Customs Charge; Fasttech £14 goods

[Pepperty]

Hiya, I've just got a customs charge on a fasttech packet, and yes I know the post office has been more vigilant of late.. 

But the part i'm scratching my head over is I've matched the items ordered to the barcode and its for items that come to a total of $18 usd, and I have paypal print out  showing currency conversion to £14.56 and I thought that under £15 was exempt?
I'm planning to storm the post office with all my documents as proof but I dont want to get it wrong, so thought i'd best ask about.

The second parcel I have coming is $21 so chances are they'll do same thing and try and charge me, I've checked and its held by post office 18 days and then customs for 21 days and then sent back to fasttech. If I ignore and wait 6 weeks will fasttech refund...... anyone know?

[Pepperty]

Also, I'm trying to work out if 3 packets of coils would be considered 'tobacco products'

"*Excludes the following goods: alcohol, tobacco products, perfumes and toilet waters. These items don’t benefit from the relief of customs duty or VAT at import, and alcohol and tobacco products will also be liable to Excise Duty."

[Pepperty]

well, further update, some moron at fasttech put value of item $190 hong kong dollars and that works out at £18 in sterling.... so ive had to refuse the parcel as post office cant give it me, its done via customs....




what a saga. I better get my money back after all this as i've
kept within the law (for once) 

[Get Off My Cloud]

FT don't ever put the real value on the parcel even if the goods are below the customs threshold.
All the values are generated randomly on their shipping labels unfortunately sometimes the exchange rate is crap on the pound a parcel occasionally comes out as over the customs threshold.
I've had this happen before and tried suggesting on the forum and to the staff i opened a ticket with that they adjust their algorithm so the max generated value is a little lower than it is currently but all i got was a blank from the staff and a bunch of yanks on the forum who aren't affected slightly being twats.

[MrDJ]

which post option did you got for Pepperty, was it ukepacket?

looking at the exchange rate today its 190 HKD =18.4315GBP and i have no idea when the charges are worked out. is it at exchange rate when bought or is it the day it passes through customs in the uk.
there is a massive thread on the planet about a few others who have been stung but the hardest bit is the flat rate royal mail £8
all this will do is stop people buying from china as there are quite a few cheaper prices on certain things here in the uk but its a bugger if your after a large tank where only 2ml from uk unless its a workaround like vaporesso or smok have come up with.

[Pepperty]

Yes, its frustrating as I paid in USD at $18.49 which works out at paypal cost conversion to £14.54 which means I'm under the threshold but I cant collect my items even with proof, the post office collection lady totally agreed with me as she'd had a similar issue but although she let me photograph my parcel (in her hand) she couldnt give it me!

I've done a ticket with fasttech..... photo showing parcel, asked for resend with lower/correct price or refund
I'm only steaming as for once in all the 5 years shopping at fasttech i am actually UNDER the amount officially

[pipeman01]

it does serve as a reminder that when ordering stuff from China to create more orders of lesser value to keep under the limits.

bit of a pain to split up your shopping but 3 orders for a pack of coils* is safer than one order for 3 packs of coils*.....

*other products are available

[Pepperty]

Isn't there a limit to how low your parcel can be to get free postage? I'm sure it had to be about 12 dollars... I could be wrong, as I say I was under the amount hence popping 3 in basket

[kermitthefog]

Ft forum thread

Seems to be happening a lot and I have just been caught out. FT marked it as $20 value (real value $27 ish) but with current exchange rate that breaches the £15 limit. In this thread though they do state that if you want a lower amount putting as value on packet they will do this if you open a ticket per order and tell them what you want, this will generally only add 24 hours to dispatch time for in stock items. so that might be useful going forward.
My bill today was for £11.03 which I've just paid as I have gotten away with so much from them over the years I didn't mind as a one off

[Pepperty]

My charge is £11 but i'm not paying double for the coils, rather lose £14 than pay another £11 on top. Irony is that they were vaporesso euc ceramic coils to go in my (not yet here) MF bridge for billet box, and there's hardly any UK sellers so I was chuffed to find them at such a good price on fasttech. I had decided months back i'd never need to order from China ever again.....

[marksixysix]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck Pepperty and the threshold is £15, problem is that FT usually put $20 on packet and as said with the £ being what it is, this can just creep over the £15 limit.

I ordered 2 tanks a few weeks ago from FT. Both the same but separate orders and both cost £20 so a tad above the limit and were sent by the free FT delivery option.
Got two separate RM cards today for customs charges so 2 x £12 which is the £4 20% plus the £8 handling fee from RM so £24 fee's for £40 worth of goods so not very pleased either as it would have been cheaper buying from the UK and faster and this is also the first time I have been hit with a FT order.

I don't know what the value on the packets say as I have not been to the post office yet and the FT pictures are not clear enough to see.

I might just leave them there and they will be sent back after 21 days.

From what I have heard FT will refund minus 20% for the postage costs.

I have an RDA coming from 3FV that has just cleared customs in the uk so should be here in a few days so will see and the shipping option with 3FV is Euro Special Air Mail - Line 3 (Custom Tax Included) | 6 -13 Business Day. so should be fine.

[Pepperty]

Oh well, as long as there's some refund i'll have to take it. But its just annoying as it was under allowable amount and they've never written 'hong kong dollars' before, as its very different amount from the american dollars that we get charged in so it galls the hell out of me!

[marksixysix]

Aug 1, 2018 13:45:48 GMT Pepperty said:

Oh well, as long as there's some refund i'll have to take it. But its just annoying as it was under allowable amount and they've never written 'hong kong dollars' before, as its very different amount from the american dollars that we get charged in so it galls the hell out of me!

It is a pain because you are within the limits and you could put a claim in for a refund for the VAT, The problem is, that you would then need to put in another claim with RM to remove the £8 fee

[striker42]

The whole lot of it stinks of shit. My second to last order from Fasttech I opened a ticket and asked them to mark the value on it as $17. When it arrived the value on it was..............yup $20, so opening a ticket was a complete waste of time.
I remember the Fasttech Forum thread about customs charges Get Off My Cloud, it was rapidly hijacked by by big time Charlies and assholes who ruined any chance of a favourable outcome to your request.
Over the last few months, I've ordered most of my gear from the UK. Sometimes the difference in price is as little as £1, but it's the more difficult items that FT stock that are not so easy to obtain in the UK that can a problem.
Hope you get the situation sorted to your satisfaction Pepperty.

[Pepperty]

I just went and bought two packs of coils from Amazon for £7 a pack, which I begrudge as;

1) its an amazon seller so could be clones/seconds...
2) I trust fasttech to be genuine (sounds odd saying that! but they have always been straight on their stock)

I too had stopped ordering from China as I am fairly sorted with gear and tend to use rebuildables and the prices have balanced out in the main for UK buys, as you say striker42 but I purposely kept under the £15 on this occasion....

I'm trying to hoard my money for vapefest so I didn't really want to go buying this close to the date, but the MF bridge will be here this week and I cant test it without coils. I looked into the claiming system as as you rightly say marksixysix I may end up still paying admin costs and the £11 I'd have to pay is what I need to buy my camping ticket (which I still haven't done!)