Hi pete,
If you are in the UK and the order is over £18 in value then 15% Vat is applicable.
Duty does not kick in until you have more than £120 of goods.
Out of that £21 charge the carrier if parcel Force will be taking a minimum of £8 to collect the payment.
Some carriers charge £15 and even £18 collection fee.
these are the rules... but from my experience and its extensive.. these rules simply do not get applied as they should be..
reality is 99 parcels come
thru no charge.. one gets the rules applied.. 99 dont..
this is normal.. or it has been for many months.. a couple of days ago my UK postie brought me as she does most days.. lots of parcels from china.. no customs charges..
she also left me a little note saying 23 quid customs charges cant deliver.. do collect...
this was a returned SD for repair from the US..
basically having rules u dont stick to is par for the course in the UK.. its also pretty normal for UK civil servants..
rules are things they quote at u when u complain... not things they put into practice..
its also normal to deny not always applying the rules... never try accusing them of it.. they will talk to u as if u are "mistaken".. he he
just be lucky that most of the time they cant be arsed to apply the rules.. it suits us...
trog