Post by roger on Oct 6, 2005 17:55:35 GMT
Hi everyone,
I am sure many of you will be aware of this situation but, for those of you who aren't, you may wish to consider it for future reference....
In August, I placed an order for two CDs with amazon.com (who, incidentally, are entirely blameless for what I am about to say). At the time, one CD was available but the other was temporarily out of stock. I had the option of having the first one shipped immediately with the second one to follow in due course, or wait until the entire order could be shipped in one go. The second option was cheaper because of the reduced costs of post and packaging. Consequently, I agreed to wait.
Yesterday, I received notification from the Post Office that a parcel awaited collection at the local sorting office but was subject to a payment (by me) of 9.55 GBP. I collected it today and found that this payment was made up as follows:
£5.55 - Import VAT
£4.00 - Royal Mail Clearance Fee!!!!
Import duty (for items entering the EU) is only charged on consignments valued in excess of £18. The point is, had I requested Amazon to ship the two CDs separately, albeit at a slightly higher cost for postage, not only would I have received one of my CDs about six weeks ago but I would not have had to pay Import VAT or the Royal Mail Clearance Fee. This would represent a net saving of approximately £7!
In future, I will only import CDs one at a time!
Roger
I am sure many of you will be aware of this situation but, for those of you who aren't, you may wish to consider it for future reference....
In August, I placed an order for two CDs with amazon.com (who, incidentally, are entirely blameless for what I am about to say). At the time, one CD was available but the other was temporarily out of stock. I had the option of having the first one shipped immediately with the second one to follow in due course, or wait until the entire order could be shipped in one go. The second option was cheaper because of the reduced costs of post and packaging. Consequently, I agreed to wait.
Yesterday, I received notification from the Post Office that a parcel awaited collection at the local sorting office but was subject to a payment (by me) of 9.55 GBP. I collected it today and found that this payment was made up as follows:
£5.55 - Import VAT
£4.00 - Royal Mail Clearance Fee!!!!
Import duty (for items entering the EU) is only charged on consignments valued in excess of £18. The point is, had I requested Amazon to ship the two CDs separately, albeit at a slightly higher cost for postage, not only would I have received one of my CDs about six weeks ago but I would not have had to pay Import VAT or the Royal Mail Clearance Fee. This would represent a net saving of approximately £7!
In future, I will only import CDs one at a time!
Roger
