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EU postage experiment.


Paul S

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On 18/01/2021 at 13:04, bartelby said:

Hasn't that threshold been scrapped now?

EDIT: oh, apparently not, but it's now £39:

  • if you’re sent a gift with a value of £39 or less, which complies with the rules shown in section 2.4, it will be free from Customs Duty and Import VAT (gifts of alcohol and tobacco are subject to the limits shown in section 2.5 and gifts of perfumes and toilet waters are subject to the limits in section 2.6)

 

Of course the 'charge' if it's stopped when marked as a gift, and found to be clearly no such thing, is confiscation, so it's a dangerous game to play.

Customs Duty cases used to be so much fun to read 🙄

Edited by WalMan
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I finally received my package from America yesterday, that arrived in the UK through Stansted on the 6th; seems that UPS are very slowly getting their shizzle together. What bugs me is the broken promises and lack of transparency, wishing me and my family well and other meaningless platitudes and apologies whilst seemingly doing b a to actually deliver the package

They have changed the way they work a good bit since last October and none of it seems to be for the better, hopefully it will settle down, they'll catch up with the backlog and the next time I order from America it will be delivered in 5 days with the duty sorted without me getting stressed like it always used to be

The drivers are still doing a great job given what they are dumped on with

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My parcel is still stuck at the "International Hub" where it has been since Monday Evening. The last entry says it has been exported from the UK which I am assuming means it has been cleared by UK customs. However since it is still at the International Hub, it is probably stuck in the backlog. I've just spent a frustrating 10 minutes on WebChat with Interparcel who can't tell me anything and whose end of the conversation mostly consisted of cut and paste excuses, blaming Covid and Brexit. 

My advice would be no to send anything bigger than a Large Letter to the EU at the moment.

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On 23/01/2021 at 11:04, BigRedX said:

Finally managed to find the web chat  page on the HMRC web site and it turns out that the link from the Interparcel page is out of date and if I used the correct one that will be supplied I should get my number with a couple of minutes of completing the form.

I thank him and start filling in the this new on-line form... until I need to supply a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. I follow the link to search for the relevant code for my business. 10 minutes and plenty of lateral thinking later I still can't find a code for anything like my business. Start the HMRC web chat again and after 5 minutes of being number 1 in the queue I am informed that there are no advisers available despite the fact that it says on the page that web chat is open from 8am to 4pm on Saturday. 

Return to the EORI form only to discover that I have been signed out "for my security" and that my what I have complete so far has not been saved.

Grrr...

Sic Codes aren't too bad, the list is not ridiculously long, although my main activity (by turnover) flips between two headings year on year according to the work I get.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-industrial-classification-of-economic-activities-sic

But don't stress too much - it's only used for data analysis (e.g. to analyse contributions of different areas to the economy) not to set your VAT rate etc. so it's not critical to be spot on, they just suggest you go with your main business activity.

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Spoke to a mate who imports from the far East earlier.

He had a container loaded in October which got offloaded in Malaysia and eventually turned up last month.

Currently the expected time is about 2 months, but the international container shortage has put teh cost of a container from China up by several thousand pounds. Not good news for Pound shops!

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On 29/01/2021 at 13:02, Aidan63 said:

I finally received my package from America yesterday, that arrived in the UK through Stansted on the 6th; seems that UPS are very slowly getting their shizzle together. What bugs me is the broken promises and lack of transparency, wishing me and my family well and other meaningless platitudes and apologies whilst seemingly doing b a to actually deliver the package

They have changed the way they work a good bit since last October and none of it seems to be for the better, hopefully it will settle down, they'll catch up with the backlog and the next time I order from America it will be delivered in 5 days with the duty sorted without me getting stressed like it always used to be

The drivers are still doing a great job given what they are dumped on with

What backlog?  Oredered a Yamaha BX1 from Virginia just over two weeks ago, have posted this already.  14 days, picked it paid my duty/tax was playing it on Monday.  USPS which links straight to Parcelforce..........$108 shipping cost........

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MY shipment was with UPS , sent from California on the 4th and arrived in UK on the evening of the 6th, spent a week sat at Stansted, occasionally being scanned but not moving, then more than 2 weeks at UPS London Hub also being scanned but not seemingly progressing, before finally making it's way to Deeside depot, and delivered at the first opportunity by the final delivery team. Normally I can order from my supplier on Monday and have it in my hand, tax paid 5 days later, 3 days if I pay extra for the super quick service with UPS.  Unfortunately in this case it was very much delayed. This is gearbox parts for my business so not 4 foot long boxes of bass.

Your experience with USPS was a lot better which is great

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22 minutes ago, Aidan63 said:

MY shipment was with UPS , sent from California on the 4th and arrived in UK on the evening of the 6th, spent a week sat at Stansted, occasionally being scanned but not moving, then more than 2 weeks at UPS London Hub also being scanned but not seemingly progressing, before finally making it's way to Deeside depot, and delivered at the first opportunity by the final delivery team. Normally I can order from my supplier on Monday and have it in my hand, tax paid 5 days later, 3 days if I pay extra for the super quick service with UPS.  Unfortunately in this case it was very much delayed. This is gearbox parts for my business so not 4 foot long boxes of bass.

Your experience with USPS was a lot better which is great

Off the original topic.

But you're not by any chance the same Aiden that does the old VW gearboxes on Club 8090 are you? 

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11 hours ago, ProfJames said:

@Aidan63       sorry to hear that but regardless if it was widgets or wodgets I also have had regular shipments from the USA which tend to be quicker and easier to administrate than the EU orders I have experienced.

Hope the delay never affected yuor business adversely.............

 

it was for stock,  so not that urgent, thanks, if UPS had just said 'we've got problems, expect a three to four week delay' from the outset I'd have been chilled, it was the constant changing of expected delivery date, delaying it by 24hours, then going dark for a week, all the time promising to do something to expedite it (which is after all what I'd paid for) whilst the tracking showed the box being scanned multiple times but no actual progress that was annoying

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On 03/02/2021 at 18:41, Stub Mandrel said:

Sic Codes aren't too bad, the list is not ridiculously long, although my main activity (by turnover) flips between two headings year on year according to the work I get.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-industrial-classification-of-economic-activities-sic

But don't stress too much - it's only used for data analysis (e.g. to analyse contributions of different areas to the economy) not to set your VAT rate etc. so it's not critical to be spot on, they just suggest you go with your main business activity.

Unfortunately when you apply for your EORI number there is no indication of this. Since IME dealing with HMRC you need to be pretty much spot on or you will run into problems, if not immediately then further down the line, I wanted to be sure that I had the best SIC code to describe what I do and I wanted HMRC to advise me on what that was, so if there did turn out to be problems I could point back that them and say that I had followed their advice on the matter, after specifically asking for their help.

The code I got was for "Creative Artist" which is a bit of a stretch for my occupation, and there was at least one other option that was just as "not quite right", but since that was the advice from HMRC, that's the one I've used.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just an update on my Belgium parcel situation.

It's still stuck in Belgium customs and apparently the current processing time is between 20 and 24 days, so maybe it will be with it's recipient by the end of next week.

However, my client has more labels that need printing and delivery to Belgium. I've just spent a very frustrating 30 minutes on a web chat with an InterParcel rep, the outcome of which is while some of the other services they offer such as TNT Express and the more expensive FedEx options are supposedly experiencing shorter delays, none of them will commit to guaranteed delivery date. They sat that TNT delays are generally 48-72 hours extra, but when I ask if a parcel sent on Monday will arrive on Friday of the same week at the latest, they become all evasive. And the site is still offering 4 different timed levels of next day EU delivery from TNT when not one of them can be guaranteed!

The upshot of all of this is that my client has found a printer in Belgium to produce their labels. It doesn't affect me too much because I only make a small amount on print jobs and I still get the full amount for my design and artwork services. However it does mean that at very good UK printing company has just lost several £k's worth of work to an unknown quantity in Belgium simply because of the delays currently being caused by the additional customs paperwork.

That's it rant over. For the moment...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another update...

According to the Interparcel tracking the parcel is still in Belgian Customs awaiting clearing. The person to whom I am sending this parcel has heard nothing so far, so it's not being held up because they haven't paid VAT and/or Import Duty, although. According to the Belgian Post Office web site the customs delays are 20-24 days. The 24 day deadline expired last Friday. I got in touch with Interparcel and they promised to escalate the enquiry and I would receive a reply with 72 hours. That deadline expired at CoP on Wednesday. Further conversations with Interparcel revealed that they still haven't heard anything and are apparently chasing it up again. It will be Monday at the earliest before I hear anything, at which point the parcel will have been in transit for 6 weeks. 

If Interparcel can't give me an update by then I am going to push for the parcel to be declared lost and get my insurance.

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