. And there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it short of revolution. If government didn't assign to itself legitimacy (which it does not deserve), it would be called by another name more suitable - organised crime.

Talking of sellers - don't they have some sort of responsibility to sort their act out and learn how to go about selling without inconveniencing or financially costing their customer? How hard can it be to mark a customs form "Used Books"? Especially when that's exactly what's in the parcel? That simple little omission can cost a UK buyer at least £8 even after VAT has been refunded. I'm now including this request on all my payment instructions, hopefully sellers will take the time to read it.