Parcel Force and customs charges letter

In this day and age I find it staggering that Parcel Force write a letter detailing customs charges. Given I have a tracking number I don’t get why they cannot text or email you informing you to go to their web site and pay directly.

They must be incompetent fools.
How stupid of them to send a letter to the delivery address where there’s a good chance it will reach whoever its intended for.

I order something from overseas
It arrives in the UK and is due some import duty
I receive a letter addressed to the same details as the parcel is adressed to
Simple

What I don’t want is someone like parcel force interrogating all sorts of shady databases to get email or mobile numbers for me

Given I have a tracking number I don’t get why they cannot text or email you informing you to go to their web site and pay directly.

How is the tracking number linked to your email or mobile number?

God. It’s like trying to explain technology solutions to my Mother with you lot.

You track your parcel online via a tracking number, so why not link paying customs charges online via the
same tracking page.

It still gets delivered to the delivery address.

Next, you’ll be suggesting using a carrier pigeon is the way forward!

And if the sender hasn’t given you the tracking number?

God. It’s like trying to explain technology solutions to my Mother with you lot.

God wont help you here..

I spend great chunks of my time doing the bit between
“Why can’t it just do that”
and
“That happening”

Parcel Force probably use a Windows or Windows 8 system.

If it was Mac based, it would be more intuitive and figure it out all by itself…

If it was Mac based, it would be more intuitive and figure it out all by itself…

Although the information would be delivered in a proprietary format and you’d need to spend several hundred pounds on software and hardware to find out what the charges actually were.

And if the sender hasn’t given you the tracking number?

They write to you. Were you thinking telepathy?

They write to you. Were you thinking telepathy?

I was wondering how Royal Mail would know if you had the tracking number or not. Were you thinking telepathy?

[also, they have no way of knowing if an email or text has been received whereas they know they’ve got a fighting chance of a letter reaching the intended recipient and, legally, they’re covered if the person who receives the charges letter does nothing about it]

All I am trying to say here is that the current process could be better. You go from a detailed electronic and near real time parcel tracking status to a slow letter then back to electronic delivery updates.

I am away a lot, so getting a written letter is rather archaic to me and just slows down getting the parcel delivered. At least dealing with everything online would enable me to keep things moving rather than having to wait until I get home to deal with said letter.

Suppose you dont actually check the tracking number?
Of course you are so special and important that their system should be rebuilt to suit a minority. If you’re away, how would you take delivery of the item anyway?

Topic closed!

Oh no you don’t! Just cos they don’t fall over themselves agreeing with you dunt give you cart blanche to go declaring threads closed. Naughty boy :-/

… whereas they know they’ve got a fighting chance of a letter reaching the intended recipient …

See, I was with you right up to that

See, I was with you right up to that

I did try and introduce an element of uncertainty to the statement 🙂

Is it not the case that Parcel Force are acting as the UK Government’s agent to collect import duty? They are not the carrier that the vendor has engaged, they’ll have used someone in their country presumably. Furthermore, the tracking details would be with whatever the original delivery company was surely?

The system seems to work well as far as I can see, and I’d rather our tax money was spent on something more worthwhile to the general population than a government initiated IT project that would probably cost bazillions and never work properly anyway

Yup, I often ge things from the States which were sent with USPS, they end up with Parcelforce at this end. A USPS tracking number isn’t any use for tracking it once it leaves the States.

This post was more about the merits of making the customs charging process electronic. Not about having some moron making statements as to ‘why am I so special’

I think its parcel farce’s way of justifying the large admin fee they stick onto the import duty. Last time I got stung my admin fee was half of the total fee to be paid. A bunch of thieving toe rags.

I have just used the same ups tracking number on the parcelforce web site and it finds the item. I will reiterate. Why oh why can’t I just click a link on that same page titled “pay customs charges”

If you have a tracking number and the online system is saying awaiting customs charge and you have not received letter, give parcelforce a ring. You can pay it over the phone or at the delivery office. I did this no problems. The letter arrived a few days later.

Cheers Whippersnapper! Will do just that.

what if you have better stuff to do that track a parcel online ?

stuff get there when it gets there…..

I only look it up if it hasnt arrived after quite some time…..

Totally agree with you flanagaj.
The OPTION get that pedantics? The OPTION[/i][/u] to pay online should be available for those who are able to use it.

DezB – Member

Totally agree with you flanagaj.
The OPTION get that pedantics? The OPTION to pay online should be available for those who are able to use it.

Via Ebay and Paypal it already is. When buying an item from a country where duty is due, Ebay now gives you the option to pay the duty in advance.

OK, so:
“I find it staggering that Parcel Force write a letter detailing customs charges“
Parcelfarce should do it too.

The option to pay online is already available.

They just send you a letter telling you how to do it 🙂

http://www.parcelforce.com/receiving/parcel-delivery

To make things easier, you can now pay by credit or debit card online or over the phone. Once payment is received you will be able to select how and when you would like the parcel delivered.

So basically they contact you with the only method they have and allow you to pay online once it has been received in the country.

Oh well, Im a moron apparently, so just ignore me. What do I know.
Im just off to hand in my resignation to my employer, as I wouldn’t want to fail them either. 🙄

When buying an item from a country where duty is due, Ebay now gives you the option to pay the duty in advance.

E-bay don’t make the customs declaration, nor would they pay the duty to the customs authority, nor could they do more than make an estimate of the possible duty and VAT due. So I’m not sure that would work very well.

Next, you’ll be suggesting using a carrier pigeon is the way forward!

Speckled Jim?

after waiting a week for a package from China, and another week for it to get through customs I didn’t want to wait another week for Parcel Force to write to me and tell me what the duty owed was so I went to the depot, picked the parcel up and paid for it.
All in it was something like 3 days from China to London then 12 days from London to my house, in London.
It’s almost like you’re being penalised for buying from overseas…

E-bay don’t make the customs declaration, nor would they pay the duty to the customs authority, nor could they do more than make an estimate of the possible duty and VAT due. So I’m not sure that would work very well.

I’m not sure how they do it, but they do now offer this – I guess they have an arrangement with some couriers to pay the fees.