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Posted to uk.d-i-y
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OT: Customs duty, a cautionary tale
wrote:
Recently, I ordered something (costing about £700) from the Czech
republic and have just been sent a demand for £143 duty and handling
from DHL. My choices are to refuse the shipment, which means I get
refunded less shipping charges, or pay. Bu&&er!
When DHL does that shakedown here,
the "handling" is more than the "duty".
You can't assume from the magnitude of the bill,
that all that money goes to your government.
You can assign your own customs broker in place
of the DHL one, by filling out some form. That's
unlikely to be all that much cheaper (just another
pirate trap, yarrh).
The best we can do here, is send items via the
postal system, where the brokerage charge is
more reasonable. Of course, most sellers
absolutely refuse to use post, because where is
the fun in not gouging consumers.
Paul
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