Buying in UK from Australia - Ripped off by customs!!!

Hi @Simonb , I got charged 20% Vat on the invoice price that was declared by Paul plus a £12 handling charge from Royal mail plus £19.09 import duty. That was a figure that was a lot less than anticipated, especially after your debacle.
I did get most of my money back but I had a right battle with customs and they eventually caved in and gave me a refund. Took me 3 months of persistence to get there though.
It seems customs is staffed by idiots who like to play guessing games with peoples imports!
 
It's the same with any government department, once they have your money they don't give a flying whatsit. Well done on getting the refund though, persistence pays off in the end!!
 
Legal racketeering the duties on import goods, used to bring in lots of parts from the states and it was a complete lottery as to what was paid,some didn’t get stopped whosoever but god help you if the Royal Mail got hold of it, kings ransom to get parts released!

A friend in UK used to buy motorcycle parts on Ebay US and have them sent to me. As he requested, I'd send them to him, marked "used machine parts" and indicate the value as he requested, which I'm sure where way undervalued. I had no idea what they were really worth because I didn't get the invoice so did not know what he paid for them.

That way he'd beat some of the import duties. As I recall, he told me that motorcycle parts were taxed at a higher rate.
 
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