USA to UK postal?

[porshiepoo]

does anyone have experience of buying goods from the USA via EBay?
I've bought a dolls house valued at 345.54 USD and was given a tracking number but the tracking stopped since leaving Chicago airport on 29th January and now i'm panicking. It's en route via USPS and the seller seems to think it's not passed customes. That statement wasn't followed by a 'yet' so now I'm really really worried.
Anyone know whas likely to be going on? Since buying it I've realised about the import tax I'm likely to get lumbered with if it's inspected - stupid me should have checked that out beforehand.
Which airport is it likely to come in at for up here? Heathrow or is Glasgow the preferred option?

Anyone????

[ett23]

Presumably if it hasn't passed customs they'll be holding onto it and that means you won't get it? If you paid by paypal you might get your money back though.

[Sandra_B]

How was it sent, surface or airmail?

I once sent a parcel to my brother from Chicago. It took 4 months to get to Thurso. Last thing I ever sent surface mail!!

[carasmam]

It's probably at the Mount Pleasant customs office(London). The checks usually delay things and then you may get a stinker of a customs charge, because of the value, before they release the item. The sender has to chase things up so get them to find out whats happening for you Hope this helps a bit.

[Jeemag_USA]

It does take a while, tracking numbers within the USA are not always worth looking at, expecially from the USPS because they never update the things properly. before I moved to the states my wife was already over here, she sent me a christmas package once with jeans and some sweaters and a jacket in it, even though it was marked Christmas gifts, customs in the UK pulled it and went through it and taped it back up, when it finally got to Thurso post office I had to sign a release and pay 35 pound in taxes before they woudl give me the package, I was sickened having to pay that much for my Christmas present from my wife. Its unlikely that the US customs will be holding it, if it is delayed it will be stuck in the UK like said above! I am sure you will get your package, but if it has been part of a spot check, you may end up having to pay some money.

I send and receive mail from uk to us and vice versa all the time, generally an airmail letter can take up to eight days to arrive either way.

[MadPict]

It could take up to 4-6 weeks to get here. I ordered something before Christmas which was posted on the 6th of January and arrived here on the 23rd.

I hate to say it but you could well be stung for tax - if the seller marked the true value on the Customs slip then best empty the piggy bank!
My item was marked as $60 value and it attracted £5.34 VAT and £4.00 RM Clearance Fee.

[davem]

Hi
Fraid you have to pay tax on the shipping fee as well as the value of the goods, if the seller marks it as worth less you may pay less but it shouldn't work out too bad in the end.

[peter macdonald]

Hi P.P. I have imported quite a lot of electronic bits and pieces from the US both from companies and by EBay It really depends on the UK customs and the postal service used from the US as regards of how long things take.
I had to wait for 10 weeks from an Ebay seller who used surface mail for one item Regarding the duty you have to pay it at the Royal Mail office (not the High St Post Office ones!) and you can do that via Switch It usually is about 20% of the value of the item Hopefully it will come to the Wick Office in Green Road who are really helpfull ...unlike the person in Inverness who would not release an item unless I collected it myself when I paid the duty,,, A wee yarn to their boss sorted that out!! Hope it works out and all best
PM

[emb123]

I've quite a bit of experience of stuff (via ebay) coming from the USA. It can take weeks for UK customs to work out how much they're going to sting you - plus the post office take a cut as well in administration charges for the payemnt from them to HM Customs. If you can get the consignment info you can phone HM Customs and see if they can speed things up a bit. I've found that it does help.

I've known delays of a month for items sitting in the HM Customs warehouse.

If you go to the HM Customs site you can find the contact telephone number info and it would be wise to work out if you can (it's not easy) what the correct duty tariff should be, otherwise they'll have a go and you can bet they'll pick the most expensive one they can find that seems to apply, which means you then need to make a claim for the difference - another month or so.

It wouldn't hurt to be able to direct HM Customs to the eBay listing as well to show proof of value.

Buying from the USA is not usually a problem, but once it goes above the maximum value for free of charge importing of either 'gift' or 'commercial' categories the duties are pretty severe.

Best of luck!

[lab]

I have just bought an item from usa via ebay, it took 9 days to come go on parcel force worldwide website with your tracking number as they take over delivary from customs. my item was valued at £385 and we paid £89 to get it from post office but we had to pay by card over the phone as it was held in inverness . You pay customs duty, at 5% and vat then uk postage, the vat is added on to overall cost including postage. hope this helps

[golach]

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_001454&propertyType=document


Maybe this will explain the HM R&C charges

[the flange]

just bought golf clubs before christmas on ebay from the usa about $400 the seller said he posted them but i would not get tracking because it had to go through customs.so i trusted his word and sure enough 3-4weeks later got a letter from parcel force 48 telling me they have an international parcel waiting to be delivered once i pay taxes which i think was something like 30 pound and parcelforce have 8 pound for picking it up and delivering so it will be about 30-40 pound..you have something like 45 days to make a paypal claim so dont panick until near the time...

[MadPict]

Note: Some unscrupulous overseas suppliers openly advertise on the internet, or on their web-sites that they will deliberately either misdescribe items or underdeclare their value in order to evade customs charges that are legally due on importation. You should be aware that although the foreign sender may have completed the customs declaration form on the parcel you are regarded (in law) as the importer of the goods and responsible for the information on the declaration, and any customs charges that may be due. This means that if you purchase goods from these suppliers and the declaration is found to be false or misleading you may be liable to financial penalties or criminal prosecution. Furthermore the goods themselves will be liable to forfeiture. It is in your own interests to ensure Customs declarations are completed properly.

That's a bit rich - how the hell do you ensure that the sender fills in the right details? Most transactions are not made via the phone so if the sender falsifies the value/contents without your knowledge you can be held liable?