Customs query

Cyrus

Just got a larger order (800USD worth) of abercormbie gear delivered via fedex to my place of work.

Now i have been prepared for the full customs and vat implications so if i am to avoid them its a bonus.

The fedex guy delivered it and made no mention of customs and there is no customs notice on the box or anything like that,

is this normal and should i be expecting the bill in the post? or have i been lucky?

whippet

expect an invoice in a few weeks, the sister in law has done this many times, don't think you are getting a bargain, the import duties are steep

Cyrus

they are 12% + 21% on top of the 112%

the clothes are still cheap at 135% of the price

Morbid.Angel

This post has been deleted.

MGrah

Interesting that people are concerned about Fed Ex, as I had a strange experience myself recently with them.

I order some golf clubs from the US (about $300 worth) and (as is there standard practise) no mention on delivery, but an invoice arrived a few weeks later for €60 or so, which was about €20 more than I was expecting, but not completely out there so I just paid it.

Then, this week I received a second invoice from them. You see I had previously placed a different order with the golf shop that they had been unable to fulfill and had not sent and I had been refunded. However, before the order was cancelled I had received a reference number for fed ex from the golf shop because they had submitted the package data to fed ex. This new invoice was for VAT, Import Duty, Administration and VAT on the administration for the package that was never dispateched. It came to about €25 (that delivery would have been about $90 worth). Naturally I called fed ex and explained to them that I wasn't going to be paying that particular bill because the package was not sent let alone not delivered and they immediately agreed and cancelled the charge.

This has lead me to wonder though, what the first invoice I received was actually based on, because it wouldn't appear as though they are basing their invoices on what they have to pay the Irish Customs office, as otherwise I would not have gotten the second bill. It is therefore entirely possible that they got my first order through customs without paying a penny and invoiced me anyway.

I wonder what my rights are in terms of wanting to see the receipts they would have got from the customs officials for the first invoice?

Occidental

This might just be a Fedex thing. I regularly import parts from the US and Far East with UPS and DHL. If you're going to be hit for duty it always happens on delivery, never after the event.