Posting to the USA , unreasonable fees added, not sure how to tackle this
Summary: excellence-audio shared an issue regarding unexpected high shipping fees when sending a Hi-Fi cable from the UK to the US, where the fees were significantly more than the item's value. excellence-audio decided to cancel the order to avoid potential import fees for the buyer, which caused frustration as the item required considerable effort to make. dream-letter suggested exploring different tariff codes to reduce costs, while jonatjonatjonat mentioned concerns about misclassifying products leading to customs fraud. Despite attempts to adjust classifications, excellence-audio expressed frustration with US Customs due to past issues.
a Buyer from the US bought an HIFI cable from my shop, Value 79GBP, plus 15GBP tracked Airmail Plus their Sales tax 9.92 GBP (which does not make much sense but then...
I went to the ROYAL MAIL website in order to prepare the shipment and I was asked 12.05GBP for the tracked postage plus 160.55 GBP FEES .
Yes ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY QUID.
Is that for real??
I did post some items to the USA lately , they were all under a tenner so adding 3.5 quid fees to the shipping was not really an issue, but 160 over 79 it really does not make much sense.
Ebay offers UPS at 26£ but I can't understand if by going that route the buyer will be hit by a 160GBP import bill
At this point I dont want to risk spending money then having the customer refusing to pay the import fees , so I just told the customer I am cancelling the order and explained why
It hurts as the item is very specific and takes around 1 hour to make so I am pretty annoyed.
what are you guys doing ??
Thanks :)
excellence-audio
OP3 weeks agoit is an AV (audio-videro) cable, but even if I declared as a "computer cable" or changed the COO from UK to Japan (assebled in UK with Japanese components) the result won't change.
I cannot use a different TC unless I declare it a completely different thing which I am not going to do it.
US Customs must be run by hoplesly usless people... last year I had 3 small envelopes being returned to the UK as, according to them, I did not declare the 10$ value...
the CN22 declaration was at the back of the envelope as there was not enough space for it at the front , but they could not be bothered to check...
dream-letter
·3 weeks agoCan you use the tariff code for electrical wire 854411 - £11.17
and charge your buyer.
excellence-audio
OP3 weeks agoI know I can use a generic code , but that is wrong and if then inspect it (and they might, it is clear that is not a simple wire and I dont want issues with customs.
dream-letter
·3 weeks ago · EditedHi You are right, I checked it out - This is outrageous
I declared a value of £79 and used the tariff code for audio cable 85442?
Maybe try and use another tariff code.
jonatjonatjonat
·3 weeks agoYou are kind of stuck though if its an audio cable. What exactly are you proposing they declare it as?
dream-letter
·3 weeks agoIt isn't me that's stuck. It is excellence-audio. I was just trying it out on the Royal Mail site.
jonatjonatjonat
·3 weeks agoHopefully they are aware that misclassifying products would be customs fraud. I accept its possible the product was incorrectly classified initially - that would be possible.