AddressPal & Lockers - An Post's Parcel Service SEE MOD WARNING FIRST POST

5500

Anyone hazard a guess how addresspal may work with items from China, eg package from China to UK valued at 18USD, passes UK customs fine and then forwards to addresspal.

From here is it then 21% of the value (18USD) plus €6.50 delivery + €3.50 clearance or am I missing out on something?

5star02707

5500 wrote: »

Anyone hazard a guess how addresspal may work with items from China, eg package from China to UK valued at 18USD, passes UK customs fine and then forwards to addresspal.

From here is it then 21% of the value (18USD) plus €6.50 delivery + €3.50 clearance or am I missing out on something?

I don't think there will be vat or customs on that price.

Below 22 euro no vat or customs
Above 22 euro but below 150 will be just VAT
Above 150 euro will have both VAT and Customs

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/buying-of-goods-online-for-personal-use/buying-goods-from-outside-the-eu.aspx

JG009

What would happen if you bought an item from amazon.de to address pal with german vat paid.

Discodog

5500 wrote: »

Anyone hazard a guess how addresspal may work with items from China, eg package from China to UK valued at 18USD, passes UK customs fine and then forwards to addresspal.

From here is it then 21% of the value (18USD) plus €6.50 delivery + €3.50 clearance or am I missing out on something?

Wouldn't you try to get Chinese items delivered direct to Ireland ?

5500

Generally yes, but in the past found it much quicker to use PM or PW and forward on from there rather than direct to ireland, also found royal mail to be a bit more laxed with packages with regard to vat than direct

All that fandango

Has anyone ever had An Post/Addresspal email them to say there is an issue with their card? My order arrived into their US hub on the 28th , Addresspal couldnt process my card for the postage and to check my card details were correct and that they would attempt again in a couple days. Everything is fine with my card. Just after getting the same email from them again. Using my card to buy online and withdraw at atms theres no issues there. Whats the best way to contact them on this?

The_Conductor

All that fandango wrote: »

Has anyone ever had An Post/Addresspal email them to say there is an issue with their card? My order arrived into their US hub on the 28th , Addresspal couldnt process my card for the postage and to check my card details were correct and that they would attempt again in a couple days. Everything is fine with my card. Just after getting the same email from them again. Using my card to buy online and withdraw at atms theres no issues there. Whats the best way to contact them on this?

Had this with two cards- both Mastercards. A Visa card worked fine.
Have two items on their way to the US hub (by Fed ex) which should arrive there tomorrow/Wednesday- will give you an update on how they go. Its second hand spare parts for laptop repairs. No idea if the seller put an invoice with the parts- I should be safe from customs but definitely will be paying VAT on it.

Also had a package (food ingredients) arrive at the UK hub today- roughly 14kg of food ingredients. No idea whether I'm going to end up in purgatory with the new Brexit document regime or what the hell is going to happen. Only reason I even ordered them in the UK- was because of the stupid shipping fees from France. Hopefully shipping costs from the continent come back down to reasonable levels........ Will let folk know what happens with this.

I'm putting a lot of faith in An Post here- hopefully they do not disappoint me.

All that fandango

Mine is a visa. Double checked everything with it and all fine so very strange. Received an email reply (not sure if auto generated or personalised, hard to tell) from the an post addresspal support. And of course they answered every question under the sun I didnt even ask and also reminded me that customers are never notified when their orders arrive at hubs. Hello, the initial email I received clearly stated that mine had in fact arrived at hub but couldnt be processed any further without postage payment.

AmyMay

Has anyone had any success retrieving 'lost' parcels from Hatfield by contacting AirBusiness directly? I've had two parcels go missing week after black Friday. Given one is horse feed it wouldn't be too lucrative to steal.... AnPost emails as quiet as a mouse unsurprisingly.

Thoie

AmyMay wrote: »

Has anyone had any success retrieving 'lost' parcels from Hatfield by contacting AirBusiness directly? I've had two parcels go missing week after black Friday. Given one is horse feed it wouldn't be too lucrative to steal.... AnPost emails as quiet as a mouse unsurprisingly.

Nope, I've had a parcel missing since November 20th, and every time I contact them I get "we're trying to locate your package" ages aftewards. It's apparently been escalated (but I don't believe that). AirBusiness rarely responds on Twitter. An Post offer to highlight the issue, but can't really do much but send an email, same as the rest of us. Phoning the helpline isn't hugely useful either.

AmyMay

Thoie wrote: »

Nope, I've had a parcel missing since November 20th, and every time I contact them I get "we're trying to locate your package" ages aftewards. It's apparently been escalated (but I don't believe that). AirBusiness rarely responds on Twitter. An Post offer to highlight the issue, but can't really do much but send an email, same as the rest of us. Phoning the helpline isn't hugely useful either.

Gosh, is it something valuable? One of the parcels I know should be labelled perfectly, as I order from there often. I see AirBusiness have a UK number, I'll try phone that tomorrow. I actually sent an email to their head of customer services too to try get it escalated so I'll post an update if she gets back to me.
I am just bypassing An Post, like you said, they can only do so much. I doubt the issue lies with them.

Rewired

Is there a delay on the US side? Had a US item confirmed delivered on the 27th, but but update from AP yet.

AmyMay

Rewired wrote: »

Is there a delay on the US side? Had a US item confirmed delivered on the 27th, but but update from AP yet.

I have a friend who got no update about a US parcel until it was out for delivery from his local PO. It was as if it was never scanned. This was just before Christmas.

amdaley28

All that fandango wrote: »

Has anyone ever had An Post/Addresspal email them to say there is an issue with their card? My order arrived into their US hub on the 28th , Addresspal couldnt process my card for the postage and to check my card details were correct and that they would attempt again in a couple days. Everything is fine with my card. Just after getting the same email from them again. Using my card to buy online and withdraw at atms theres no issues there. Whats the best way to contact them on this?

Go to your Address Pal account & check there.

5star02707

Do addresspal send notifications to your account in their UK hub or once it reaches here in Dublin?

Still no update on 2 parcels I'm expecting. Sent them an email already and they replied with the usual automated reply.

'AddressPal service has different delivery times from when an item arrives at its hubs. It takes 3 to 4 working days for UK home delivery and 5 to 6 working days for USA home delivery. Notification is generated when home delivery items are processed and can be used to track parcels.

AddressPal does not confirm receipt of customers’ items when they arrive at its hubs. The courier companies who deliver them send confirmation.'

Thoie

AmyMay wrote: »

Gosh, is it something valuable? One of the parcels I know should be labelled perfectly, as I order from there often. I see AirBusiness have a UK number, I'll try phone that tomorrow. I actually sent an email to their head of customer services too to try get it escalated so I'll post an update if she gets back to me.
I am just bypassing An Post, like you said, they can only do so much. I doubt the issue lies with them.

Yes, it's valuable (monetary wise, not sentimental, thankfully). I got hold of a particular phone agent yesterday who actually did something! Yay! And, they called me back this morning to say my package had been kind of found. No details as yet as to when I'll receive it, and there are question marks around who covers custom charges etc, but at least I know the parcel exists, and is in their warehouse. They don't know the precise location, but they know they have it.

To try to be mildly fair to them, it seems the part of the address with the AP number got ripped off somewhere along the way. And I can understand when they were swamped, a parcel with a missing AP was probably pretty low on their priorities.

On the other hand, it had been logged somewhere with the RoyalMail tracking number, which is how they found out they still have it. And I've provided that Royal Mail tracking number and my AP number at least 6 times over the last month. So it seems that up until yesterday, no-one had even bothered to search a file/database/whatever for that RM number.

I'm trying to be understanding of the amount of parcels they were dealing with at the time, but it's frustrating to know that with a 2 minute computer search they could have let me know months ago that it was safe, and presumably have associated the correct forwarding details with it at that stage (though that's just a guess).

Anyway, it's not over until it turns up in my grubby little fists.

AmyMay

Thoie wrote: »

Yes, it's valuable (monetary wise, not sentimental, thankfully). I got hold of a particular phone agent yesterday who actually did something! Yay! And, they called me back this morning to say my package had been kind of found. No details as yet as to when I'll receive it, and there are question marks around who covers custom charges etc, but at least I know the parcel exists, and is in their warehouse. They don't know the precise location, but they know they have it.

To try to be mildly fair to them, it seems the part of the address with the AP number got ripped off somewhere along the way. And I can understand when they were swamped, a parcel with a missing AP was probably pretty low on their priorities.

On the other hand, it had been logged somewhere with the RoyalMail tracking number, which is how they found out they still have it. And I've provided that Royal Mail tracking number and my AP number at least 6 times over the last month. So it seems that up until yesterday, no-one had even bothered to search a file/database/whatever for that RM number.

I'm trying to be understanding of the amount of parcels they were dealing with at the time, but it's frustrating to know that with a 2 minute computer search they could have let me know months ago that it was safe, and presumably have associated the correct forwarding details with it at that stage (though that's just a guess).

Anyway, it's not over until it turns up in my grubby little fists.

Great news, I will provide them with my courier/mail tracking numbers and hopefully the situation is similar.
I hope yours shows up soon, at least you know it exists. You have a good case to not pay customs, or if they charge your card to be entitled look for compensation retrospectively seeing as the item was purchased before Jan 1st.

5star02707

This is my concern too
Both parcels I've ordered have been delivered to them according to royal mail tracking but it still not showing on my account. I already gave them the tracking numbers but they aren't bothered to check their system.

Atleast yours is helpful enough

recipio

Are they definitely going to charge a 'handling fee' for a customs inspection. ? Surely this is a State service and we should not be charged for this on top of duties and vat ? For a state service they are also very unreliable and now have a monopoly on the UK online trade which is a disaster for the consumer.

el Fenomeno

Well they've definitely upped their customs inspection game.

I used them nearly 100 times last year, all for deliveries from the US. I'd say 15-20 of those were caught for customs and/or VAT.

I've received 5 into Dublin from the US since 1st January and all 5 hit for VAT.

Whatever measures they've put in place for UK orders is resulting in a higher hit rate for all non-EU packages it seems.

Each one with an additional €3.50 handling fee.

whiterebel

el Fenomeno wrote: »

Well they've definitely upped their customs inspection game.

I used them nearly 100 times last year, all for deliveries from the US. I'd say 15-20 of those were caught for customs and/or VAT.

I've received 5 into Dublin from the US since 1st January and all 5 hit for VAT.

Whatever measures they've put in place for UK orders is resulting in a higher hit rate for all non-EU packages it seems.

Each one with an additional €3.50 handling fee.

Was it just 3.50, or was that in addition to the €10?

whiterebel

recipio wrote: »

Are they definitely going to charge a 'handling fee' for a customs inspection. ? Surely this is a State service and we should not be charged for this on top of duties and vat ? For a state service they are also very unreliable and now have a monopoly on the UK online trade which is a disaster for the consumer.

Find someone to do it for free. Customs clearance has always been charged on imports from outside the EU.

el Fenomeno

whiterebel wrote: »

Was it just 3.50, or was that in addition to the €10?

€15.99 AddressPal Fee (US Home Delivery)
€3.50 Customs/VAT Processing Fee

+ Whatever the Custom/VAT amount payable was

AmyMay

5star02707 wrote: »

This is my concern too
Both parcels I've ordered have been delivered to them according to royal mail tracking but it still not showing on my account. I already gave them the tracking numbers but they aren't bothered to check their system.

Atleast yours is helpful enough

Try tweet them or send them a message on twitter, I did this and they rang me back this morning... unconventional, but getting somewhere.

kogrady

My parcel was delivered 24/12 home delivery and still no tracking number

I just spoke to someone at AddressPal and they told me all items received up to and including 31st December have already been sent to Ireland even without processing to avoid any customs and import fees
They are now working through the items in Ireland
So anything received in the hub up to 31st December should be ok

5star02707

kogrady wrote: »

My parcel was delivered 24/12 home delivery and still no tracking number

I just spoke to someone at AddressPal and they told me all items received up to and including 31st December have already been sent to Ireland even without processing to avoid any customs and import fees
They are now working through the items in Ireland
So anything received in the hub up to 31st December should be ok

Grand if that's the case

kogrady

5star02707 wrote: »

Grand if that's the case

I know it’s a relief and explains why we still havent receiving any tracking number, as they could of got very out of date sequence in the containers so it should just be a case of working through the backlog
(At least we know we won’t face any extra fees)

whiterebel

el Fenomeno wrote: »

€15.99 AddressPal Fee (US Home Delivery)
€3.50 Customs/VAT Processing Fee

+ Whatever the Custom/VAT amount payable was

I'm surprised they dropped the fee, I thought it was going to be €10.00 plus an additional €3.50. They cannot be completing customs entries if that's all they are charging. Which leads into the next question - if you need to return if, can they give you anything to use as proof that you imported it paying VAT/Duty in the first place?

kogrady

whiterebel wrote: »

I'm surprised they dropped the fee, I thought it was going to be €10.00 plus an additional €3.50. They cannot be completing customs entries if that's all they are charging. Which leads into the next question - if you need to return if, can they give you anything to use as proof that you imported it paying VAT/Duty in the first place?

I would imagine for UK it’s €6.50 plus the €3.50 when they need to get contents and value and they complete the customs declaration
Then it will go to Ireland customs who calculate it and an post will then add their €10 onto customs to collect it

So it looks like they’ve also added the €3.50 for doing this with US items too

5star02707

kogrady wrote: »

I know it’s a relief and explains why we still havent receiving any tracking number, as they could of got very out of date sequence in the containers so it should just be a case of working through the backlog
(At least we know we won’t face any extra fees)

Did it atleast appear in your AP account or no? Have no idea how long it will take them to charge us