Incorrect clearance/VAT charges/Missing IOSS number with An Post/Addresspal ***See First Post***

Just an update on my package problems, in case it might be relevant to anyone. I've got the customs charge in the post this morning on the one that had VAT paid already. It seems they've charged me 23% VAT on a figure at the bottom of the invoice which is the amount of VAT I paid by IOSS. So I have to pay VAT on VAT, which is just crazy. Has this happened to anyone else recently?

How long does it take for customs to send out the reference number to pay the duty on a parcel ? I’ve been waiting over a week and no sign of it

Contact an post on Twitter, give them your tracking number and they'll find the customs reference for you

I have never used twitter is there a private chat function on it ? Or would the y be able to do the same with the chat help place on the an post website ?

So, I got a response from An Post about my VAT issues and their response was really just a polite way of saying "we can charge you whatever we like and there's nothing you can do about it". God, they really have some incredible cheek. Between this stuff and being straight-up lied to about why it was returned the first time, I'm feeling pretty angry about the whole thing.

"The whole point of automation is they they don't have to run around checking to see was it ripped off in transit, did someone forget to put it on or whatever. " - There are different reasons for automating business processes, e.g. increased productivity, cost savings, etc. However, when you are planning automation, you have to ensure that the majority of your business processes are covered by it, or substituted with adequate manual processes. Especially, if you're leading supplier of postal services with millions of customers.

"Are they going to worry before they pay out VAT if its been paid already? No, they won't." - You could be right. I don't have much of experience with other carriers and this is why I am not too concerned about it. For An Post though, I am double charged with VAT for 20-30% of my non-EU parcels. It is a big enough number to be concerned.

Hi there, posting first time because I think I can add something to this discussion (although maybe just more expressions of frustration).

So, I've ordered through eBay from Japan three times now in the last three months. One went fine, the other two not so much. I've had the same situation going between the seller, eBay, and An Post.

I've been left having almost no idea what is correct exactly, and it seems that everyone expects the buyer to pay for the package even when all mistakes are on the part of the seller, eBay, or An Post.

The first package was before Christmas:

1. I was not experienced with deliveries like this. I bought the package through eBay and did the usual paying up-front for everything, including postage, shipping, and the VAT.
2. The result was a few weeks later I got a text stating I must pay a customs charge (a charge that didn't reflect any value I could see, by the way). Not knowing any better, I paid An Post's demanded payment, including their customs charge, thinking it was some new rules.
3. When I realised it wasn't, and I had already paid everything I should have (again, I was new to all this), I contacted eBay. They told me it was a known issue: the Japanese supplier hadn't added the IOSS number and that is why I was charged by customs-by-way-of-An-Post. They also told me to send them proof of what I paid (I sent a photo of my receipt) and they would get it back for me.
4. eBay haven't got it back yet - despite a few queries my end and repeated promises on their end. They aren't clear about whether or not they will reimburse me the 3.50 from An Post. I think eBay are ghosting me.

The second package was mid-January:

1. This was through eBay again. I did everything the same, as I should and only could have (because... that's how eBay works). I bought the item through eBay, including the prepay of VAT on price and shipping.
2. However, this time, I also contacted the supplier first (a different supplier in Japan), noting the problem last time. I asked them to please ensure they put the IOSS number in. They said they would - and, to make sure it was seen, they put it beside my name on the address. And just to say: I've seen they did this. I can see it on the physical letter An Post sent me (see below).
3. Anyway, An Post sent me a customs charge text again AND a physical letter (with my address and the IOSS number beside it, incidentally). It included their An Post handling charge again. This time, I decided to see what I could do before I paid.
4. First, I contacted the supplier, who insisted they put the IOSS number in. Again, I can confirm it is on the package somewhere - it is right there beside my name. It probably wasn't the correct place, and so maybe caused the problem (to... something that's not human, anyway).
5. Second, I contacted eBay, who told me to contact my local courier (An Post) and, if I had to pay for it, contact them and they will go about getting it back. Given my last experience with this, I'm not encouraged by that response - so I didn't act on that.
6. Third, I contacted An Post, and also revenue and customs for An Post (basically, any number or email I could find). On the phone, a revenue An Post contact (I think; it gets confusing who is what) told me that he could see my delivery and the customs charge on it. However, also, beside my name, he could clearly see an IOSS number.
7. Probably (he told me), the way the details were automatically scanned when they first come into the country means that IOSS number was missed, throwing an automatic customs duty charge. But, he thought, someone along the line in An Post will probably notice it and amend it. So, it will probably be sorted out and delivered to me. He then told me, if I wanted to be sure, I should email the ecommquery An Post email address, attaching my tax invoice showing I'd paid the VAT and the IOSS number, and that should help speedily resolve the issue. Really helpful nice guy. Seemed to know what common human mistakes can arise in this process, and how they can be resolved by a human.
8. I emailed the ecommquery address with my tax invoice. I explained the situation and they replied after two weeks, saying they couldn't do anything. A mistake was made. They couldn't fix it. I should pay the custom charge, and then try to get it back from somewhere or other.
9. Anyway, that's the last proactive correspondence my side (except a email with eBay, where they just repeated themselves).
10. I have not had these problems with Amazon, by the way. I think eBay are part of the problem.
11. But I also squarely blame An Post: they seem to be fully in the 'Someone else's problem, not ours' mode, the kind of mode I often see in people who are in a panic.
12. I live in Cork. Interesting thing I'm told from a few An Post humans (e.g., my postman, a post office clerk in the main place in town) during this exciting process. When the pandemic hit, around the time of Brexit, An Post let go a lot of Little Island An Post workers (for covid reasons, I'm told). I'm given to understand this was the Cork sorting office. If that's right, then - just in time for Brexit and for the pandemic - An Post removed humans. I take it that what replaced them were automated machines - or maybe nothing (or dolphins maybe? Again, not a shipping expert).

Anyway, I read one commenter here saying we can't expect them to check every package, and so a missing IOSS number is not An Post's fault. (Yet, somehow, sufficiently the fault of the buyer that it's more justified that they pay it?)

Still, a human looking at a package who knows what an IOSS number looks like would quickly see my latest package had one. (My earlier one didn't, and that's fair.) That there is some kind of automatic scanner - AND that there appear to be fewer staff - suggests that the merry-go-round is in part due to inadequate facilities on the part of An Post. If it is TRUE that An Post reduced its staff when the pandemic/Brexit hit, it also suggests that merry-go-round is partly the incompetence of some An Post management or executive. (Not the folk I meet in the post office or at my door, though - they are class.)

Just to pause here for a moment: So, it seems to me, of everyone involved here, the customer in my position SHOULD NOT be paying. We do everything right, doing what we're asked to by the professional organisations involved, such as sellers, eBay, customs, and An Post. I think the reason why everyone else thinks its fine we pay is because, in most cases, we will. We actually want the thing. No-one else does.

Anyway, my current package has tracking on it. Every few days, I look at its status. I've not paid the customs demand, because I shouldn't. I've not received any demand for money from An Post since those few weeks ago. The demand is there in that one status update three weeks ago, and that's it. Since then, all I see are messages every few days that it is being sorted in Dublin.

Maybe the helpful call centre man was right, and some human saw it and amended it? Maybe it will just turn up? That is another thing that I've seen happen to people in this situation (although not to me).

I don't expect it to turn up. I expect when the 16 working days run out (in about a week), it will be sent away out of the country again, back the way it came, with all the attendent paperwork and automatic scanning necessary to do that.

I'm just going to watch the days tick by before it goes.

I ordered online from an American shop to the value of 90 euro. This also included a free shipping. I used the American addresspal.

A week later I made another online purchase from the same shop and used addresspal for a smaller purchase of 80 euro. Also free shipping and I used addresspal.

The shop has policies in place and there is a processing time of 5 to 14 days. This isn't an issue as such.

I'm just after getting dispatch emails for the two orders now.

I do expect to pay the vat charge on these items. As these orders were bother under 150, I wasn't expecting to pay a customs charge that usually applies to imports over 150 euro.

These two separate orders will be shipped separately, in separate packaging but also at the same time. So its just after dawning on me that I may be charged a customs duty on these orders including vats.

Will I be charged customs even though the items were separate?

There seems to be wholesale confusion with UK vendors as to how IOSS works, and the requirements therein. I received this "clarification" from a UK firm recently.

....

We cannot show the IOSS number on any invoice as its a secret registration number for customs clearance only and our handling of our EU VAT return, IOSS numbers are not to be shared to customers under the rules of this VAT collection framework / system.

There would not be a VAT number as it is IOSS and no EU VAT number is given for this type of VAT handling. We would have to advise you to speak to accountants to find our the legal position for VAT reclaims under IOSS. 

A tax amount is shown on the downloadable invoice provided to you but as mentioned there will be no EU VAT number shown, and this might present an issue making a reclaim, so please talk to a tax advisor.

....

If the IOSS number cannot be shared with the customer, then it cannot be placed on the package - so how can Irish customs ascertain that any VAT has been paid.

Ridiculous!!!