Customs Clearance Question

[gb155]

My Oakleys arrived at Coventry customs on Sunday.

Stuff from the far east is given Clearance within hours normally

But its 3 days later and these glasses from the USA are still waiting Clearance , how long does it normally take?

Gaz

 

[Globalti]

Hmmmm... I've heard that designer eyewear is very popular amongst HMRC staff in the Midlands.....

 

[gb155]

Hmmmm... I've heard that designer eyewear is very popular amongst HMRC staff in the Midlands.....

Lol with my prescription , they'd think they were blind

 

[Piemaster]

Think 3 days is bad? Try shipping stuff into Brazil. Weeks.

 

[gb155]

Think 3 days is bad? Try shipping stuff into Brazil. Weeks.

It's still held - might well be weeks

 

[PeterD]

Hi Gaz
We get regular shipments from the USA with UK custom clearance normally within 24hrs. Usually if there is a problem the shippers would contact you. If you have a tracking number contact whoever is handling the UK delivery side, otherwise contact C&E direct. There could be import duty and VAT to pay depending on the declared export invoice amount which I'm sure you are aware of.

 

[G-Zero]

Hi Gaz,

I recently got a fairly low value adaptor for my Rock Shox, sent across from America and it took seven days to clear

 

[fossyant]

If it's there expect import duty and a handling fee from the post office !

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I've never even considered where anything I've ordered goes from leaving the US to arriving at my door. Usually takes about 2 weeks tops, what happens to it between times I couldn't give a monkey's. But like Reg says, if you've bought something for more than about £20 IIRC those nice customs chappies are going to sting you something rotten for the admin fee.

 

[Chromatic]

All the import duty/VAT posters are probably right, I've experienced this a couple of times with things from US, you'll probably get a card from the post office telling you what you need to pay, I did.

Out of interest how much did they cost you? Ages ago I tried on some Oakley glasses and I thought about getting some from the US but never did anything about it, then I recently saw that my optician has started stocking Oakley and I've just bought some prescription lense Oakley specs from them. Flack Jacket with one set of single vision precription lenses cost me £265.

 

[PeterD]

I've never even considered where anything I've ordered goes from leaving the US to arriving at my door. Usually takes about 2 weeks tops, what happens to it between times I couldn't give a monkey's. But like Reg says, if you've bought something for more than about £20 IIRC those nice customs chappies are going to sting you something rotten for the admin fee.

Import duty on Oakley Glasses would be 2.9% of the glasses price including shipping cost, then add VAT at 20% then add the admin fee which will be around £10.

A good website is here for calculating import costs My link

 

[4F]

Import duty on Oakley Glasses would be 2.9% of the glasses price including shipping cost, then add VAT at 20% then add the admin fee which will be around £10.

A good website is here for calculating import costs My link

Agreed but I would add that the 20% vat is calculated on the cost price + shipping cost + duty amount. The admin fee is not pure profit for whoever customs clears the shipment as they get charged an adminstration fee from customs for clearing the shipment on the HMC&E computer system.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Is lunch break over for civil servants?

 

[Chromatic]

Lunch break?? What is a lunch break?

 

[Red Light]

I think it depends on whether you are unlucky or not. Most stuff flows through freely, but just like coming back through Dover, occasionally they will pull someone aside for a more detailed examination. It sounds like you might have been caught up in one of those.