Is getting hit by customs just pot luck?

Baggie_Saiyan

Baggie_Saiyan

Thousand Master
Hiya!

Just wondering if Customs is basically pot luck.
In all my time of importing from over seas only been hit once.

I ask this because Limited edition of Legendary heroes part 1 arrived today from all your music (amazon uk marketplace) to my surprise. The label even stated it at being $37. But no charge lol. Of course I'm happy. Saved my self £15.

That one time I had been hit turned me off importing but now, I fear I may keep on importing without the fear of Customs like before.

Anyway. What are your folks stories with Custom charges?
 
I haven't been hit yet so I still got some luck in me. I did order from All Your Music once (B Gata H Kei LE back in January) but I think I got away with it for either due to being in stock or was a single item that can usually dodge the bullet.

The other few items I ordered throughout the month were from Rightstuf, each were individual items and they all didn't get hit. Not even Gunbuster vs Diebuster BD-Box which was about £55. I got the Membership so that I could save some cash on the site (which I got with the BD-Box but thankfully allowed the item to be discounted).

It's probably my accommodation that's giving me the luck but who knows.

At some point in the future I'm going to take it to the next level and grab J-Stars Victory Versus from Amazon UK (atm it's £64.99 (exc. P&P) and in stock, there's a Vita version but I'm going for the PS3 instead) and find out whether I'm just lucky or not. All of my import orders take my cash just as they dispatch so that could be another thing.
 
Customs via royal mail/standard post is pot luck. There is no way they can check every item coming in to the country for value, it'd require too many man hours and end up probably costing them more than they'd make in duty and VAT.

Also, you are much more likely to be charged customs when dealing with a courier service like FedEX and DHL.
 
Not been hit by customs lately but that is probably due to ordering things that are below the limit. In the past I have been caught out numerous times, it is very much pot luck if as to whether you will be charged or not.
 
Ordered DBZ S3 from Amazon.com. No import fee's deposits, (total came to under £17) so I marked it as a gift to hide price etc. Expected to be here Thursday. Hopefully it goes A-ok!
 
I am sure it's the size of box that gets picked up on these days, whenever I have been charged of late it has been on items that have been packaged in larger boxes. Smaller packages seem to slip through unnoticed.
 
That's what I thought, but I got hit on a small parcel that was something stupid like 20p over the limit and one huge box that was about 50,000 yen sailed through.
 
GolGotha said:
That's what I thought, but I got hit on a small parcel that was something stupid like 20p over the limit and one huge box that was about 50,000 yen sailed through.
Click to expand...

Well bang goes that theory. :D

The handling charge these days is pretty steep, £8, before they have even charged you the rest.
 
I don't understand why everyone doesn't just mark down the price. How could they catch you? I think every time I've ordered from Japan, the sellers have always known to mark down without me even asking.
 
I bought something off Ebay recently, which they marked as 3800 yen (About £24?) and as a gift, and it got hit by customs, which cost me £12.50 (Including the Royal Mail charge). If I want to question them over it, I have to fill in a 'BOR286' which states

If the parcel is a personal/private gift from someone abroad please provide written confirmation from the sender, including details of the gift, it’s value and for whom each gift is intended.
 
My DBZ came unscathed. Phew. Came in an a4 size jiffy bag which was weird as I'm used to Amazon's big ass cardboard boxes haha!!

My TLOTLH ltd edition came in a big package aswell as the $37 value, never got hit. So I don't think size of the parcel matters.
 
I got hit around 10 years ago, I'd ordered batman the animated series vols 2-4 from america (the first was avaiable in the UK) and I think it was the volume 3 box set that I incurred a fee on.

2 years ago I bought a dark knight Joker figure on ebay that I ended up paying about £100 for. Then I noticed overnight a uk seller was selling it for about the price... I tried to cancel, but the guy refused. At least he marked down the value of the package so no fee would be incurred.

Until recently it's the last of my overseas Purchases. I picked up Ryu Ga Gotaku 5 while I was over there last month, and more recently I've ordered Project Diva F 2 and the new Sonico game.
 
Seems to be I have been hit only 3 times so far by custom fee charges:
First time From GameStop USA(this is where I learned of custom fees)
Tales Of Graces F £21 custom charge(courier charge)
From Japan I have been hit twice most items I order are plush,cds toys etc normally with SAL shipping.
CDJapan
Tales Of Vesperia(Royal Mail charge)
HLJ
Fokko(Fennekin ) talking plush(Royal Mail charge first ever toy charge)
I'd say luck as I have often bought items from the Super Sentai range(Plamoya,CDJapan etc)and anime merchandise within the custom fee territory range and have mostly been lucky not been hit at all, the Fennekin plush being the first toy I have been hit with in my few years of buying from Japan.
With Japanese middleman services I have not been hit yet though it could be mostly due to them declaring low value on the package or labelled as GIFT.
 
My last Yetee order (one daily and one reprint), totalling $30 got me kicked in the teeth to the tune of £12 overall and I've ordered at least 5 over the last six months.
 
I've never been hit with any charges before, even getting a Canadian Nintendo DS on release. But it's been years since I had anything from afar delivered.

I'm waiting for a Wing Gundam MG from HLJ via SAL at the moment though, so I'll update whether I'm still lucky or not when it arrives.
 
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