phil stanbridge Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Ouch! Got a card in the post saying my parcel has landed in the UK - yay! Customs want £17.90 before they will release it! Noooooooo! I haven't a leg to stand on, I've just gotta pay it. I know it's not BFC's fault, but my god, how on earth do Customs UK justify a charge this high for something of such little value/size. Pretty disgusting! Just a heads up for others in the UK awaiting their copy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Sorry to hear about that! Yeah, the UK's new "processing fee" of £8 (or something like that) is criminal. It's a tax without calling it a tax, which is important for them to do because then they could be accused of protectionism and violating trade agreements. I also just learned that packages being shipped out of Australia to the US now carry a hefty "Homeland Security" fee that is supposedly paid to the US government. But that's a bunch of BS because no other country has this fee. Fortunately for most UK customers, they did not get hit with the fees and VAT like you did. Small consolation to you, definitely, but it seems like there's still a better chance of no assessment than getting hit. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Ouch! Got a card in the post saying my parcel has landed in the UK - yay! Customs want £17.90 before they will release it! Noooooooo! I haven't a leg to stand on, I've just gotta pay it. I know it's not BFC's fault, but my god, how on earth do Customs UK justify a charge this high for something of such little value/size. Pretty disgusting! Just a heads up for others in the UK awaiting their copy. Thieving, government, scumbags....sorry for you, man. But on the bright side...maybe you will get so much gaming enjoyment from the experience it'll come down to pennies per day over the long haul. Mord. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I also just learned that packages being shipped out of Australia to the US now carry a hefty "Homeland Security" fee that is supposedly paid to the US government. But that's a bunch of BS because no other country has this fee. Proof that Pentagon thinks of CM as a military product! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSwas71331 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 In addition to the taxes on tea and the requirement to put stamps on all our property transfer documents, it's possible that Thomas Paine and Sam Adams anticipated that the Crown would someday tax games coming to England from America. (I doubt they were sufficiently farsighted to predict CMBN, but who knows?) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lets_All_Fight Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Ouch! Got a card in the post saying my parcel has landed in the UK - yay! Customs want £17.90 before they will release it! Noooooooo! I haven't a leg to stand on, I've just gotta pay it. I know it's not BFC's fault, but my god, how on earth do Customs UK justify a charge this high for something of such little value/size. Pretty disgusting! Just a heads up for others in the UK awaiting their copy. Who is the carrier? Parcel Force? I'm surprised by this. Where are you anyway, Glasgow area/Lanarkshire or further out? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted June 10, 2011 Author Share Posted June 10, 2011 Who is the carrier? Parcel Force? I'm surprised by this. Where are you anyway, Glasgow area/Lanarkshire or further out? Royal Fail. I'm near Ayr. I'm surprised as well as disappointed. Especially as some here have got their copy with no excess charges 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joebloggs Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 You will probably have been charged on the $80 value that BF marked on the customs form and not the actual $60 value of the item. :confused: It has been a bit of a lottery here in the UK who got charged. I have been asking if the modules will be getting shipped out from Germany after the initial pre order but no one from BF has responded. I have an idea why not but I could be way off the mark. I would certainly think twice about pre orders and just wait for the hard goods to become aviailable from the European warehouse. I was one of the lucky ones who escaped the customs charge, did not expect to as I usually get caught, but if BF are only going to ship out of the US and not Germany in the future then this could become a very expensive collectors edition with modules if you want them all. Personally I think buying just downloads and burning to a backup coaster will ruin the look of the collectors edition, others may not. I bought the steelbook with the intention of buying all the cd/dvd add ons. Others may be happy with the one "proper" disk and manual. Each to their own. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcat Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Hey, Mr. Stanbridge, you are in Scotland. The Scots like high taxes - lots of money for the government to give to "deserving" people. On the bright-side your £17.90 in taxes and charges take sthe total cost of CMBN, for you, to just over £68.00. I reckon you are going to have to play 0.024 minutes a week more than I do before you get you money's worth. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonar Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Got mine last week, in Edinburgh,Royal Mail, no extra charge,bad luck Phil. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 At least you have had it... No sign of it here near Banbury and I pre-ordered... Will just have to wait and see if I get hit with Customs charge... Not nice for you Phil and a bit of a crap situation.... As is said might have been better to wait but then we might have to wait a long time if it never gets a European distributor.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user38 Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 In Australia there are no import duties on items valued at less than $1,000 dollars. Given we have a 10% Goods and Services Tax (actually 1/11th of the sale price) Australians effectively get a discount on low value imported goods. There has been some discussion in the media recently (generated by a prominent local retail chain) on whether this policy has an adverse effect on local retailers and whether is would be advisable to extend the import duties to all goods. The response from the government was that such an extension of the duties would be too expensive to implement and would be unlikely to result in an increase in revenue. I don't think anyone here considered an administration fee to cover the additional expense of collecting the duty. Clearly, Great Britain is blessed with genius government administrators capable of outside of the box thinking. Seriously, I am sure the Australian Government did consider extending the GST to all imported goods and covering the additional costs with a flat administration fee. I am also sure the idea was rejected as being unduly harsh and oppressive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lets_All_Fight Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Got my customs demand like Phil. Same amount. Still, at least it's not what Parcel Force were charging the London crew. Still... Funny. I've had goods shipped from the states for a higher total than this on several occasions with no trouble at all. I'd love to know whether they really do just make it up on the spot. I'd complain but they know where I live. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1966 Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 I ordered the normal version a couple of weeks ago (don't think its a steel box) and I've just got a "we can't deliver until you pay £18.52" card from those lovely postage people. Why exactly am I having to pay this? I buy DVDs from the US all the time and its never happened before. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1966 Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Apparently: "Commercial consignments of £18 or less are free from customs duty and import VAT (please note: With effect from 1 November 2011 the £18 threshold will be reduced to £15 - see 2.4 below). For example, goods purchased over the internet with an intrinsic value not exceeding £18, will not be charged any duty or VAT but this does not include alcohol, tobacco products, perfume or toilet waters. See paragraph 2.6, 2.7 and section 3." All those DVDs cost less than £18. Still a bloody outrage. There's also a bit later on that says: "Customs duty becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135" which seems to contradict the above but if this stuff wasn't confusing it just wouldn't be Britain. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogchurchill Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Apparently: "Commercial consignments of £18 or less are free from customs duty and import VAT (please note: With effect from 1 November 2011 the £18 threshold will be reduced to £15 - see 2.4 below). For example, goods purchased over the internet with an intrinsic value not exceeding £18, will not be charged any duty or VAT but this does not include alcohol, tobacco products, perfume or toilet waters. See paragraph 2.6, 2.7 and section 3." All those DVDs cost less than £18. Still a bloody outrage. There's also a bit later on that says: "Customs duty becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135" which seems to contradict the above but if this stuff wasn't confusing it just wouldn't be Britain. Sorry to sound like a boring old fart on this topic, but Customs Duty has to do with a tax applied to goods which a government wants to prevent competing with domestic production - it does not apply to (relatively) low value items like CD's and DVD's. Import Tax is levied at the same rate as VAT (20% in the UK). If Import Tax was not levied, then imports from outside the EU would have a (20%) advantage over goods produced inside the EU. Of course, the 8 pounds admin fee is steep, but I fear the rest is perfectly legit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1966 Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Of course, the 8 pounds admin fee is steep, but I fear the rest is perfectly legit. Oh, I'm sure its legit. In fact, I ended up trying to explain it to the guys at the post office who thought it was a mistake. However, if it's 20%, it looks like they calculated from the amount in dollars (I think - I can't remember the exact cost) and arrived at a figure in pounds. I couldn't check it in the post office because none of the staff knew anything about how it worked. It's also galling when I can't actually buy the said product from within the EU anyway, so "adavantage" doesn't really come into it whether it's legit or not. No choice. And just to add insult to injury, the post office won't accept a debit card payment on it (or not at this branch anyway). Cash only. Its like the 21st century never happened... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 It seems that applying this legislation is patchy in the UK. I had my steel box edition delivered no problems - no charges nothing. Could be that up here in the People's Free State of Scotland that the postal service is more enlightened? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Springelkamp Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 It seems that applying this legislation is patchy in the UK. I had my steel box edition delivered no problems - no charges nothing. Could be that up here in the People's Free State of Scotland that the postal service is more enlightened? More likely they just couldn't be bothered. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lets_All_Fight Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 And just to add insult to injury, the post office won't accept a debit card payment on it (or not at this branch anyway). Cash only. Its like the 21st century never happened... 'We don't do change' either I was told. Nothing more enlightened about the postal service in Scotland, George - you seem to be the only one who avoided paying. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1966 Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 It seems that applying this legislation is patchy in the UK. I had my steel box edition delivered no problems - no charges nothing. Could be that up here in the People's Free State of Scotland that the postal service is more enlightened? Well one of the guys at the post office was trying to tell me that the reason for the charge was that customs randomly open packages and then charge £18.52 for doing so. As I say, I had to explain to him that I think it's just import duty and that I have to pay it as I'm in importing it. Then they photocopied the documentation so that I could try and make BFC pay it. I explained that I don't think you can make the exporter do that. After all they'd just pass the cost on. Well they moaned and scratched their heads and said it wasn't fair. Completely undermined my whole pre-planned "this is a disgrace" demeanour. I had to practically force the money on them... My point being that if those who work in the system haven't got the slightest clue how it works then it stands to reason that the application of legislation is going to be pretty random. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Springelkamp Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Hearing these stories it doesn't surprise me that the privatisation of the British Post is failing, as investors shy away from buying this lot. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipanderson Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Hi, Received mine in prefect order the other day, well collected it from the Post Office. The charge was £14 something... strange that we are not all being charged the same amount by customs... does seem a little random as to what customs get up to... . All good fun.... All the best, Kip. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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