B*****d customs!

Blitzkrieger

Just got charged VAT on goods I got off ebay. The ****ed up thing is I bought them off ebay in the first place because I was too busy (read : chronically lazy) to go out and buy them. Now I have to write out a cheque and post a letter. It would have been easier to go to the ****ing shop!

So gone is the convienience of online shopping, customs have been pawing my stuff (and probably helping themselves) and because of the VAT most of what I saved is gone too. On top of everything I have to pay An Post a five Euro handling fee! Robbing bastards. :mad:

Oriel

Reason #185 why it's better to live in the North.

drdre

what did you buy and also where did you buy it from, you wonot ever get charged anything if you buy from eu or england, you must have bought from asia etc.

kaizersoze

If you buy from anywhere outside the EU, you are going to get caught for VAT on entry and possibly excise duty aswell depending on the value of it.
Customs will not be pawing through your stuff. All the information they need (origin country, parcel contents, value, etc) is on the Bill of Lading that is put on the parcel when it is shipped.
AnPost have no choice in the matter as all parcels that arrive in Ireland from outside the EU have to be put through customs to be cleared.
As for the admin fee, it's not just AnPost, all couriers charge it.

Mexicola

Normally they dont bother with items under 100 euro...

LegacyUser

i get my stuff sent to my workplace.

ta da!

robinph

The stuff that I've got from abroad via ebay has come through with the customs sticker stating the value of the goods within the box, only they always tend to knock a zero off the end of the value of the goods and then customs don't seem to care so much.

Running Bing

I got stung a couple of months ago. Bought something on the net for e120, good price I thought. Four weeks later a letter comes from fed ex saying my account is overdue by 40 quid:mad: Very frustrating, makes you sick when you think what people in other countries are paying for the same items.

godtabh

drdre wrote:

what did you buy?

Blitzkrieger wrote:

customs have been pawing my stuff (and probably helping themselves)

I'm thinking mail order bride!

I've bought lots of stuff from out side the eu. Most of the time you ask the seller to say its a present under €50 and you usually dont get checked by customs!

simu

Yup, it sucks áss and An Post is living in the 1940's - paying the charges wouldn't bother me at all if you could do it online with cc or paypal but oh no, they have to have some super-antiquated ultra-slow method. Gimps!

smashey

simu wrote:

Yup, it sucks áss and An Post is living in the 1940's - paying the charges wouldn't bother me at all if you could do it online with cc or paypal but oh no, they have to have some super-antiquated ultra-slow method. Gimps!

Why don't you just send them a cheque?

simu

smashey wrote:

Why don't you just send them a cheque?

I ain't got a cheque book because I'm a bloody student and that would require leaving the house to post it anyway and waiting for the cheque to reach them.

Boston

sinecurea wrote:

Reason #185 why it's better to live in the North.

you pay customs in hte north to.

Oriel

Yeah, though I've never had to any hassle importing anything for different countries. It sounds like when you buy something from broad, there's a 50/50 you might not get it!
Oh....and our post arrives the next day!

dannyd20

I recently bought a digital camera that came from Hong Kong via UPS. They wanted 50 euro Cash On Delivery to cover VAT. I wasn't at home to receive/pay so the parcel went back to the depot. Luckily I was passing the depot the following day so called in to collect it. They didn't ask for any cash!

The OP

sinecurea wrote:

Reason #185 why it's better to live in the North.

lol - I'll give you a tenner if you can tell me #'s 1-184.

JohnCleary

Heh, funny you should mention, my €1200 GPS just arrived in the post from the states... no sign of customs

Our man in Havana

JohnCleary wrote:

Heh, funny you should mention, my €1200 GPS just arrived in the post from the states... no sign of customs

They will turn up when you least expect it with the rubber gloves.

Kobie

Fex Ex are bastards. They automatically charge you VAT & duty (to save you all the trouble). But they won't deliver until you've paid. They phoned for my credit card details one time (I could see on the website that the package was in their Dublin depot) and I gave them. A week passed by, then two. Whenever I phoned they had no idea what the delay was. Then I got a phone call to ask for my credit card details for the tax. Again. I gave the details. Again. I got the package the next day & they charged my credit card. Twice! It took 2 months of waiting on hold & faxing bank statements until they gave me my money back (and a whopping 7 euro compensaton).

Long story short: I'll never use Fed Ex again.

murphaph

sinecurea wrote:

It sounds like when you buy something from broad, there's a 50/50 you might not get it!

Well that's what you get for soliciting broads!

sinecurea wrote:

Oh....and our post arrives the next day!

Hahaha, not in Belfast ya don't! An Post are sh!te but they weren't the ones on strike for the last God knows how long

Seriously though, I know Deutsche Post is also 'good' at getting the VAT out of you. I'm surprised RM in NI aren't. In the old days you never got stung by An Post, only the private companies seemed to do it. I always ask for the think to be marked as a $50 gift and I've yet to be stung.

rick_fantastic

the trick its to get em to mark it as a gift.

usps or dhl dont charge for customs usually its fed ex that are ****

me and the biz

Babybing wrote:

I got stung a couple of months ago. Bought something on the net for e120, good price I thought. Four weeks later a letter comes from fed ex saying my account is overdue by 40 quid:mad: Very frustrating, makes you sick when you think what people in other countries are paying for the same items.

a year ago i bought some stuff online and there was delivery included in the price (or so i thought). it was fed exed next day and i signed for it and that was that. Two weeks later i get a bill from fed ex for the delivery, which turned out to cost about the same as what i paid for the tee-shirts and cd.

didnt bother paying it and heard nothing since which was strange as i assume they want their money.

Our man in Havana

DHL were wanting €27 off of me for duty and vat. I didn't pay them and never heard a thing since.

A secert guys: Actual customs officers never see your packages so they are not actually assesed. It's just some goon in DHL etc that looks at the value and makes up the charge. Whether the money gets to the govt is another matter.

dahamsta

Babybing wrote:

I got stung a couple of months ago. Bought something on the net for e120, good price I thought. Four weeks later a letter comes from fed ex saying my account is overdue by 40 quid

Fedex are thieves; always check their calculations before you pay up. I've bought from ThinkGeek twice and on both occasions FedEx have overcharged me for customs clearance. The last time their excuse was that they didn't have access to the correct figures, so I checked: They were written on the outside of the parcel. And on the docket attached to the parcel. And on the docket I was given.

(Don't give your credit card information to the driver either, he probably won't log it at base correctly. Mine didn't, and I received two letters and a phone call looking for the money I'd already paid. If he insists, refuse the parcel. And when they've finally sorted it out, and suggest that you come to collect it, MAKE them deliver it again. That's what they're paid for.)

FedEx must have some kind of deal with Irish customs, they're the only crowd I've ever been bothered by wrt to this. (EDIT: What Bond-007 said re goons. Sadly, he's right. The Oirish Way.)

adam

Terry

The OP wrote:

lol - I'll give you a tenner if you can tell me #'s 1-184.

€10 or £10?

WhiteWashMan

Blitzkrieger wrote:

Just got charged VAT on goods I got off ebay. The ****ed up thing is I bought them off ebay in the first place because I was too busy (read : chronically lazy) to go out and buy them. Now I have to write out a cheque and post a letter. It would have been easier to go to the ****ing shop!

So gone is the convienience of online shopping, customs have been pawing my stuff (and probably helping themselves) and because of the VAT most of what I saved is gone too. On top of everything I have to pay An Post a five Euro handling fee! Robbing bastards. :mad:

you mean these people are bad becuase you got charged VAT that you owe on goods.

the evil people.

i see your point entirely.

jimmycrackcorm

AH - brings me back to the good old days before the common market when we used to shop across the border in Strabane and get stopped by customs coming back home. I used to make the girlfriend wear long skirts to cover the portable tv and the like in the front passenger seat. God bless Irish customs - they might look in your car boot but they'd never ask a lady to pull up her skirt for a tv...

Cormic

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

AH - brings me back to the good old days before the common market when we used to shop across the border in Strabane and get stopped by customs coming back home. I used to make the girlfriend wear long skirts to cover the portable tv and the like in the front passenger seat. God bless Irish customs - they might look in your car boot but they'd never ask a lady to pull up her skirt for a tv...

Thank you. You cheered me up no end with that one

ciaran76

rick_fantastic wrote:

the trick its to get em to mark it as a gift.

usps or dhl dont charge for customs usually its fed ex that are ****

That is not a trick at all. Gifts can be charged VAT . I know I used to work doing it !!!!(Not anymore Thank God)

Goto http://www.revenue.ie/ and click the TAX & DUTY section for more details.

ciaran76

Bond-007 wrote:

DHL were wanting €27 off of me for duty and vat. I didn't pay them and never heard a thing since.

A secert guys: Actual customs officers never see your packages so they are not actually assesed. It's just some goon in DHL etc that looks at the value and makes up the charge. Whether the money gets to the govt is another matter.

I don't think they make up the charges to be honest. I have worked in this side of things before and seen how it works.

And sometimes a custom guy does actually see the package !!!

Blitzkrieger

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i see your point entirely.

Thanks WWMan

I don't mind paying the VAT so much as the inconvienence of it. Why can't I pay online with a CC? Damn stone age customs....

MorningStar

Blitzkrieger wrote:

Thanks WWMan

I don't mind paying the VAT so much as the inconvienence of it. Why can't I pay online with a CC? Damn stone age customs....

That is the retailer that is being stone aged not the tax people. Amazon charge Irish tax . The companies have to register here to pay tax and unless they trade a lot they don't have too.