[J3OEF]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if it's been posted but I received a boot spoiler from china/tawain after a few people have recommended them on here. I'm very pleased with the item so cannot complain, I did however get the FedEx letter asking me to pay approx £16 which I knew was coming.

However, rather then paying it, I did a quick Google and found there was ways around it. I simply emailed FedEx the below,

Dear FedEx,

This is in reference to invoice xxxxxx

After having bought a trunk spoiler from China, I understood there would be
the possibility of VAT due on receiving them.

I was however surprised to see an additional section for a clearance
administration charge of £12.

Since China is outside of the EU, I of course will pay the VAT due.

However, I refuse to pay the clearance admin charge of £12, since at no
point was I made aware of, nor did I agree to, any terms and conditions
which clearly stated that I would be liable for any such charges.

At no point in the transaction and subsequent delivery was any contract for
a clearance administration charge made between FedEx and myself.

I paid the supplier for delivery, and would expect that any international
clearance fees be factored into the initial cost of such a shipment.

If you want to pursue further charges for delivery or administration or the
terms upon which goods are shipped, I suggest that you take it up with the
company who shipped the goods initially.

Therefore, I request that you update this invoice to reflect no admin fee,
and once that has been done I’ll make immediate payment.

Please let me know when this has been done.

Kind Regards,

They emailed back within a few days with this response,

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your query regarding invoice xxxxxx

Having reviewed the above mentioned invoice, we can now confirm that a partial credit of 12.00 has been raised, leaving an amount still due on the invoice of 4.74

FedEx will not issue a revised invoice and therefore we look forward to receiving payment for the remaining balance on this invoice.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on.

Yours Faithfully,

Meena K

So for anyone in a similar situation, it's always worth sending the above and seeing what comes back. Sorry if it's already been posted and I'm repeating stuff, if so please delete.

[imy]

I think this was on watchdog or another consumer programme a while back

[BMW Steve]

That's great, normally I get a call or email asking to pay the import duty or VAT before they will realise the item, and as I am waiting for a new rear defuser to arrive this might come in handy.

[imy]

you still have to pay the tax. just not the service added charge

[AWSAWS]

God. The number of times I've paid these handling fees. The post office usually retain the item until you pay all charges IIRC.

I always laughed (angrily) how tax could be 2 or 3 pounds on an item and the handling was 10 to 15 pounds.

[Benskett]

The GBP 12.00 will be for use of their deferment. Any forwarder will charge you to use their deferment if you don't have your own.

It's a bank guarantee that they have with HMRC for the liability of owed Duty/VAT, they usually charge an 'admin' fee for the up-keep of this as FedEx handle thousands of imports (as you can imagine) every day.

Somewhere in their T&C will be some note about this & no Chinese supplier will ever warn you about this as they make spoliers, they don't ship cargo.

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by AWSAWS

God. The number of times I've paid these handling fees. The post office usually retain the item until you pay all charges IIRC.

I always laughed (angrily) how tax could be 2 or 3 pounds on an item and the handling was 10 to 15 pounds.

+1 I've been caught out and fleeced by the Post Office quite a few times.