I was just trying to save a few quid, so ordered a spare mech hanger from the US saving maybe £3, as I was in no hurry, it was about £16 all in and saved me travelling an hour to decent LBS.
However attempted delivery of said item has come with a card saying I owe £11.32 customs for the privilege! WTF??? I've had stuff from the USA before and never paid customs for small items like this. Is it a case of seller (ebay) not filling in correct paperwork or is it what it is?
Luck of the draw sometimes. I had a shock upgraded in the states and between royal mail and hmrc, I was fifty quid worse off.
Double posting FAIL also 😀
£11.32 seems high.
You should have 4.7% duty, 20% VAT plus a handling charge. I'm betting it's the last bit that has made it so expensive.
Unlucky... I believe the threshold past which HMRC becomes "interested" is £15. As druidh says, it is the handling charge that's the killer for small items (think it's about £8 or so) so the £11 total seems harsh, but correct
Where the fun starts is if you are organising an international short film festival and potential exhibitions send you their VHS sample copies with customs declarations stating the full production cost of the film, not the value of the cassette in the packet
I bought an HID light from the USA, by the time I had received it, it cost me EXACTLY the same as if I'd bought it from the UK distributor.