Am I being conned by UPS

kasabian · 04-11-2009, 02:00 AM

Hi guys, hope you can give me your advise on something.

I ordered some goods from China. The total value is $192. This was stated on all the invoices and marked on all the boxes too.

When the boxes were delivered by UPS I was asked to pay a whopping £104 in "charges". (Yes, 104 POUNDS, not dollars).

Had no choice but to pay, otherwise I wouldn't have got my goods.

Paid by cheque.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the charges are so high. Is this some kinda joke? Am I being taken for a long ride?

I'm considering phoning my bank and canceling the cheque before UPS cash it in.

What do you think?

PT · 04-11-2009, 02:05 AM

You need to look at the break down of the costs and tell us what they are. It's hard to say without that information.

kasabian · 04-11-2009, 02:10 AM

Hi there, thanks for the reply.

I've taken a photo of the invoice I was given. I'm confused by the whole thing really...

PT · 04-11-2009, 02:13 AM

What products were you importing? Looks like it was the duty rate that did it, but it seems very very high though.

Have you also checked that the value declared by the sender was correct? They could of added an extra digit on the end by mistake.

kasabian · 04-11-2009, 02:15 AM

Hi, they're bobblehead dolls. You know those things you put on car dashboards. Toys, essentially.

kasabian · 04-11-2009, 02:17 AM

...and yea I've checked the value declared by the sender on all the invoices. They all state 192 dollars.

PT · 04-11-2009, 02:19 AM

It's really strange. I would give the relevant department at HMRC a call and confirm the rate of import duty for that product.

kasabian · 04-11-2009, 02:20 AM

Hi, thank you...i'll do that first thing tomorrow.

In the meantime, do you think it's a good idea to cancel my cheque?

ADC · 04-11-2009, 02:21 AM

Looks like you have been charged £72.34 for duty. What were the goods?

£21.37 is for insurance in case they went missing. They sometimes charge this when the shipper has asked for you to be billed for this, so he doesn't have to pay it at his end. I'd stop the cheque if I were you.

ADC · 04-11-2009, 02:22 AM

sorry just seen the reply. You need to check what the rate should be via the business link website.