Shipping/Customs charges. Aaaaarrrgh!

Em i freaked out when i walked into my room last night to kiss my new bike and it had vanished?????? hhhhhmmmmm in your room hey : ( bad object ; )
Fancy a drink later??

size doesn't count, wow, the forks are fractionally different

Em i freaked out when i walked into my room last night to kiss my new bike and it had vanished?????? hhhhhmmmmm in your room hey : ( bad object ; )
Fancy a drink later??
i hope u wiped it down when you got it back!

stop being a dick dale. Its completly different colour and the the forks are different and the lugs are to. so would say it was different hey.

just realised you said email. You should only get letters about duty.

There is a common spam...

Good afternoon,

We have received a parcel for you, sent from France on July 9. Please fill out the customs declaration attached to this message and send it to us by mail or fax. The address and the fax number are at the bottom of the declaration form.

Kind regards,
Mary Mcgill
Your Customs Service

has anyone any experience of buying from states and japan..

do any sites/places mark as gift so that no tax is paid

A friend of a friend of mine,who works at Parcelfarce said they send stuff through without charging any duty + their dodgy handling charges when they get periodically swamped with a big backlog and can't process it all quick enough. So do all your bike shopping at christmas time?
This would explain why i sometimes get charged and sometimes not . Another theory is if you get stuff sent by a person rather than a company it makes the gift declaration more plausible , you could ask for the vendor to put their name instead of their company title.

I've escaped duty charges the last three times I've bought something from the US: Universal Cycles in Portland marked down the value of a stem without me even asking them to do so; Ben's Cycles sent a seat post and another stem which both slipped through the net.

The whole gift thing is rapidly turning into urban myth. Gifts are only exempt from VAT if the value of the item is less than £36. They are only exempt from a duty charge if the value of that charge is less than £10. So even if you could find someone willing to mark your purchase as a gift, it would only be useful for low-value items.

Just out of interest, what's on your shopping list?

i was thinking of buying some cranks and stem/ seat post /saddle /bb

That's an awful lot. Not much hope that a big box of shiny bike bits will slip through the net. I'd take a chance on any those parts individually, but not as one consignment. You'd get absolutely hammered by Customs.

Maybe you could shop around and find what you're looking for closer to home.

i was charged £30 customs for a set of 75's and a chainring, the box was quite small aswel, so even individually you might not get away with it

Resurrection of a dead thread here but i just read up on the customs charges and what not (stupidly, not reading up before i ordered) and i just realized i am going to get charged for this new frame of mine.
Its just a frame no fork etc, but does anyone know or have any idea about how much i could be charged?, because i've got no money, literally, if this package arrives i'm not going to be able to pay.
Also does anyone know what'll happen if i cant claim the package for a lengthy period r if its possible to return the package without having to pay custom charges?

Thanks.

depends on price of frame, but there is always handling fees £40-50

Shit,
thats utter bollocks.

£500 frame expect £100

Has the frame been sent yet? If not, get the sender to mark the value down low, i.e. £30, or mark it as a commercial sample then you might get away with being charged.

Also, where's it coming from? If it's Europe you should get away with it anyway.

or something nothing at all, some people got lucky (like someone here with the volume cutter from the states).

Has the frame been sent yet? If not, get the sender to mark the value down low, i.e. £30, or mark it as a commercial sample then you might get away with being charged.

Also, where's it coming from? If it's Europe you should get away with it anyway.
this doesn't work, especially from states, cutting down it. especially big boxes. the seller can get in trouble as well.

Nah its a frame from the us, arrived in Customs this Morning and they've just finished the charging process but wont tell me.
I have to wait until Monday so Parcel force can tell me how much i have to fork out to get this thing.

It wasn't very expensive though, £170 Inc P&p shouldn't come up to much if a £500 frame gets a £100 charge(that's the line im repeating to myself to keep myself calm).

Does anyone know if an appeal would require a solicitor?
I can find any information on it.

Does anyone know if an appeal would require a solicitor?
I can find any information on it.

a bicycle frame need a solicitor? wow I would love to see that in CSI.

Nah, it just that a good family friend of mine is one.
And has got me out of many a pickle.

whats to appeal? you import stuff from states you get stung by customs, import duty and handling etc. parcelforce are cunts, expect to get reemed £50 i reckon.

I dont know what an appeal would do,
but id rather go down kicking and screaming.

how about you don't by from the states then.