In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Brian Gaff wrote:

One might have expected that the seller would have added the tax to the
bill as that is how vat etc is supposed to work.

I buy quite a bit from the US. From a mid sized company. They don't.

I recently bought some second-hand items from a US seller, it was the
first time I'd used eBay's 'Global Shipping Programme", I have to say it
worked quite well.

The person posted the items via USPS to an eBay centre.

Then eBay opened, checked and re-packed the item, calculating VAT and
duty (actually just confirming the amounts at time of auction were
correct) charged an additional postage amount.

Handed it over to Pitney Bowes for export.

In the UK it was handed over to Hermes, all confirmed as nothing to pay
here and delivered as usual.

It was trackable from end-to-end like any delivery, through a "meta"
tracking number.

All-in-all $90 for the items became $131, but that was all paid as the
winning bid on the item.

It's usually MegaSquirts I buy from the US. Commonly cost $450 before
carriage, etc. Reason being I like to self assemble, and UK suppliers only
do ready mades, and not the spec I'm after.

As well as silly postage costs, I end up paying duty, VAT and handling
charges.

If I were doing it in a big way, I'm sure I could save money.

--
*A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.