Is This Evil?*

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 9:46am #1

* Forget whether it's petty or not, I know it is really...

A few weeks ago I bought a battery grip for my camera on eBay and the unit was located in Hong Kong. This morning I got a letter from Revenue stating that I need to pay Vat on the item, the item cost about €38. That's fair enough I don't mind paying that but I do strongly dislike the €6 An Post handling fee I am required to pay.

So I was thinking that the total amount I would need to pay should be about €13 and I was thinking I would pay this in 1c coins making for a total of about 1300 1c coins.

It is a little petty I know but my terribly expensive item (€38 :rolleyes:) is held up by customs as they stop the item, post you a letter, then hold the package until you fax or email them a copy of your paypal receipt. It is then sent to you with the Vat charges due to the postman and a €6 fee for An Post. In this day and age, the world is getting smaller and more connected I really feel they should raise the amount that you can purchase online before you have to pay tax- €22 is a little paltry.

So good folks of AH, should I just let it slide and pay up in notes or are 1300 1c coins the just and proper route?

biko · 19-08-2010 9:48am

Yes

fakearms123 · 19-08-2010 9:48am

BORING!

BluesBerry · 19-08-2010 9:50am

Just pay up the normal way :rolleyes:

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 9:51am

biko wrote: »

Yes

fakearms123 wrote: »

BORING!

BluesBerry wrote: »

Just pay up the normal way :rolleyes:

Oooh guess I'm really out of touch with things. :eek:

Cianos · 19-08-2010 9:52am

Yes, express your anger at being inconvenienced by further inconveniencing yourself by counting out 1300 coins.

Shivers26 · 19-08-2010 9:52am

Yes, plus you are only adding to your woes because you would have to queue in the bank or whatever to get 1300 1c coins. Not worth the hassle

Wossack · 19-08-2010 9:53am

clichéd post is clichéd

chin_grin · 19-08-2010 9:53am

It's f*cking hilarious is what it is. Project Mayhem Lives!

His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.
His name is Kintarō Hattori.

philologos · 19-08-2010 9:54am

Most of the sellers from Hong Kong / China mark the package as "Gift" anyway as far as I remember from what I've got from there before.

monkeypants · 19-08-2010 9:54am

Not sure if handing someone 1300 coins would be considered as legal tender.

Dravokivich · 19-08-2010 9:55am

Too many coins, they can reject that method of payment.

Can't remember the exact limit, but I think a vendor can refuse a transaction if there is over 50 - 75 coins...

AntiRip · 19-08-2010 9:58am

I've been caught once or twice with this. Sometimes you can get away with it if,

Once or twice I bought from a seller that said his location was the UK but the item was sent from HK/China. When I got the customs letter I emailed the seller telling them that if they didn't refund the cost of revenue I'd refuse to collect the item and open a 'item not received' dispute. Always worked.

Same thing happened with mymemory.co.uk and I emailed them and they refunded the revenue cost straight away (very nice bunch of people)

If you don't have these options, pay up I'm afraid

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 10:01am

Ah fair enough fair enough, seems that I really am petty so. The same sentiment is being expressed by my colleagues as the fine folk of AH.

Oh and I could just get the coins through work so I wouldn't have to go queue for them.............. not that that makes any difference now. It seems I am out of step with the general feeling on the issue.

Regular payment it is so.

ejmaztec · 19-08-2010 10:08am

The ideal way of paying such government bills is to shove the notes up a dead dog's arse and throw the festering corpse over the counter.

giant_midget · 19-08-2010 10:12am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

* Forget whether it's petty or not, I know it is really...

A few weeks ago I bought a battery grip for my camera on eBay and the unit was located in Hong Kong. This morning I got a letter from Revenue stating that I need to pay Vat on the item, the item cost about €38. That's fair enough I don't mind paying that but I do strongly dislike the €6 An Post handling fee I am required to pay.

So I was thinking that the total amount I would need to pay should be about €13 and I was thinking I would pay this in 1c coins making for a total of about 1300 1c coins.

It is a little petty I know but my terribly expensive item (€38 :rolleyes:) is held up by customs as they stop the item, post you a letter, then hold the package until you fax or email them a copy of your paypal receipt. It is then sent to you with the Vat charges due to the postman and a €6 fee for An Post. In this day and age, the world is getting smaller and more connected I really feel they should raise the amount that you can purchase online before you have to pay tax- €22 is a little paltry.

So good folks of AH, should I just let it slide and pay up in notes or are 1300 1c coins the just and proper route?

Typical Polish :rolleyes:

just pay up like a normal person does...:mad:

Sea Sharp · 19-08-2010 10:17am

give them notes but put it in an envelope that's really hard to open.
Muhahahahahahahaha.

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 10:20am

jesusinaglanza wrote: »

Typical Polish :rolleyes:

just pay up like a normal person does...:mad:

Eh I'm not Polish, and what does that have to do with anything? Hmnn?

King Felix · 19-08-2010 10:21am

Those customs people should catch a grip.

chin_grin · 19-08-2010 10:24am

Sea Sharp wrote: »

give them notes but put it in an envelope that's really hard to open.
Muhahahahahahahaha.

Or write a cheque. Freeze it and put it in a crisp-like shape. And try to send it to them without the crisp-cheque (harharhar) breaking. Like they used to do on The Childrens Channel. Je'member?

EL_Loco · 19-08-2010 10:29am

If you buy something off the net you spin the customs wheel baby! If you don't like it then run in the elections on the promise to clean up the broken customs system. (and lose some revenue too).

Motley Crue · 19-08-2010 10:30am

No, this is EVIL....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dc5iiT0f1s

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 10:36am

EL_Loco wrote: »

If you buy something off the net you spin the customs wheel baby! If you don't like it then run in the elections on the promise to clean up the broken customs system. (and lose some revenue too).

I mentioned that I don't mind paying the VAT charges and that my gripe is with the An Post handling fee.

CrazyRabbit · 19-08-2010 10:39am

DHL pay the VAT for you at customs. Then when they deliver the item to you, you pay them the VAT.

Oh, and they charge €13 for this service, even if you didn't ask for it.

Last time they delivered an item to me, they handed it to me first, then asked for the VAT & €13. I payed the VAT and closed the door. Since I never agreed to this fee, I didn't feel responsible for paying it. They gave up after about 5 mins.

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 10:46am

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Last time they delivered an item to me, they handed it to me first, then asked for the VAT & €13. I payed the VAT and closed the door. Since I never agreed to this fee, I didn't feel responsible for paying it. They drive gave up after about 5 mins.

Now that is evil! :eek:

EL_Loco · 19-08-2010 10:50am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I mentioned that I don't mind paying the VAT charges and that my gripe is with the An Post handling fee.

Seeing as they're state owned you can still run for election to sort it out :-p

goose2005 · 19-08-2010 11:01am

Dravokivich wrote: »

Too many coins, they can reject that method of payment.

Can't remember the exact limit, but I think a vendor can refuse a transaction if there is over 50 - 75 coins...

I think it's if there's more than 20 of any denomination.

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 11:03am

goose2005 wrote: »

I think it's if there's more than 20 of any denomination.

Well it doesn't matter now anyway, seems I judged things wrongly on this matter. Soft crispy notes it is so.

Wertz · 19-08-2010 11:06am

Tell you one thing that pisses me off about the whole system as it stands....when calculating VAT/duty Irish Revenue takes P&P charges into account and then adds VAT on to that cost as well....think about it, a service paid for in a non-EU country that likely has it's own set of sales taxes, then having the gall to add a 21% rate on top of that even though the service never had anything to do with the EU. The product itself fair enough, and probably the handling fee (bet an Post love that little earner) but this VAT on the service of a foreign courier/PO is bullsh*t of the highest order.

19-08-2010 11:15am

Do you have that many one cent coins? And if so, why?

Are you Scrooge?

PurplePrincess · 19-08-2010 11:15am

You can pay with a max of 50 coins so get someone brainy to go all Carol Vorderman and work out the most inconvienent combination.
An Post seriously need to catch themselves on charging €6 for something they have to do anyway. Chancers!!!

"10.—(1) No person, other than the Central Bank of Ireland and such persons as may be designated by the Minister by order, shall be obliged to accept more than 50 coins denominated in euro or in cent in any single transaction."

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1998/en/act/pub/0038/sec0010.html#zza38y1998s10

listermint · 19-08-2010 11:19am

Wertz wrote: »

Tell you one thing that pisses me off about the whole system as it stands....when calculating VAT/duty Irish Revenue takes P&P charges into account and then adds VAT on to that cost as well....think about it, a service paid for in a non-EU country that likely has it's own set of sales taxes, then having the gall to add a 21% rate on top of that even though the service never had anything to do with the EU. The product itself fair enough, and probably the handling fee (bet an Post love that little earner) but this VAT on the service of a foreign courier/PO is bullsh*t of the highest order.

They are bandits - simple

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 11:20am

Deleted User wrote: »

Do you have that many one cent coins? And if so, why?

Are you Scrooge?

No I could just get them through work.

Ush1 · 19-08-2010 11:27am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Well it doesn't matter now anyway, seems I judged things wrongly on this matter. Soft crispy notes it is so.

Perhaps slightly file the edges and iron the notes, just so the person your handing them to doesn't get a papercut or anything.:p

Menengroth™ · 19-08-2010 11:32am

Evil? This? Really?

Kintarō Hattori · 19-08-2010 11:34am

Menengroth™ wrote: »

Evil? This? Really?

Well I'm a nice guy in reality so yeah I thought maybe this seemed a little nasty and evil.

ejmaztec · 19-08-2010 11:36am

jesusinaglanza wrote: »

Typical Polish :rolleyes:

just pay up like a normal person does...:mad:

Thanks for the entertainment, I love it when someone shoots themselves in both feet.:P

Mr. Presentable · 19-08-2010 11:39am

Yup, poster is correct, limit of 50 coins.

With resp. the handling charge, €6.00 seems small enough when you consider the alternative is for you to go to the warehouse, fill out the paperwork and pay Customs.

Wertz · 19-08-2010 11:49am

listermint wrote: »

They are bandits - simple

It would seem to me that the policy is deliberately set up that way to discourage small time buying from outside the EU by individuals.
Any company importing non EU products pays no VAT (assuming products are for re-sale) either on the goods or the delivery...of course those companies thewn pay tax on profits and VAT is paid by customer.

I can only surmise that the consumer's attempts to cut out middlemen and high prices by buying foreign goods is being stymied by making the end cost as high as possible...this might (not sure that it does) protect businesses but it goes against the grain of the global economy we are told so many good things about.

Oh and another thing...if I buy something second hand in Ireland (or the EU) I don't pay VAT on it, not even big ticket items like vehicles.
Yet if I buy goods secondhand on eBay from outside the EU, customs want to charge me a further 21% + admin on the total cost, even though VAT/sales tax was charged at point of sale in the country of origin......again that is simply bullsh*t.

gbee · 19-08-2010 11:52am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

* Forget whether it's petty or not, I know it is really...

A few weeks ago I bought a battery grip for my camera on eBay
So good folks of AH, should I just let it slide and pay up in notes or are 1300 1c coins the just and proper route?

As you probably found out by now, you may need to get a postal order for the exact amount. And in another thread about tendering coinage, there is a limit to the amount tenderable ...

monkeypants · 23-08-2010 12:44pm

Evil? - No.

evil - maybe a bit.

bleg · 23-08-2010 12:52pm

This evil walks among us. I fear for future generations. This is right up there with the Holocaust.

davrho · 23-08-2010 12:56pm

Remember years ago going to the football in Dundee and the bus park that was normally free started charging 10 pound. The next time we went up we paid in pennies.

The bus park attendant never batted an eye and proceeded to count the coins before letting anybody off the bus. Fecker!

Johro · 24-08-2010 4:21pm

I had to pay the odd customs charge too, last one was to UPS, mostly use DHL. You only pay it on stuff ordered from countries outside the EU.

kowloon · 24-08-2010 7:49pm

I've been charged on antiques, was told I could dispute it but that I wouldn't see my stuff again for quite some time and that it would be stored in 'less than ideal' conditions. The postman told me it really wasn't worth the hassle.

24-08-2010 8:11pm

Nearly bought a camera of ebay that would have come from Hong Kong.. Glad I didn't now. Bangs of effort.

Is This Evil?*

Comments