The Anime/Manga I Bought Today Was...

Interesting tip about DevotedToDVD. I shall certainly use them in future.

Something I'd like to share, regarding the dreaded fees/ tithes / tributes demanded by those BASTARDS at royal Mail:


I recently copped a MASSIVE bill in VAT and the 'handling' fee RM levy on whatever they get their grubby mitts on. After the always-unpleasant surprise of finding a little grey slip with the stated fees on it, I dutifully walked to the collection office to pick up my goods.

The scene that awaited me was ABSOLUTE CHAOS. there were about thirty people queuing up at teh collection office door, ALL of them holding grey slips, ALL of them very annoyed, and ALL of them being told they had to pay additional charges on their orders - all of which had come from the united states.

The scene was actually quite scary. I never pay these fees to Royal Mail without giving them a polite but firm piece of my mind, but some of these guys were really having none of it. The term 'angry mob' comes to mind.

Anyway, when I retreived my parcel, I was told that ALL orders from the USA would be inspected and charged if they were above the £15.00 threshold now, with no exceptions.

Hence, I ran home, and cancelled a bunch of orders I had made. Unfortunately, there were two dispatch notifications for both volumes of Star Driver which I now couldn't cancel.

So - I saved up some money to pay off the fees. And both volumes arrived this week... with no fees to pay.

Both had come from online sellers who do NOT pre-pay VAT or clear customs. My conclusion? Royal Mail were lying through ther teeth to me.

if anyone has had a similar experience in the last two or three weeks, please PM me and let me know. I'm going to write a few letters about this - again. And rest assured, if there's a concrete way to beat this nonsense, once I've found it, i'll be posting it here for everybody's benefit.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
It's pretty ridiculous that Play.com don't seem to realise it isn't coming out, unless they've made a mistake and typed "3-5 days" instead of "3-5 years". Also, it doesn't say much about how well everything below Disappearance is doing if they're being outsold by something that doesn't exist...

-----

Tuesday, 10am - money goes into Paypay account.
Tuesday, 10.20am - money comes out of Paypal account and goes to DevotedDVD for Madoka BD 1 LE. Let's see how this turns out /o\

EDIT: packaging shots, for those who may be interested. Ratings logos, grumble grumble
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I have to say, I prefer Aniplex's release. Even ignoring the other extras Aniplex's LEs come with, I feel a certain air of almost..."sophistication" when I look at the LE's boxes. With Madman's...it looks like a colourful mess xD
 
HdE said:
if anyone has had a similar experience in the last two or three weeks, please PM me and let me know. I'm going to write a few letters about this - again. And rest assured, if there's a concrete way to beat this nonsense, once I've found it, i'll be posting it here for everybody's benefit.
Click to expand...

Too lazy to PM, but I had heard the same that everything was now being checked and everything being sent to me was being taxed until one random parcel got through last week. It was from RightStuf (who as you said don't prepay) and was an order in excess of $100 (and was declared as such on the parcel).

I think it was delivered by ParcelForce rather than Royal Mail but the same rules should apply.
 
Joshawott said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
EDIT: packaging shots, for those who may be interested. Ratings logos, grumble grumble
Click to expand...
I have to say, I prefer Aniplex's release. Even ignoring the other extras Aniplex's LEs come with, I feel a certain air of almost..."sophistication" when I look at the LE's boxes. With Madman's...it looks like a colourful mess xD
Click to expand...
I agree with you. Aniplex's box designs are gorgeous, while Madman's is just okay. But Madman at least had the decency to use chipboard, and their v1 + box version is cheaper than the no-frills Aniplex Blu-ray. I'd have loved the Aniplex LEs but I couldn't justify the expense (and paper boxes for a "premium" release is just not cricket).
 
FourthLion said:
Too lazy to PM, but I had heard the same that everything was now being checked and everything being sent to me was being taxed until one random parcel got through last week. It was from RightStuf (who as you said don't prepay) and was an order in excess of $100 (and was declared as such on the parcel).

I think it was delivered by ParcelForce rather than Royal Mail but the same rules should apply.
Click to expand...

Ayup - same rules should indeed apply. Although i was under the impression that RightStuf DID prepay VAT.

I've heard from a few folks about this now, across the length and breadth of the internet. It seems to be BS on Royal Mail's part. What a surprise.

I also checked the status regarding legality and legitimacy of the charges again. As we know, a VAT charge must legally be paid. Gallingly, it appears that the courts have ruled that RM are now categorically entitled to make their frankly ludicrous handling charges.

This thread makes for interesting reading, even if the last post is from August last year:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/communi ... 10938.aspx
 
My understanding is that Royal Mail's official line is that everything over the limit (which isn't exempt) gets checked and charged, but for whatever reason they can't actually manage this in reality so some things slip through. Even things which are openly declared correctly and from obvious places.

I understand why they feel they have to charge, as they're putting the money up front (in principle), but on small things where the handling charge vastly outstrips the actual fees it is a bitter pill to swallow, especially as most of us would be happy to pay the charges up front if someone bothered making a system to enable us to do so. And don't get me started on Parcelforce, who charge more and yet provide a vastly inferior service to any of their competitors. I'm still steaming that I've had to dispute two of Parcelforce's customs fees in one year due to them processing everything incorrectly and charging me a packet for the privilege, and even more annoyed I had to do so by post, effectively paying the same group of people who overcharged me again :p

If I'm paying them to clear my parcel, I expect them to at least read the label and logic check the charge on my behalf.

R
 
My point exactly Rui. If the VAT is quite high, then I think "Fair enough" (even if I think the handling fee is balls). However, then the VAT is less than the handling fee or just a bit higher (like with Madoka volume 1, iirc, the VAT was £11.something and the handling fee was £8.00) that's when I feel ripped off.

At least they're not as bad as UPS though and they give you prior note of the charges. When I've dealt with them, they've demanded the charges on the door.
 
If I thought there was an even remotely plausible reason why they have to charge several times the rate that DHL do for the same service, then I would have no problems paying it.
 
In future, I'm going ot be limiting my R1 purchase to retailers who I know pre-pay VAT (there's a few).

I'll also be following the advice in that link and requesting any other sellers to indicate that I want to pay VAT at this end. Royal Mail aren't getting any more of my money.
 
ilmaestro said:
Where can you pre-pay, apart from Amazon?
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Well, blow me down with a feather - I found out something interesting about this today.

The 'VAT pre-paid' thing has been a selling point of Planet Axel for as long as I can remember, as well as a few Amazon marketplace sellers. Amazon.com offer a pre-pay facility as well, apparently (though I've never been able to find it on their site, annoyingly!)

HOWEVER:

I was talking to a buddy of mine who works in comics retail today, and telling him about my recent sting. He listened to what I'd told him, looking a little concerned and then told me 'But... there is NO mechanism at all for pre-paying VAT or customs charges!'

As you can imagine, this leaves me a little concerned now.

I need to do some digging into this. I'm inclined to believe what my friend tells me, as he has a great deal of experience with importing goods for sale. If he is indeed correct, then it means that any claim by retailers that they can send goods with no fear of VAT and handling charges being levied isn't worth squat.

I'll share my findings when I have something concrete.
 
Surely the whole thing with Planet Axel ISN'T prepaying VAT? Surely they send the items from a US/Canadian warehouse to an address in the EU, which is where it then gets sent to us? The latter part of the chain meaning that for us, we're merely receiving a package from within the EU.

I'm not sure how that cuts out customs (maybe if something is marked for business it's very small, or the the prices we pay for the items subsidises it a bit?) but I know they're not the only company that does it (Yesasia does too - I ordered a Japanese DVD from them and when it arrived, the return address was in Croydon).
 
HdE said:
Amazon.com offer a pre-pay facility as well, apparently (though I've never been able to find it on their site, annoyingly!)
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You can pay it at checkout, though last time I looked the option didn't present itself when selecting the cheapest shipping. Had to choose the next one up.

EDIT: Also

Planet Axel don't pre-pay VAT. I believe they have a facility here in the UK where they re-route packages. I'm guessing they ship multiple orders to the UK at a time, and VAT is paid upon arrival here.
 
The way the Amazon.com method works is that their courier holds some extra money (which you pay during checkout) and uses that to pay the customs clearance, so you don't have to, and don't pay the massive handling charge since it's all included in the delivery service. Last time I did it it was pretty clear that it was an estimated clearance charge and any extra might be refunded. It's most definitely possible, and rather handy.

Comics should fall under books which won't attract customs charges in the first place, incidentally.

R
 
Manga:
Durarara!!: Vol. 2
Fairy Tail: Vol. 5
Parasyte: Vol. 1
The Drifting Classroom: Vol. 1

With regards to Planet Axel, not such if there is relevant or not to the conversation - 'Most likely to clear customs and enter Royal Mail postal service within 2-4 weekdays'.
 
Planetaxel have another free shipping promotion on currently (limited time only)

I have cancelled and reordered the following to take advantage of the free postage,
Guin Saga Complete Collection (Blu-ray)
Shiki - Part 1 Limited Edition (BD + DVD)
Cat Planet Cuties - Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Dirty Pair - Original Features Collection (DVD)

I also ordered the following,
Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - OVA Collection (BD + DVD)
Tales Of Vesperia (Blu-ray + DVD)
Dragonball Z Kai Season 1 Part 8 (Blu-ray)
Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works (Blu-ray)
Rosario + Vampire - Capu2 (DVD)
My-Zhime - My-Otome 0 S.ifr (DVD)

I had a credit balance from cancelling the following,
Kite (Blu-ray) - The only version still available seems to be the cut version.
Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians (DVD) - I think I read somewhere that it is on indefinite hold.
 
Thanks everybody who's chipped in on the VAt / customs clearance thing. I'm going to look into all of this over the next few weeks and see if I can't get to the bottom of it all.

Only thing I will mention though, is:

Rui said:
Comics should fall under books which won't attract customs charges in the first place, incidentally.
Click to expand...

This is true - however, comics retailers (as you probably already know) also frequently deal in other goods besides. Toys, busts, clothing, other merchandising... I believe it's thes sort of items (amongst others) that my friend has had difficulties with in the past.
 
mangaman74 said:
Planetaxel have another free shipping promotion on currently (limited time only)

I have cancelled and reordered the following to take advantage of the free postage,
Guin Saga Complete Collection (Blu-ray)
Shiki - Part 1 Limited Edition (BD + DVD)
Cat Planet Cuties - Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Dirty Pair - Original Features Collection (DVD)

I also ordered the following,
Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - OVA Collection (BD + DVD)
Tales Of Vesperia (Blu-ray + DVD)
Dragonball Z Kai Season 1 Part 8 (Blu-ray)
Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works (Blu-ray)
Rosario + Vampire - Capu2 (DVD)
My-Zhime - My-Otome 0 S.ifr (DVD)

I had a credit balance from cancelling the following,
Kite (Blu-ray) - The only version still available seems to be the cut version.
Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians (DVD) - I think I read somewhere that it is on indefinite hold.
Click to expand...
thats a lot when was the last time you did a photo or video of your collection
 
animefreak17 said:
thats a lot when was the last time you did a photo or video of your collection
Click to expand...

Last time I took a photo/video of my collection = never.

As for the smount of stuff I ordered - some of it was cancelled & reordered to get the free shipping. Also I had cancelled a couple of items from a previous order (which I mentioned in the above post) so I had a credit balance at the start.
 
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