Be carefull ordering from P800er.com

As I thought, no joy. That will be the first and last thing I order from P800er.com. What may seem like a good price on the surface is not so, once the (hidden) taxes are added.

Have other UK customer who have ordered from P800er also had this belated tax bill. What about ordering direct from Brando.

I really want to order 6 128MB MS duo I am too scared to now, if the tax on 11.85 worh of goods was �14 what will it be on �420 worth 😮

And people ask me why i don't buy things from internet... You never know how much you'll have to pay in the end...

I've ordered from P800er, Brando, extele and expansys, all without problems. I didn't receive a belated tax bill either. I thought you only had to pay tax on it if it's value was over �50?

I have basically the same problem, but I did actually order a 128MB DUO from them a week ago and it's stuck in customs right now, I won't get it until after easter. 😞

My country, Norway, is not a member of the EU so I should have gotten the DUO from P800er.com without taxes, and then payed the Norwegian taxes when it arrives here, but in stead I get double up with both their taxes(Singapore I think) and my country's. Incredably annoying since the Norwegian taxes is 24%! 😮

And in addition I have to pay a customs fee which is almost $20.

So, lets do some math here shall we:
MG MS DUO 128MB - $120,-
Shipping(FedEx express) - $ 40,-
Norwegian taxes(24%) - $ 29,-
Customs fee - $ 17,-

Total - $206,- 😮

That's pretty damn expensive for some extra memory.... Guess that's what you get for always being so damn impatient... 😮ops:

I have ordered twice from P800er.com and recieved good fast service both times with no tax bill, in the UK you take pot luck, some times customs will check your parcel and you will get charged for the tax other times they won't. It depends how much of a risk you want to take. I once bought a motorcycle exhaust from the USA the total including shipping was $240, UK Customs opened it and I was charged �62 in tax, however I have bought many other things and never been charged. Like I said Pot Luck. No tax is payable if buying from an EU country.

i'm pretty sure that the upper limit for non-taxable purchases from abroad in the uk is �8. When buying small items (like cd's from the US) it can work out cheaper to buy them individually if the increase in postage is going to be less than the combined tax ...

of course you might not get caught by customs at all ...

c

I got the tax bill direct from Fedex, because P800er contacted fedex with the details of our transaction. Hence good or bad luck has nothing to do with it, it appears that there was no way I was going to avoid paying this extra bill.

Me too. Got a letter directly from FedEx about the customs thing. Next time I'll certainly try to avoid using FedEx..

Using Fedex was a mistake, as couriers _always_ charge you import duty, plus a nice little handling fee for themselves on top.

I ordered a screen protector from P800er.com, standard air mail, it arrived within a week, total cost around �10 I think.

If the package is coming in via air mail, no import duty is payable in the UK if the value is below a certain level, as craigc has already said (though I think the threshold is higher, more like �18 ).

[quote="Chewie"]I got the tax bill direct from Fedex, because P800er contacted fedex with the details of our transaction.[/quote]

I think you'll find the reason you got the bill from FedEx is nothing to do with P800er, and everything to do with the UK goverment and UK Import Duty.

Everything that comes into the country with a value over about �18 (postage charges are included in that figure) will incur import duty taxes - which is a tax of VAT + 4% on top of that amount. If the package is marked clearly as a Gift, then the limit is increased (�40ish, I believe) before Import Duty is incurred.

If the package comes in via a courier (FedEx, UPS), then the courier is responsible for clearing the package through UK Customs unless you ask otherwise, which means they calculate the UK duty payable on the package and collect it from you, plus their admin charge - FedEx do this by sending an invoice, usually two weeks after delivery, UPS do it as a COD charge, payable by cheque or by credit card if you call them with a tracking number before it arrives.

If you can, and don't mind the risk of delays and no tracking details, get stuff shipped (if from america) by USPS - the US Postal Service. Things come either surface or air mail, and the UK side is handled by Royal Mail - they quite often forget to calculate and collect the import duty (though I have been stung once).

Anyway, back to the original point - the tax and duty isn't P800er's responsibility, though you could argue it should be made clear that you may have to pay your own countries Import duty and local tax if applicable - but I've ordered a lot of stuff from a lot of american sites, and very few of them state this. Again, it isn't P800er's, or any other company outside of the UK's, duty to collect these taxes, as they are imposed by the UK government (well, HM Customs & Excise, actually), and any company located outside of the UK is not UK Vat registered - therefore the UK tax office would have no way of collecting the required VAT from the company. So, they collect it from you direct.

Hope that clears a few things up - btw, I'm not affiliated with P800er in any way, I just happen to have ordered a lot of things from the states (about US$4000's worth of car parts, in fact, some of which got taxed, some of which didn't..)

Aaron

P.S. sorry if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs with any of this 😊

Thanks for all the replies guys. In future when ordering from abroad I will make sure to use regular mail rather than a courior service. The reason I opted for a courior was that delivery time was stated as upto 6 weeks for regular mail, and my screen could of been scratched to hell by then. Anyway I will know from now on. I still think it should have been made more clear by p800er that I would be expected to pay import duty seperately.

P.S. sorry if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs with any of this

You paid tax for accessories?
I purchase things from several countries for years. I prefer Fedex or DHL, I never paid taxes, even for 20 DVDs in one order.

It is stated on P800er's website that taxes, duties, etc are your responsibility. This is extracted from their order page:

*P800er.com is managed by DOML International Pte Ltd. Your credit card will be billed under DOML.

* Separate charges for shipping will be added to the cost of the Products. P800er reserves the right to limit quantities.

* All applicable local, city, state and country taxes are your responsibility and will be applied to the order. You agree to pay these taxes.

* You are responsible to pay two ways shipping charges if any call back for the order that we have already shipped out to you. You agree to pay these shipping charges.

Which is why I chose using registered mail option when I purchased from them. Yes, it takes longer to arrive but it's not that long. If I recall correctly, it took about 10 days to reach me.

It's definitely FedEx's fault, not P800er.

You also should read directions more carefully, as it clearly states that you would have to add any tax costs to the order...

What it says is

All applicable local, city, state and country taxes are your responsibility and will be applied to the order.

So I thought naively that they had already been applied to the order by P800er

What it should say is All applicable local, city, state and country taxes are your responsibility and you can expect to recieve a seperate invoice for import tax in due course.

Now this is clearer and would have made me aware of a seperate bill.

But over at some countries, you won't get an extra tax bill. This is probably why they did not specifically say that there's an extra bill coming. Not all of us are from UK and the laws and taxes differs from country to country.

Yup, your mistake was using FedEx. Should've used regular mail.

In fact, from Brando it's even more unlikely you'll get charged duty/tax by HM Customs - when i got my 64mb, he'd described it as a gift with value of HK dollars equivalent to �11 - Customs couldn't touch it, unless they could prove otherwise (and naturally, they didn't bother trying.)