radius toothbrushes - customs warning!

[crisgal]

i am a BIG fan of radius toothbrushes and bought half a dozen directly from their website in usa. The parcel arrived within a week but customs wanted me to pay �25 duty! I had to send the parcel back to the depot while i tried to sort this out and get the charge reduced. To cut a long story short, due to the christmas holidays i ran out of time and the package has been sent back. This means i have been charged by the company for postage to and from uk (quite rightly) and i am still without my wonderful toothbrushes. Does anyone know a way around this ridiculous charge? 

[Hermia]

How much was the package worth? If you order anything over a certain amount you are liable to a customs charge (I think Amazon has information about this on their website). I had to pay �25 when I ordered a cross-stitch kit from an American site for a friend's birthday (turned out to be a VERY expensive birthday present!)

[Miss Zippy]

I got caught out with this tax when I ordered something from Strawberry Net (which ships stuff out from Japan).  Basically, you pay import VAT and duty on anything with a value of �18 or over. The only (legal) way round the tax is for you to make sure your future orders are less than �18 in value.   

[keen2learn]

Similarly, I had to pay duty on a package from Amazon; no help to you, crisgal, but a salutary lesson to me and anyone who reads these items that ordering goods from overseas sites isn't always the bargain it seems. I don't understand why websites selling goods abroad don't flag up somehow what the likely charges will be so that you can make a fully informed decision at the point of sale; surely the information must be accessible to them?

[crisgal]

you're right about the �18 thing. The thing is though, the customs people had added on the cost of the postage onto the value of what was inside! This did bring the total value to more than �18. that was just SO UNFAIR!!The actual value of the toothbrushes was only $32.

I agree with you, keen2learn, international companies should warn you that there could be an extra charge, although it's not their fault.

The really annoying thing is that these bloody toothbrushes are probably on sale in every standard drugstore in america. ergo, it must be Tescos fault for not stocking them anymore. I feel so much better, now that i have found someone to blame!

thanks everyone

[Bangkok]

The problem for retailers is that the customs duty differs by product and country of importation (although the EU is one big happy family for customs duty purposes).  Therefore the warning could only be limited to highlighting there may be a need to pay something.  The majority of the charge into the EU is VAT. 

The calculation is selling price plus freight and insurance (if not included) times the customs duty rate.  VAT is on the customs value plus the customs duty.

[nicola_red]

It also seems to depend on what the company sending you the goods mark the package as on the customs label.  If they mark the contents as 'merchandise' it seems to mean you pay a customs charge but not if they mark as 'gifts'.  I order from the US regularly, hair dye, clothes, cds etc and have only had to pay the charge once, on a T shirt.

[crisgal]

that's right nicola_red, if the item coming into the country is a gift, ie from a consumer to a consumer, there is no charge at all. I have asked radius to re-send the package either as a gift or in two smaller packages.

[suedalg]

I also am a big fan of these brushes. Whilst on holiday in USA I tried several 'drug stores' to buy one but they did not stock them!! Try Gould Pharmacy in Mayfair London - they stock these brushes @ �7.00 each plus p&p. You can buy online.