Overcharged VAT by Fedex for Arc.

Hi,

I have had my Arc for about 10 days (and absolutely love it), however a letter came through my door from Fedex requesting more funds. It seems that I owe them £13 (about $20) for 'outstanding funds' and 'handling charges'. I am not sure what to do about this - are they hollow threats or should I pay up sharpish? Anyone else get hassled by Fedex over their Arc delivery? I hasten to add that I payed the delivery charges specified in the Arc order page in full.

Cheers for any advice,

Ian, UK

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

I think those are your custom charges. You can only import a certain amount of merchandise in your country. Unless it's from the EU countries. Fedex and UPS are likely to charge you, your custom charges afterwards. And DHL and your UK airmail will charge you that custom charges up front. Please correct me if I'm wrong. And if those letter doesn't explain what kind of costs these are, please call them and ask for the reasons. Please do not pay them without knowing what those costs are and please check if they were accurate in calculating the custom charges.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

[ QUOTE ]
Soundbox said:
Hi,

I have had my Arc for about 10 days (and absolutely love it), however a letter came through my door from Fedex requesting more funds. It seems that I owe them £13 (about $20) for 'outstanding funds' and 'handling charges'. I am not sure what to do about this - are they hollow threats or should I pay up sharpish? Anyone else get hassled by Fedex over their Arc delivery? I hasten to add that I payed the delivery charges specified in the Arc order page in full.

Cheers for any advice,

Ian, UK

[/ QUOTE ]

I certainly don't claim to know any laws of either your country or the USA for that matter, however, my stance would be "if you delivered me a package that still had postage due, shame on you". If FedEx was owed funds from that delivery, they should have never delivered it to begin with.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

What T.I.N said

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Fedex = brilliant, NOT. See:

http://fedexfurniture.com

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Shipping international is a challenge for most businesses. As you know, is it not uncommon for some businesses to simply refuse international orders.

Soundbox, your country has levied fees and taxes on foreign goods. Rather than let your package sit in customs until you paid those fees, FedEx paid those fees right away. FedEx is all about getting packages shipped as quickly as possible. They have international bonds, local experts to deal with the government, expedite forms, etc. However, they now expect to be paid back for that service. If you do not pay, they will send your account to collections. At some point, they may not allow us to ship any more packages to you using their service. I imagine that even though you intend to pay your taxes and never had a problem in the past, risk profiling of your neighborhood could cause FedEx to not expedite your package and instead let the package sit in customs until you pay the fees for that package. Your results may vary as there are many factors involved.

By ordering, international customers assume responsibility for taxes/import fees charged by their country.

Evidently, since you received an import bill from FedEx 10 days after you received your package, there were delays in calculating the import fees. For whatever reason, FedEx figured you were a good risk and chose to not delay your package during that time.

EU Imposes Additional Duties on U.S. Products

Peter

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Is is not true that Fedex charges high brokerage fees as well?

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

FedEx is not as bad as UPS. UPS will charge you brokerage fees, prepayment fees, admin fees without even blinking.

This is the price we pay for importing stuff.

I once ordered $28USD of T7075 aluminium from onlinemetals.com. UPS wanted to invoice me an extra $45CAD to cover the taxes/duties/prepayment fees/processing fees. I wound up having to refuse the shipment. The same shipment shipped via the postal service or Fedex would have been substantially less.

I would pay the £13, and consider it a lesson learned. I now add the duties/taxes as part of the expense every time I buy a light from outside Canada. The only exception is that I will not buy from a dealer who offers only UPS as shipping.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

I agree with Gransee. Subject to you calling Fedex and getting specifics on these additional charges, its sounds like they covered the fees on your behalf to ensure timely delivery (which is what everyone wants). If lawful and appropriate taxes or customs clearance fees are due then they should be paid to the business that ensured you received the goods you ordered.

If the fees are improper then by all means contest them.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Hi,

Thanks for the answers /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif - you know - you have helped me far more than the vague letter I got from Fedex.

You are right - it sounds like they paid VAT and also handling up front - I will pay them today. The reason for my confusion is that the charges were listed as follows:

"Clearance Administration Charge Vatable at 0% = £4.50" and
"Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT = £8.65"

I am pretty sharp with fees and taxes, but I had never come across this terminoligy before - hense my confusion /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif.

Thanks for clearing it up for me guys /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif.

Ian, UK

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

I received a bill from Federal Express several weeks after receiving my blue DPSS laser from CNI in China.
The bill was for $20.00, and everything was itemised to my satisfaction.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

[ QUOTE ]
Mrd 74 said:
Is is not true that Fedex charges high brokerage fees as well?

[/ QUOTE ]

In some countries the delivery is handled by sub contractors and I had a case when they charged me stupid amounts for calculating, collecting and managing the customs process.
It was about twice as much as customs and taxes together. They told me that it is as much work to do calculate the numbers for a single flashlight as it is for a 20 ft container, so the charge the same amount.
One other thing is, that they are sometimes not happy with the declaration of the value.
When sending goods to the EC, you have three parts:
original value, shipping cost from sender to the EC border and shipping cost from EC border to the receiving party.
UPS, for example has good charts for the customs about which part of the shipping cost is out ind inside EC.
And if the sender does not declare the real shipping cost, the customs may take the UPS list prices, which could easily be 80$ for a less than 0.5kg parcel (as it was in my case once). Of course I could ask for a refund and just have to proof the real cost, but it is some hassle and paperwork.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Wow, I know we complain about taxes here in the US, but you guys in EU and Canada have got it bad!!--- guess that's why you have free healthcare & we don't... the extra VAT charges sure seem trumped up--- amazing how your countries get away with that!!

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

I've heard various stories from EU folks where their mechandise was actually lost in the customs place in their countries, usually it seems to be small high dollar items.

Not sure which is worse, having your government loose it, or paying a bit extra to the shipping company to assure you get your goods...

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Sounds like this thread should be Cheers to FedEx for paying customers fees and taxes up front for speedy delivery. I was unaware of this--Good for FedEx.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Without wishing to repeat what may have been mentioned in a previous thread, I felt obliged to comment on this Fedex problem.
In the past I have purchased from the old Arc company and paid what I felt were excessive shipping costs (when compared to those levied by other companies) The product was great but then Fedex billed me with extra custom duties, the charges seemed excessive.
I have purchased various items from the USA that have been successfully and quickly been delivered by conventional air mail. Some have been subject to custom charges that have been collected by the UK's Royal mail at a reasonable cost.
So to get to the point could Peter not give his customers shipping options other than the lovely Fedex.
I'm not posting this to knock Peter his product is superb, it just could do with being cheaper to obtain for his customers over the pond.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

OK - thanks to all your help, I have sorted out the Fedex problem. The only slight issue is that I have been charged £5 too much VAT and Fedex would not change this even when I explained. Never mind - I have my ARC, and for that I can forgive almost anything. I have also decided to change the title of this thread as I have been overcharged, not, as I originally thought, being hassled wrongly for money.

Thanks again for your help on this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

Ian, UK

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Oh dear,

By only allowing the Fedex option for your international customers Peter, you are compounding the problem. The import duties are calculated on the cost on the item and this will include the light ***and*** the Fedex shipping fees.

I received a twin-DVD package from Amazon yesterday from the States. It was handled by your USPS and Amazon charged me exactly $6.98. I think we all know that Amazon probably ship more goods than most in the USA, so if the US post system is good enough for them, why isn't it for you?

I have to say, being asked to pay $22 to deliver a light which is not worth a lot more makes me angry. This is simply translated into a non-sale for you. And yes Peter, I know this whole conversation about shipping ?isses you off. Not as much as it does your International customers, I'd say.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

[ QUOTE ]
Spike said:
I have purchased various items from the USA that have been successfully and quickly been delivered by conventional air mail. Some have been subject to custom charges that have been collected by the UK's Royal mail at a reasonable cost.
So to get to the point could Peter not give his customers shipping options other than the lovely Fedex.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
arab said:
I think we all know that Amazon probably ship more goods than most in the USA, so if the US post system is good enough for them, why isn't it for you?

[/ QUOTE ]

One problem, I suspect, is liability.
AirMail and even Global Priority are not trackable.
Some unscrupulous person orders from Arc and then claims that the order was never received.
Without proof of delivery, credit card chargebacks could cost Arc or any dealer, a lot of money.
Billion dollar businesses like Amazon or others might be willing to take the risk but I can see why a smaller business wouldn't.

Re: Hassled by Fedex over Arc - advice needed.

Guys, while I can appreciate your issues and concerns and costs of the FedEx shipping saga, I'd caution that I'd expect too much "noise" could result in international shipping being a thing of the past with this company. Don't forget, it's not nesasarily Peter's call anymore in the day Arc LLC.