Dear spiders My grateful thanks to all who have responded to me about 'handling charges' by UK Post Offices. I quote my reply to Jean Peach who used to work for the Post Office, which will save me replying to you all individually. I just hope my little granddaughter loves her little jacket as I would never have entered into this little project, had I known what it was going to cost me!
Hi Jean Yes I do remember that you used to work for the Post Office and recall your splendid efforts at trying to get them to produce Lace stamps. My husband did try and telephone but as usual all he got was a recorded message to press one number or the other. He found their web site and sent a message to the person who was designated to deal with his particular enquiry but that too was 'automated' and he wrote a very rude reply to Sarah or whatever her name was. We just gave up in the end, which is of course, what I expect they hope you will do as you just can't get to speak to anyone about anything these days. Thank you for your help but I feel that it will not result in a positive conclusion and I have had packages from this company many times over the years, some of them earlier this year, but suddenly there is this 'handling fee' imposed which others have experienced too. The cost is broken down as £5.39p VAT and £13.39p 'Royal Mail International Handling Fee' making a total of £13.39! The kit cost me S87.78AU (which amounted to £45.04p on my credit card including a commission charge of £1.21p) plus the £13.39p makes a whopping £58.43 for a magazine and a small amount of denim fabric, a reel of sewing cotton and some cotton perle thread. I receive the magazine as a subscriber but there is no extra charge on that and the plastic jiffy bag that the kit came in, is the same size A4 bag that the magazine arrives in. There is a label on the front of the package which states "Goods purchased & imported into the EU with a value of £18 (for VAT purposes) and over £120 (for import duty purposes), or goods imported from one private person as a gift over the value of £36, are subject to Customs charges. These reliefs do not extend to Excise goods, e.g. tobacco products & alcohol. Queries about Customs charges are to be made in writing to the above address or by telephoning 0207 239 2449 quoting the above charge number & date" My Invoice from them has a large green label stuck on it saying "Regular International Customer" and the customs label to filled in by them states 1 x sewing kit (material & thread) + magazine. Well I guess it qualifies for the £5.39p VAT which is bad enough as it's over £18 value but it's certainly not over £120 which qualifies for Import Duty. Also it is not 'goods imported from one private person to another person as a gift' but purchased from a Business Company by a private person, bought and paid for! I've given up, my time is too precious and it's all just too frustrating but it means that this company has lost a good customer! PS. The value they have written on the Customs Form is $55AU which is £29.71p (that is without the postage of course but is the value of the goods contained therein) and therefore it does not qualify for any of these charges. It's the cost of postage and handling charges that have made my little jacket come into the designer/courture category! I think we should bring this matter to a close now but I just wanted to warn other UK purchasers about this new imposed 'Royal Mail International Handling Fee. There has been no import Duty or Excise Duty charged but only VAT and Royal Mail International handling Fee. Catherine Barley Henley-on-Thames UK - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
