Buying in from the UK

[billyboy]

Hi lads,

     was wondering if anybody has bought via online shopping  anything from the UK   , curious about the vat situation  when the postman arrives at the door  with brexit and all that.

 

Haven't bought anything since late last year and was holding off too see how everything settled down.

[jhb171achill]

Seems to be a mixed bag, no matter what the official rules are, which suggests that some, at least, of the checks are done on a "spot-check" basis. I haven't bought much myself, but Daughter-the-Middle buys stuff from there in the course of her business maybe once every week or 10 days. Sometimes she gets stung, sometimes not!

[Bumble_Bee]

I'm in NI but friends in the south tell me its more dependant on who its sent by than anything else. Royal Mail/An Post seems to have fewer issues, but some of the private couriers have been shockingly bad to deal with. They don't seem to know their way around a sheet of paper never mind any kind of new tax documents  

[Noel]

2 hours ago, billyboy said:

Hi lads,

     was wondering if anybody has bought via online shopping  anything from the UK   , curious about the vat situation  when the postman arrives at the door  with brexit and all that.

 

Haven't bought anything since late last year and was holding off too see how everything settled down.

No Problems so far with orders that arrived from Hattons, Gaugemaster, Element Games, Silverfox, etc. Nothing extra to have been paid. Just normal post so far. Same with an electric car charger that arrived a few weeks ago, no extra vat or duty.

[ShaneC]

I had a parcel coming from the UK via DPD last week and they emailed me in advance of delivery with a link to pay for duties. Not experienced similar with An Post deliveries yet, I think it depends on the shippers setup and the value of goods.

Edited March 12, 2021 by ShaneC

[murphaph]

I reckon here in Germany the appearance of the parcel is the biggest factor. Commercial parcels with everything printed on sticky labels: highly likely to be stopped. Handwritten address and customs declaration, even if well over the threshold: likely to have a green sticker from customs freeing the parcel from a closer inspection and instructing the post office to just deliver it. I honestly think the parcels are just whizzing by on a conveyor belt giving customs officers a few seconds to make a call on which parcels to look more closely and which ones should be waved through.

The one hand written parcel I had that got stopped was a cardboard tube thing from the S4 society and I reckon the unusual look of it just drew their attention to it.

I also reckon that customs know that the likes of DPD is much more likely to be transporting commercial parcels than private ones.

 

[DJ Dangerous]

5 hours ago, billyboy said:

Hi lads,

     was wondering if anybody has bought via online shopping  anything from the UK   , curious about the vat situation  when the postman arrives at the door  with brexit and all that.

 

Haven't bought anything since late last year and was holding off too see how everything settled down.

 

I suspect that as @murphaph says, the visual aspect of the parcel plays a role.

If it looks like a birthday present, and doesn't set off any detectors, then it's probably gonna pass through no problem...

I hope to test this theory very soon with a few IRM buses.

Two other factors will be the shippig agent, and how well-prepared the arrival destination is.

Here in Las Canarias, they started preparing customs etc for BrExit in 2016, put everything into place, so nothing really changed in January, other than they actually started applying the charges.

If something is shipped via Correos / An Post / Royal Mail, it's likely to fly under the cistoms radar due to the volume of parcels these entities deal with, and declaration is then left up to the recipient.

If something is shipped va GLS, or Muppets like DHL, they are bored, have nothing to do because tey're terrible and nobody wants to use them, and they are guaranteed to charge fees.

 

[Bumble_Bee]

11 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

I suspect that as @murphaph says, the visual aspect of the parcel plays a role.

If it looks like a birthday present, and doesn't set off any detectors, then it's probably gonna pass through no problem...

I hope to test this theory very soon with a few IRM buses.

Two other factors will be the shippig agent, and how well-prepared the arrival destination is.

Here in Las Canarias, they started preparing customs etc for BrExit in 2016, put everything into place, so nothing really changed in January, other than they actually started applying the charges.

If something is shipped via Correos / An Post / Royal Mail, it's likely to fly under the cistoms radar due to the volume of parcels these entities deal with, and declaration is then left up to the recipient.

If something is shipped va GLS, or Muppets like DHL, they are bored, have nothing to do because tey're terrible and nobody wants to use them, and they are guaranteed to charge fees.

 

Great idea, lets have a 'gift wrap' option from Hattons etc that helps expensive trains pass under the radar as kids toys  

[fishplate7]

Ordered decoders from YouChoos about two weeks ago. Value c. £170. Arrived 4 days later. Perfect condition. Delivered by An Post. Nothing additional to pay! And the cost was excluding UK VAT in anticipation I would have to pay VAT here. It seems to be for the moment that if its delivered by An Post you could be lucky; if you use a courier however, you are almost certainly going to pay handling charges etc. 

[popeye]

It's a mess.

I ordered something from England on eBay and they cancelled it saying they could not get 

a courier to deliver it.

[Noel]

Only one minor glitch so far a delivery from gauge master they used a courier for this particular order instead of royal mail, so got stuck with a €19 customs/vat payment before delivery. They used courier for this order because it contained heavy track  ballast materials (ie Javis granit). Any other orders have arrived with little issue and no apparent delays, perhaps I've just been lucky so far.

[BosKonay]

On 16/3/2021 at 2:10 AM, fishplate7 said:

Ordered decoders from YouChoos about two weeks ago. Value c. £170. Arrived 4 days later. Perfect condition. Delivered by An Post. Nothing additional to pay! And the cost was excluding UK VAT in anticipation I would have to pay VAT here. It seems to be for the moment that if its delivered by An Post you could be lucky; if you use a courier however, you are almost certainly going to pay handling charges etc. 

A factor also is the size of parcel, and value on the customs invoice 

[Noel]

9 hours ago, BosKonay said:

A factor also is the size of parcel, and value on the customs invoice 

Yes I bought two large bags of Javis granite ballast which were heavy, hence courier instead of An Post so had to pay duty and vat. But it was ok. Marks unfortunately didn't have any in stock not did my usual german supplier so had no option but to buy from the UK. But 4 other small parcels arrived two via AddressPal (ebay), no problems, but it looked like both had been opened for inspection and taped back up again with AddressPal tape.