Got Hit With VAT Charge On FT Parcel

[c1booth]

Jan 12, 2017 17:03:40 GMT thebishman said:

Jan 12, 2017 17:00:35 GMT c1booth said:

Which postage did you pick?

Uk express epacket...upgraded it for 59 cents i think

I'm a tight arse and went with what ever was free postage 🙈😂
ill pick uk express next time 

[thebishman]

Jan 12, 2017 17:07:31 GMT c1booth said:

Jan 12, 2017 17:03:40 GMT thebishman said:

Uk express epacket...upgraded it for 59 cents i think

I'm a tight arse and went with what ever was free postage 🙈😂
ill pick uk express next time 

Lol i normally did too. This time i felt 59 cents was worth it lol

[striker42]

This tax carry on is just another example of political bollocks. I, like many others, pay enough tax on a weekly basis without taking a a complete shafting on purchases from overseas. RM ain't exactly cheap either @ £8 odd handling fee.

[VapingBad]

Jan 12, 2017 17:59:25 GMT striker42 said:

This tax carry on is just another example of political bollocks. I, like many others, pay enough tax on a weekly basis without taking a a complete shafting on purchases from overseas. RM ain't exactly cheap either @ £8 odd handling fee.

Agreed, I could live with paying the VAT, but RM £8 fee is completely out of order if it costs them more than 50p to process they need to fix their system it's not like they pay their staff over £240 an hour.

[djs]

Jan 12, 2017 16:46:06 GMT thebishman said:

Well...i got my order today... 4 days from shipping to my door matt. Thats gotta be a record!?

Come on thebishman , admit it. You flew out there and back didn't you. Stopped over for 2 days gambling in Macau.

4 days. Insane.

[djs]

Did we come to a decision on this thread if it makes any sense to have items classed as a gift?

I want to buy a $20.86 tank and.... it could be a gift. A gift for me, from myself, for shopping so hard.

[Q]

The definitive answer to your question djs .

If FT were to value the item at $18 (£14.81 ) it wouldn't attract VAT
If FT classified it as a gift and valued it at $47 (£38.67 ) it wouldn't attract VAT... but only IF "It is sent between private individuals" ie NOT company transactions.
All the time they value packages at $20 (£16.46) the taxman CAN if they choose add VAT (£3.23) and then RM add a further £8 for collecting it.

Here is the actual wording on my package.

[Get Off My Cloud]

I told the annoying mug dealing with my FT ticket to tell his colleagues to put a value on UK parcels below £15 otherwise my days of shopping there are done as there's no saving to be had shopping there and i can get the items in the UK for the same price next day if i'm going to get hit with VAT and RM fees.
I think this is related to the problem they have with converting prices from USD to GBP on there they don't seem to pay any attention to exchange rates.
12 months ago the $20 declaration they're using would be fine because the pound was stronger against the dollar.

The idiot can't seem to grasp that i'm not bothered about a refund i am highlighting an issue.

[ceedee]

Jan 13, 2017 0:48:43 GMT Get Off My Cloud said:

I told the annoying mug dealing with my FT ticket to tell his colleagues to put a value on UK parcels below £15 otherwise my days of shopping there are done as there's no saving to be had shopping there and i can get the items in the UK for the same price next day if i'm going to get hit with VAT and RM fees.
I think this is related to the problem they have with converting prices from USD to GBP on there they don't seem to pay any attention to exchange rates.
12 months ago the $20 declaration they're using would be fine because the pound was stronger against the dollar.

The idiot can't seem to grasp that i'm not bothered about a refund i am highlighting an issue.

I expect he'd understand you better if you used the Yue dialect rather than standard Mandarin.

[Bobsbeer]

Fortunately my packet at $20 came though no problem at all yesterday. Postman handed it over with a smile and not a hint of wanting my money. Even got a sticker applied to say Special Delivery. Clearly this is a random thing at the moment going by the replies on here.

[Get Off My Cloud]

Jan 13, 2017 23:19:54 GMT Bobsbeer said:

Fortunately my packet at $20 came though no problem at all yesterday. Postman handed it over with a smile and not a hint of wanting my money. Even got a sticker applied to say Special Delivery. Clearly this is a random thing at the moment going by the replies on here.

Yeah given the volume of packages going through the system i imagine they are pulling out random ones to slap VAT on.
I had two separate packages delivered the day after i got hit with VAT from FT and neither of those got charged.

But even so i don't want to be ordering from FT with even the possibility i'm going to be £11 extra out of pocket especially when the fix is so easy, just lower the amount declared.

[Get Off My Cloud]

Okay so i started a thread on the FT forums and eventually got a staff member to reply with this.

Considering about the VAT issue or other the custom trouble, FastTech makes low declaration value on the package as a default, which is familiar to you guys.

DarthVape19 is quite right about this issue. If you have special request about the value declaration, you may create a support ticket or do live chat with us when you placed an order. We will arrange per your request.

We are willing to do what we can to prevent our dear customers from the painful VAT.

My reply is.

Why not just lower the default value from $20 which you currently declare on packages to $17?

That way the packages won't be liable for VAT by default and you won't have people sending you hundreds of support tickets or opening live chat sessions every time they place an order to avoid charges or even more to complain to you that they were hit with VAT charges.

You already use $20 as a default declared value how hard can it be to just change that number to $17 from now on by default?

You can save customers time and yours.

Now maybe i'm crazy but isn't it a whole lot more hassle for both the customer and FT staff to have to piss about opening and responding to hundreds of support tickets than to just change their default declared value automatically on all packages from $20 to $17?

It seems when this staff member said "We are willing to do what we can to prevent our dear customers from the painful VAT" they didn't actualy mean that because they replied with.

If other customers also agree with your idea, we will reflect it to the related department.

So if you have an FT account and don't want to bother with opening a support ticket every time you place an order please go reply to this thread and tell them to change the default declared value.
You don't need to register a separate account to post just log in with your FT username/password.

www.fasttech.com/forums/shipping/t/2356099/getting-vat-charges-in-uk/3

[Richard46]

Jan 13, 2017 23:19:54 GMT Bobsbeer said:

Fortunately my packet at $20 came though no problem at all yesterday. Postman handed it over with a smile and not a hint of wanting my money. Even got a sticker applied to say Special Delivery. Clearly this is a random thing at the moment going by the replies on here.

Me too FT '$20' package delivered on Thursday no tax. I did pay for UK packet; a few pennies.

On the other hand I had a Gearbest package disapear entirely after arriving at UK customs on the 8th Dec. Never even got the chance to complain about paying tax on that.

[Deleted]

FT thread post added Get Off My Cloud

[Bobsbeer]

Added to the FT thread as well.