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Your Experiences of Importing into the U.K.


Kanpai Keith

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Nice customs is prepaid! Does that get you out of the extra customs duty collection “fees” on delivery? That would be nice!

 

amazon’s DHL shipping (at least to the us) almost always goes up a little with each additional item, but it’s base price is significantly lower than the hobby shops DHL agreements. It’s also cheaper DHL with really big items. It’s worked well on the few dozen I’ve done over the years. Use to use it for books as if you bought a pile you could get the shipping down to like 400¥ a book, but doesn’t work that way any longer. I usually just get something there if it’s ridiculously low priced or not available elsewhere and anything else I get from regular shops to support them as much as possible.

 

jeff

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Customs prepaid means the seller has been backed into a corner by the government  to collect taxes on sales outside their country.  Ebay does that on orders to Caanda.

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50 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Nice customs is prepaid! Does that get you out of the extra customs duty collection “fees” on delivery? That would be nice!

 

amazon’s DHL shipping (at least to the us) almost always goes up a little with each additional item, but it’s base price is significantly lower than the hobby shops DHL agreements. It’s also cheaper DHL with really big items. It’s worked well on the few dozen I’ve done over the years. Use to use it for books as if you bought a pile you could get the shipping down to like 400¥ a book, but doesn’t work that way any longer. I usually just get something there if it’s ridiculously low priced or not available elsewhere and anything else I get from regular shops to support them as much as possible.

 

 

 

The weird thing about the DHL from Japan Amazon is that it is not consistent.  I've had single book case train sets cost 1700 yen and I've had them cost 4000 yen.  I think they get the weight/size details in their database wrong and so their auto system messes up.

 

I sent in a support request to them asking about it once but got a canned answer that was unrelated to the question and gave up.

 

All in all the DHL from Amazon Japan is relatively inexpensive (at least to the US).

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Yep I realize customs paid means you always have to pay the duty (no slipping by sometimes) but I was wondering about the extra “fee” that is added in some countries like the Uk by the final delivery service for the customs handling and duty collection (I think it’s parcelforce in the uk usually). That seems to be the real hit at times on smaller packages, like £10.

 

btw large companies (ebay, Amazon, etc) in the us are now enforcing and collecting out of state us sales taxes. 
 

jeff

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The prepaid customs is Amazon's big draw for me. I also often have the impression that their shipping rate is relatively lower than other sellers (perhaps due to their ability to provide a higher set amount of business to DHL). As @chadbag noted, shipping rates skyrocket when pre-ordering, with shipping being calculated at a good double than the usual rate. Don't know why. I thought perhaps rates where updated at release, I tried once, but I paid the infamous 3000 to 4000 JPY instead of the normal rate.

In Germany, you don't pay the extra handling fee that the posts makes you pay for cheaper options when using Amazon.jp.

Edited by disturbman
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30 minutes ago, disturbman said:

In Germany, you don't pay the extra handling fee that the posts makes you pay for cheaper options when using Amazon.jp.


Ah that‘s good to know, so it’s just EUSt to pay and no additional fee for them?

I registered my address as a self-customs-declarer since the customs office on my way to work and I‘m not paying 6€ for something I didn‘t ask Deutsche Post to do for me, but so far they ignored it and I had to pay those 6€ only to later ask them to send it back to me - which they surprisingly always did, after giving them the evidence that I‘m registered as self declaring 😄

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1 hour ago, disturbman said:

The prepaid customs is Amazon's big draw for me. I also often have the impression that their shipping rate is relatively lower than other sellers (perhaps due to their ability to provide a higher set amount of business to DHL). As @chadbag noted, shipping rates skyrocket when pre-ordering, with shipping being calculated at a good double than the usual rate. Don't know why. I thought perhaps rates where updated at release, I tried once, but I paid the infamous 3000 to 4000 JPY instead of the normal rate.
 

 

It is not even on pre-orders only.  I've had pre-orders at 4000 yen and ones at 1700 yen, and in-stock ones the same general.

 

I am pretty sure it is just bad data entry or forgotten data (so it assume some default) when the item is put into their database.  One interesting thing is that when a train item is first entered, it may not be available for international shipment right away.  Each item is reviewed and updated in their database as being available for international shipment once "approved."   Their system needs to make sure it passes all customs and other rules.   That is basically what they told me when I asked why certain trains were not available for shipment internationally, and their system was giving the canned excuse about export laws needing to be followed.  Sure enough, with days, or at most a week or two, the items were available for international delivery.

 

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1 hour ago, roadstar_na6 said:


Ah that‘s good to know, so it’s just EUSt to pay and no additional fee for them?


Never had to.
 

28 minutes ago, chadbag said:

 

It is not even on pre-orders only.  I've had pre-orders at 4000 yen and ones at 1700 yen, and in-stock ones the same general.

 

I am pretty sure it is just bad data entry or forgotten data (so it assume some default) when the item is put into their database.  One interesting thing is that when a train item is first entered, it may not be available for international shipment right away.  Each item is reviewed and updated in their database as being available for international shipment once "approved."   Their system needs to make sure it passes all customs and other rules.   That is basically what they told me when I asked why certain trains were not available for shipment internationally, and their system was giving the canned excuse about export laws needing to be followed.  Sure enough, with days, or at most a week or two, the items were available for international delivery.


I see, I only had the issue when pre-ordering.

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Not always some systems try to get the fees where ever they can without you trying to side step it. I’m always a bit fascinated by this seeing it done so many different ways in different places. There was some odd customs fees that I got tacked onto equipment coming from Overseas for a project a long time back and I used FedEx as the customs agent to expedite things (Suggested by manufacturer due to experiences they had had). FedEx said they were processing fees they had to pay customs and passing them along to me. So some fees get added in bycustoms to the customs agent even though they are doing the customs work essentially.

 

jeff

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That depends on:

  • Does the country of the seller have a customs treaty with the country where the buyer is located (and do said goods fall under this customs treaty)
  • Does the shipping service offer pre-clearance, and does the seller have a contract with the shipping service about that.
  • Has the seller/pre-customs clearance correctly declared the contents in case a special screening has taken place (this seems to occur a lot with "unusual" goods, or goods where it is suspected that it is not legitimate, is under a particular quota etc.)

If the answer to any of the above is no, then you pay extra (unless you clear it yourself ofc)

Edited by Yavianice
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On 9/18/2020 at 5:12 AM, chadbag said:

I wonder if Mark's DHL issue is an outlier in Australia or something that happens often in Australia.  

 

I've had exactly 1 DHL, out of a whole lot, here in the US, get misdirected and take a few extra days to show up.

 

Did Mark get that unfortunate outlier or is Australia more likely to have issues with the local distribution?


I've given up trying to make sense of how DHL works in Australia. I had a parcel that was sent two days later than the one I've been waiting on, delivered before it. On Sunday afternoon of all times! The parcel I've been waiting on, after sitting in limbo since last Thursday, arrived without warning this morning. So who knows what  they're doing with their local distribution.

 

But to be fair, my parcels do eventually arrive, I haven't had anything turn up damaged, and the couriers themselves have been polite  and helpful. So I suppose I'll put up with DHL's quirks until EMS is available again.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

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Just had confirmation from Amazon JP that my goodies have been dispatched and another from DHL telling me they will be here next week. 😃😃😃

Edited by Kanpai Keith
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Ordered on Sunday evening GMT arrive 1pm Thursday despite having to re-pay for it on Monday due to my CC company throwing a wobbly.

 

Not a fan of choosing Amazon over small independent companies, but it was easy and fast.  All customs fees taken care of up front.  You see and understand what I was ordering and that it was in stock.

 

Happy times.
 

F4F51B24-8CBB-4DFD-A8D1-ADB35E76C96B.jpeg.0aaef86d27b0a45643fcedf09888d089.jpeg

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Peter Osborne

Ridicules admin charge ,,,,how can carriers charge “pay day loan interest” charges for admin fees on such small items, I’ve not objection at paying the VAT due but this really is taking business to a new level perhaps its should be a % of vat to a maximum fee .

79656C27-2C3B-408C-AF5E-0926183475E8.jpeg

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On the rare occasions inbound parcels attract the attention of Japanese customs'n'excise, Japan Post charges a whole 250 yen for handling payment of the customs fee, on the doorstep, in cash :D.

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That’s the good thing about Amazon, they take care of paying the vat for you and you only pay a small premium.

 

I’ve only imported into the U.K. twice (Rokko/Amazon) and found it easy, but annoyed at the £12 TNT add on so it’s best to pool your purchases.  I’ve been looking at ZEN MARKET recently and might give them a go.

 

It might also be worth joining forces with others wanting to order.  

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Claude_Dreyfus
19 hours ago, Peter Osborne said:

Ridicules admin charge ,,,,how can carriers charge “pay day loan interest” charges for admin fees on such small items, I’ve not objection at paying the VAT due but this really is taking business to a new level perhaps its should be a % of vat to a maximum fee .

79656C27-2C3B-408C-AF5E-0926183475E8.jpeg

That looks about par for the course.

 

The handler fee has always been extortionate, especially given postage has been paid for! The amount seems to start at £8, but can go much higher. My most recent Japanese purchase, the VAT and this fee added over 30% to the original purchase price. In the past this has seemed to go unnoticed, however in the Brexit aftermath, lots more people are being introduced to this daylight robbery as it is now being applied to parcels from EU countries (note, not a Brexit rant, just a statement of fact) and it is making the news. One hopes that some of the inevitable backlash will be aimed at these companies for the fees they charge (VAT, you can't avoid)...

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Peter Osborne

I’m just waiting for a Kato et122 and 4 pieces of track from Hobby Search via DHL so far taken 3 days and says out for delivery but as yet no text for the VAT about £95 with shipping so I. Reckoning on £20ish due and it’s on the van to come today,,  many years ago they would deliver and send a follow up invoice but I’m guessing lots were unpaid,,

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Peter Osborne
On 1/27/2021 at 3:20 PM, Claude_Dreyfus said:

That looks about par for the course.

 

The handler fee has always been extortionate, especially given postage has been paid for! The amount seems to start at £8, but can go much higher. My most recent Japanese purchase, the VAT and this fee added over 30% to the original purchase price. In the past this has seemed to go unnoticed, however in the Brexit aftermath, lots more people are being introduced to this daylight robbery as it is now being applied to parcels from EU countries (note, not a Brexit rant, just a statement of fact) and it is making the news. One hopes that some of the inevitable backlash will be aimed at these companies for the fees they charge (VAT, you can't avoid)...

 I did have a 2 car emu and some tomix track come yesterday with DHL and no VAT to pay so happy days, I get mixed up on DHL as they state items less than. £135 don’t attract VAT as the sender pays it? scroll down to page 8 

https://dhlguide.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DHL_Express_Brexit_Customer_Presentation_October_2020_v2.pdf

 

I thought this was just Europe but the next paragraph mentions EU.

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Peter Osborne
21 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Expect to maybe receive an invoice in the next days.

 Thanks will be interesting as I’ve got a KATO  683 Snow Rabbit due Tuesday from Rokko via same shippers many moons ago used to get follow up letters but think lack of oaynent (not by myself) caused  them to move to collect before delivery same as other competitors, at the moment my KATO set has just cleared customs at East Midlands maybe be here tomorrow at this speed 🙂 

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