Currys and Brexit

kerdiff · 09-01-2021 11:21am #1

Hi I bought a TP Link M4 mesh wifi extender on Currys.ie on the 2nd of Jan as they didnt have any in my local store, i just recieved an email saying that the product is in a DPD ware house in England and I wont be getting till 18th of Jan. What I want to know is will I have to pay any customs and excise as it's coming from the UK although i ordered it on the irish website and thought it would be posted from ireland. TIA.

Grab All Association · 10-01-2021 7:29am

kerdiff wrote: »

Hi I bought a TP Link M4 mesh wifi extender on Currys.ie on the 2nd of Jan as they didnt have any in my local store, i just recieved an email saying that the product is in a DPD ware house in England and I wont be getting till 18th of Jan. What I want to know is will I have to pay any customs and excise as it's coming from the UK although i ordered it on the irish website and thought it would be posted from ireland. TIA.

Nope, curry’s are registered in Ireland and VAT was paid at 21% when you ordered. DPD will just deliver it to you. Unfortunate you have to wait that long though.

MissShihTzu · 15-01-2021 12:02pm

I think this issue will be far more common in the coming days and weeks ahead, but wanted to put this out there.

I ordered a monitor for use at home. It was ordered on the Irish website, with Irish VAT paid at the time of ordering. It was ordered just before Brexit with a projected delivery date of 6th Jan. All good.

Got a text saying delivery was delayed, should be with me soon and not to bother contacting. The very next day, got another text saying my item will be with me by 18th Jan. Annoying, but at this point, I started to suspect this was coming from the UK. I checked the tracking. DPD state the item is on its way back to Currys! :eek: Calling CS is useless, as you're simply sent round in a loop and cannot actually SPEAK to anyone. So I took to Twitter...

Got a reply after 2 days of tweeting. The parcel needs Customs labels applied!! So I asked via DM why it took me tweeting to even get this far, I still don't have a delivery date, can't cancel the order so I can try somewhere else, and whether this will now be subject to more VAT as well as duty.

It's an absolute **** show, and nobody seems to be able to give me an answer...

Anyone else in the same boat?

manlad · 15-01-2021 12:28pm

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I think this issue will be far more common in the coming days and weeks ahead, but wanted to put this out there.

I ordered a monitor for use at home. It was ordered on the Irish website, with Irish VAT paid at the time of ordering. It was ordered just before Brexit with a projected delivery date of 6th Jan. All good.

Got a text saying delivery was delayed, should be with me soon and not to bother contacting. The very next day, got another text saying my item will be with me by 18th Jan. Annoying, but at this point, I started to suspect this was coming from the UK. I checked the tracking. DPD state the item is on its way back to Currys! :eek: Calling CS is useless, as you're simply sent round in a loop and cannot actually SPEAK to anyone. So I took to Twitter...

Got a reply after 2 days of tweeting. The parcel needs Customs labels applied!! So I asked via DM why it took me tweeting to even get this far, I still don't have a delivery date, can't cancel the order so I can try somewhere else, and whether this will now be subject to more VAT as well as duty.

It's an absolute **** show, and nobody seems to be able to give me an answer...

Anyone else in the same boat?

Same here, except its a vacuum. I ordered on the 27th of Dec. The delivery was on track and then got stuck at the DPD warehouse. It sat there for about 9 days. I then got a text to say my delivery will now arrive on or before the 18th of Jan. As of yesterday DPD have shipped it back to Currys to get the labelled changed.

I've struggled as well to get in touch, twitter has been the best route but their responses are pathetic. They won't own the fact that they were not Brexit ready and its their mistake. I'm not sure why they couldn't just ship another Vacuum in the meantime with the correct label. They all said we hope we can deliver 'soon' which isn't reassuring.

I'm not going to attempt cancelling the order and looking for a refund as I've seen tweets from people waiting 2 months plus for their money back.

MissShihTzu · 15-01-2021 1:13pm

In SOME fairness to Currys, they (and many other companies including Amazon) were not Brexit ready due to the lack of a deal in good time and the total absence of clear direction from the British government.

But they should be able to tell me if I am still subject to VAT and duty once the correct labels are applied. As an example. I ordered a desk from Amazon before Brexit - the day before in fact. Despite the delays, it was delivered yesterday without incident and no further charges applied. Any subsequent orders, Amazon will apply charges if they are due. You get the prices at checkout. If Amazon are able to do that, why can't Currys??

rock22 · 15-01-2021 1:32pm

Is the monitor made in the UK or EU.
Becasue the trade agreement only allows duty free trade on items made in the UK. Technically, if it is made in China , or any other third party country, then it might be subject to duty.

MissShihTzu · 15-01-2021 1:54pm

rock22 wrote: »

Is the monitor made in the UK or EU.
Becasue the trade agreement only allows duty free trade on items made in the UK. Technically, if it is made in China , or any other third party country, then it might be subject to duty.

Hi - yes, I am aware of that. It's Samsung, so I assume it's not made in the UK. However - that does not answer the question of goods ordered and paid for BEFORE Brexit and Irish taxes paid at the time of purchase.

BionicRasher · 15-01-2021 2:12pm

Purchased a JVC 40 inch TV on the 1st of January in the sale
After Brexit obviously

Was not available to click and collect from my local store in Cork but there was availability in Limerick, Tralee And a few other stores nationwide
Obviously as I couldn’t travel that far I chose home delivery and everything looked rosy in the garden
However now I see that the parcel is returning to Currys warehouse as it seems it was coming from the UK

Cannot figure out why the heck it was coming from the UK as there was stock in other Irish stores

Very bad service but not surprised as it’s with DPD and they seem to be under extreme pressure with stuff travelling from the UK

I will contact Currys on Twitter and see what the heck is going on

I purchased on the Irish site in Euro so I will not expect to see any changes to the cost as it’s still showing up on the site at the same price

Mess really

whiterebel · 15-01-2021 3:21pm

Currys were brutal ever before Brexit. I ordered a 22 inch TV inline in September. They sent out the wrong model from the UK. Sent it back. They sent out the correct one - got the lady on the phone to read out the model number to ensure it was correct and in stock. Sent out the wrong one again. They have stores in Ireland, how is it difficult for them to understand they can and do account for Irish VAT?

craigcharlie · 15-01-2021 4:08pm

I have an update for anyone in the same boat.

I ordered from PCworld (.ie) on the 6th of Jan. I got the usual emails, 'your order is on its way' and such.

Today I received an email from DPD as follows:
Title: DPD is due to deliver your order from EIRE delivery - duty / tax payment must be made prior to delivery
Hello MR ...
There is a Customs Charge due on your DPD Shipment Number ... from EIRE delivery.
To avoid any impact on delivery, please ensure immediate payment is made.
Click here to pay.

So I clicked the pay button. On the following page, it says 'Payment is required within 5 calendar days of the date of this email. Otherwise goods will be returned to sender.' There was also a phone number on the page - don't bother - I was on hold for 30 minutes and no answer.

So I navigated the PCworld phone maze to talk to someone about my order. Got on to a lovely lass in South Africa, who managed to get through to PCworld head office.

Apparently head office says that customers should NOT pay the customs. PCworld will be paying it. If the order DOES get sent back, PCWorld will send a refund. She also said that some orders were returned recently - but if your order hasn't been returned by this point, PCWorld should be handling it.

Hope this info helps someone. That second call took 45 minutes of my time also, so I thought I'd share what I was told. Hopefully PCworld has a handle on this mess now.

GrumPy · 15-01-2021 4:11pm

Have had a similar experience. Ordered an undercounter fridge on the Irish site on Jan 3rd. It was tagged as in stock & available for 'fast' delivery. I emailed them on Wednesday to cancel it, I was sick of waiting. They hadn't responded to the email yet, so I managed to get them on the phone this morning. They assured me it would be delivered 'soon' and to expect a text. I requested a refund, which they agreed.

However, I lost connection on my mobile, and low & behold, 1 hour later I got a text to expect delivery on... the 23rd of January? Absolutely taking the piss. Will stick to PowerCity in future. They are much more transparent about available stock and actual delivery information.

Gemma1982 · 15-01-2021 4:28pm

This is very helpful as I got a similar email from dpd this morning. Apparently I owe 128 in customs for a laptop purchased from curry’s.ie. I haven’t been able to get through to currys. Am I safe to just ignore the email from dpd and trust that it will be dealt with by currys?

pjdarcy · 15-01-2021 4:36pm

I did the same OP.

Ordered a monitor on currys.ie. Called their help desk the next day and they confirmed that the monitor was being shipped within Ireland (i.e. not being shipped from the UK).

A couple of days later I received a text to say that delivery was delayed due to problems getting stuff from the UK.

Called their helpdesk and cancelled the order (just in case I got hit with a big import tax bill)

Safer to just buy it in store when lockdown ends methinks.

craigcharlie · 15-01-2021 4:36pm

Gemma1982 wrote: »

This is very helpful as I got a similar email from dpd this morning. Apparently I owe 128 in customs for a laptop purchased from curry’s.ie. I haven’t been able to get through to currys. Am I safe to just ignore the email from dpd and trust that it will be dealt with by currys?

That's what they told me. My worry now, since the DPD customs payment page said the order will be sent back in 5 days, is that Currys won't get this sorted in time and I'll have to go through refund/reorder shenanigans.

I also just tweeted @TeamKnowhowUK, their customer service twitter. Will have to see if they have any reply... I'm kinda done with this for now. Been on the phone for almost 2 hours today with this. But I suspect I might actually have to talk to someone in Currys to straighten this out.

Vic_08 · 15-01-2021 4:51pm

Gemma1982 wrote: »

This is very helpful as I got a similar email from dpd this morning. Apparently I owe 128 in customs for a laptop purchased from curry’s.ie. I haven’t been able to get through to currys. Am I safe to just ignore the email from dpd and trust that it will be dealt with by currys?

Under no circumstances should you pay the customs charge, you would hve a hell of a battle to get that money back if you do. Your only option is to ignore the demand, it's possible currys will sort it but I wouldn't assume they will.

Best advice for now is that anyone who really wants to buy from them to use the click and collect option as this is stock already in the country while home deliveries come from their UK dispatch centre.

Masala · 15-01-2021 4:54pm

Vic_08 wrote: »

Under no circumstances should you pay the customs charge, you would hve a hell of a battle to get that money back if you do. Your only option is to ignore the demand, it's possible currys will sort it but I wouldn't assume they will.

Best advice for now is that anyone who really wants to buy from them to use the click and collect option as this is stock already in the country while home deliveries come from their UK dispatch centre.

So - should the OP reject the delivery and let it get sent back???? How easy is it to get a refund on the Laptop from Curry's for no-receipt of the goods?? The OP could be chasing €600-700 refund for months......

I suppose there is always the Small Claims Court then

jimmy86 · 15-01-2021 4:58pm

Gemma1982 wrote: »

This is very helpful as I got a similar email from dpd this morning. Apparently I owe 128 in customs for a laptop purchased from curry’s.ie. I haven’t been able to get through to currys. Am I safe to just ignore the email from dpd and trust that it will be dealt with by currys?

I spoke to customer service today also and was told to ignore the customs charge request from DPD that it would be sorted from their end.

MissShihTzu · 15-01-2021 5:05pm

Vic_08 wrote: »

Under no circumstances should you pay the customs charge, you would hve a hell of a battle to get that money back if you do. Your only option is to ignore the demand, it's possible currys will sort it but I wouldn't assume they will.

Best advice for now is that anyone who really wants to buy from them to use the click and collect option as this is stock already in the country while home deliveries come from their UK dispatch centre.

That's great, presuming anyone is ABLE to click and collect. None of the monitors I wanted had that facility. It was delivery only. At this point, I can safely presume nobody on here realised the stock was coming from the UK.

If we order from an Irish website, pay the appropriate taxes and VAT, then it seems hugely unfair to pay VAT and duty again through no fault of our own. This issue needs to be sorted out. How and when I don't know...

cannco253 · 15-01-2021 5:22pm

I know somebody who bought a laptop online on 29th December from Currys, was subsequently told it was out of stock.

Today got a demand from DPD for EUR300+ customs/charges to get the laptop delivered on Monday, as it was being shipped from the UK.

Unfortunately they paid DPD the amount as they need the laptop.

What's the best course of action next? I presume Currys should be on the hook to refund them?

Vic_08 · 15-01-2021 5:31pm

Masala wrote: »

So - should the OP reject the delivery and let it get sent back???? How easy is it to get a refund on the Laptop from Curry's for no-receipt of the goods?? The OP could be chasing €600-700 refund for months......

You can reject/return distance sold items for any reason and get a full refund by law (Irish, EU and UK), if this does not happen within a reasonable timeframe then a chargeback via your bank/credit card company is the back-up solution.

I have no idea how you would go about getting a refund of the customs charge, once you accept it and pay for it yourself than it could be agued it has nothing to do with the seller.

Note I never suggested outright rejecting the delivery, but any additional charge should not be paid or accepting the delivery on condition of being liable for a charge from the courier company.

Vic_08 · 15-01-2021 5:44pm

MissShihTzu wrote: »

That's great, presuming anyone is ABLE to click and collect. None of the monitors I wanted had that facility. It was delivery only. At this point, I can safely presume nobody on here realised the stock was coming from the UK.

If we order from an Irish website, pay the appropriate taxes and VAT, then it seems hugely unfair to pay VAT and duty again through no fault of our own. This issue needs to be sorted out. How and when I don't know...

I am not suggesting you or anyone else in this situation has done anything wrong but unfortunately currys.ie along with numerous other "Irish" online retailers are little more than a frontend for UK businesses home market.

Anyone who had any dealings with Dixon group's notoriously woeful customer support over the years would have quickly found out they barely acknowledged the fact that they operated outside Britain at all.

When there are news stories of the likes of Tesco having difficulties stocking their shelves due to Brexit rules it is almost a certainty that the likes of currys will not be up to seamlessly transition their Irish sales properly.

The fact is Brexit has cut off a huge amount of retail from us, for the next few months I am not going to be ordering anything from UK or UK based "Irish" businesses unless I am certain they are able to properly deal with selling outside their country.

Skipper12 · 15-01-2021 8:01pm

HI,

I'm in the same situation with a toaster and a kettle. Wanted to pick them up in the local branch but they had no stock.

They promoted a fast delivery so I went ahead and paid for that option. That was on the 3rd January. I naively thought they had a local warehouse with stock.

Items were stuck at International Gateway according to tracking of parcel. Status updates state that they were on their way to Athlone on the 5th and again on the 6th. Now they are on their way to Republic of Ireland since the 8th!!

So should I expect a bill from customs?

tiegan · 15-01-2021 8:19pm

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I think this issue will be far more common in the coming days and weeks ahead, but wanted to put this out there.

I ordered a monitor for use at home. It was ordered on the Irish website, with Irish VAT paid at the time of ordering. It was ordered just before Brexit with a projected delivery date of 6th Jan. All good.

Got a text saying delivery was delayed, should be with me soon and not to bother contacting. The very next day, got another text saying my item will be with me by 18th Jan. Annoying, but at this point, I started to suspect this was coming from the UK. I checked the tracking. DPD state the item is on its way back to Currys! :eek: Calling CS is useless, as you're simply sent round in a loop and cannot actually SPEAK to anyone. So I took to Twitter...

Got a reply after 2 days of tweeting. The parcel needs Customs labels applied!! So I asked via DM why it took me tweeting to even get this far, I still don't have a delivery date, can't cancel the order so I can try somewhere else, and whether this will now be subject to more VAT as well as duty.

It's an absolute **** show, and nobody seems to be able to give me an answer...

Anyone else in the same boat?

Ordered a laptop from currys.ie 2nd January. Presumed it was coming from Ireland. Got the same text to say it should arrive around 18th Jan. Customs labels might be one issue, but DPD couriers have actually temporarily stopped collecting and delivering items from UK to IReland as they are so swamped. I know this because I buy second hand saddles in the uk and usually DPD courier the here. I cannot get them collected at the moment either. But no way will I be paying VAT (if demanded) on a 1200euro laptop. They can keep it.

craigcharlie · 16-01-2021 1:51pm

Looks like Currys/PCworld are sorting it out... I got this text today:

Hi, we're sorry it has taken longer than we expected to get your Currys PC World order to you. We can confirm that your parcel is now on its way to Republic of Ireland and DPD will get your parcel to you on or before the 22nd January 2021. We apologise for the delay. Please ignore this message if you have already contacted directly to make alternative requests.

This was for an order originally due to be delivered on the 12th.

So the main issue is that DPD are emailing customers and asking them to pay the customs fee if there was any delay in PCworld processing it.

Do not pay this fee under any circumstances. If you have paid it, I'd imagine that you will need to chase DPD for the refund, as they should also be receiving payment from PCworld.

Hope this helps someone!

Sheep Shagger · 16-01-2021 1:54pm

Sort of related but another UK retailer (The White Company) who operates here in Dublin and Kildare are saying DPD are charging duties in error.

If this happens, they are saying to accept and pay thr fees and they will refund.

Is it a case that DPD etc are being over diligent here?

Customs & duty

From 1st January 2021, orders from EU countries with an order value over €150 will be subject to import duty. The White Company pays all import taxes and duties on your behalf but we are aware that recently some of our customers have been contacted by our carrier partner, DPD, and asked to pay charges for the parcel to be delivered. That is an error relating to Brexit transition process changes and we are working with DPD to ensure they resolve it as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, if you are contacted by DPD and a duty payment is requested, then you will need to pay the charge to release the order for delivery. Please then contact us on 0044 2037 589 222 with proof of your duty payment and we will ensure you are refunded.

https://www.thewhitecompany.com/row/help/brexit-information

MissShihTzu · 16-01-2021 1:56pm

I have to say, you did FAR better than I did craigcharlie!

I've been chasing Currys to get even an IDEA of when I can expect delivery. They say, they don't know and can't tell me. Nothing they can do. So after holding for 20 minutes to speak to CS, they have agreed to do a 'return to sender' label and refund me. Should be about 1-3 days.

Datacore · 16-01-2021 2:00pm

I’d say that if you ordered from Ireland and Irish store online and you’ve been charged. If you get no satisfaction from the company, open a Small Claims Court case.

It’s not really acceptable to just get whacked with charges like that and it’s frankly misleading to run an Irish or EU based website and leave customers in that situation.

If you receive a package with a COD (cash on delivery) demand just reject it. It’s not worth paying this.

Buy your products from an Irish or EU based company. You’re not going to have those issues from any of the Irish ones and if you order from the continent just use Schuko plug adapter or buy a German or French power strip on Amazon.de or .fr and fit an Irish plug to the other end ans use your continental stuff without fuss.

I’ve a load of random items with 2 pin plugs and the easiest and safest solution was just a French power strip. Cut the French plug off & fit an Irish one ... et voila 5, completely safe, shuttered and earthed French sockets for all your devices and chargers etc.

They had plenty of notice of Brexit. This is just typical over centralised British companies that don’t localise anything properly for the Irish market.

pgtipz · 16-01-2021 2:38pm

jimmy86 wrote: »

I spoke to customer service today also and was told to ignore the customs charge request from DPD that it would be sorted from their end.

Which contact number did you get through on 1890 818575 ?
Similar story for me.
Laptop bought Jan 1st, text from DPD telling me I owed duty/taxes.
Tried to contact currys by phone - end up with automated messages, email - no reply, used chat on UK website but waste of time - they can see the order but can't do much else !

craigcharlie · 16-01-2021 2:49pm

pgtipz wrote: »

which contact number did you get through on 1890 818575 ?
Similar story for me
Laptop bought Jan 1st, text from DPD telling me I owed duty/taxes.
Tried to contact currys by phone - end up with automated messages, email - no reply, used chat on UK website but waste of time - they can see order but can't do much else !

It's really difficult to get through on the phone. The number I called was 1 890 400 401. But it's really difficult to navigate to get a person. I think you have to say 'My delivery' and then 'Other Services', if I recall correctly. And then I was on hold for about 10 minutes before I got a person.

Btw, several people in this thread have been told by PCworld to ignore the DPD mail. So it seems like we can assume/hope that PCWorld are doing the right thing and honoring their orders.

I'm guessing that retailers have to send money/communication to DPD to verify they're paying the customs fee... and that Brexit has caused some delay with PCworld doing this.... thus triggering mails from DPD about unpaid customs fees....

D n G · 16-01-2021 8:48pm

Unfortunately you might be waiting even after the 18th. We have 2 items, ordered separately, that are doing a loop between Currys UK warehouse and DPD.

No communication from Currys PCW except for a generic "sorry for the delay you're item will be delivered on the 18th" email.
One is for a birthday present this Sunday but as the DPD tracking is stating "Your parcel is on its way back to CurrysPCW" I think that's a long shot!

[Deleted User] · 16-01-2021 9:03pm

Goddamnit. I bought a replacement dishwasher online on Wednesday. Wish I had read this thread first.

All I have received so far is the order confirmation email, no follow up. I rang today and they said they could see the order in the system but it is not "confirmed" yet. (though it is paid for!)

If I'd known, I'd have tried to arrange someone to go pick one up.

Currys and Brexit

Comments