EMS from Japan to UK

Has anyone living in the UK ordered a doll directly from the Volks International website before? My doll is currently being held up by ParcelForce.

 

25/3/2015 21:34 International Hub Awaiting Customs Charging

24/3/2015 19:42 International Hub Awaiting Customs clearance

24/3/2015 19:38 International Hub Received in destination country

24/3/2015 3:18 OSAKA INT CONTAINER 1…+OSAKA INT CONTAINER 1 Forwarded for export

23/3/2015 18:34 Delivery Agent - JAPAN…+Delivery Agent - JAPAN Collected from customer

 

I've googled "awaiting customs charging" and it's not a 100% guarantee you'll be charged, but more often than not the fees could be applied. I'm getting a little worried. Can someone share their experience with this and what the outcome eventually was?

If you ordered from Volks International I am pretty sure you will get charged as Volks writes the correct value on the package

 

I am also from Europe and no package from volks ever escaped custom fees.

Oh god no!!!! These dolls are so expensive. I dread what the customs and VAT charges will be.

I'm not sure how VAT differs, but in the US there is a published dobleepent telling what items are subject to customs fees, and iirc it also tells you the % you have to pay. The EU might have something similar.

Ugh.....So I just got this update:

 

27/3/2015 4:23 International Hub Revised charges to be paid

27/3/2015 4:21 International Hub Forwarded for UK processing

 

My stomach was churning so I called ParcelForce and they stated I owe £69.31 and I have to wait until it's been sent to a local depot to pick up.

Well that's the last time I order something outside the EU that's over £13.

VAT is pretty vicious. I remember ordering stuff from the UK to canada and the buggers charged me what amounted to about 1/4 of the value of my order.

 

Most of the time my international orders don't get taxed on the way in, but every now and then they charge, I'm not sure what canada customs is doing in this regard they let a lot of stuff come in without charging duty and taxes.

Ugh.....So I just got this update:

 

27/3/2015 4:23 International Hub Revised charges to be paid

27/3/2015 4:21 International Hub Forwarded for UK processing

 

My stomach was churning so I called ParcelForce and they stated I owe £69.31 and I have to wait until it's been sent to a local depot to pick up.

Well that's the last time I order something outside the EU that's over £13.

£69.31 is way better then what I had to pay on my Mariko XD hope you get your things soon.

so you know you will need Photo ID to be able to get it just in case you did not know.

(the point that I don't drive or drink and do not have any photo id really killed me I had to wait form Friday to Monday to get my parcel a little wile ago XD

Sorry to hear you had to pay such a large tax on the import. The US doesn't change customs fees on Dolls, but my state has a Use Tax which is about 10% of the cost of the doll.

Customs in the UK for items over £115 are:

 

- 20% VAT (of total cost of item + postage costs)

- Around 5% Duty for goods worth up to £630

- £13.50 Parcelforce handling fees

 

So let's say you ordered an item valued at £400, including shipping. That would be £80 VAT, plus the £20 Duty fees and £13.50 handling fee, making the total costs £113.50.

 

If the item is valued at under £115 then you are not charged for Customs Duty but you are still charged for VAT and the handling fees from Parcelforce.

it's a small price to pay if you are using insured shipping... if the price of the contents are misrepresented by the declaration, your insurance claim will only be fore the declared amount.

 

Could you imagine losing a sasara or lily and the sender only declared a portion of the value that you paid? You would be out the difference.

 

For anything over 200$ in value I insist the person send it insured and properly declared.

It was sent directly from Volks. They shipped it overnight which was great, but it sat in UK customs for a week before I could find out the charges and pay. As I'm not a native resident, and from the USA originally I had no idea that VAT could be tacked onto anything over £13-£18. (as per the gov't website) I'm used to importing things into the USA which allows up to $200 to be imported without incurring custom fees, depending on the item.

I'll just wait until next year when I'm actually in Japan to buy another doll.

I can't speak for how Europe does it but I believe the US does charge customs fees on any item you hand carry in from another country and which is normally subject to a customs fee.

But dolls and toys aren't subject to customs in the US

Yeah, US never charges customs on dolls and toys. This is why I run the Leeke GOs -- I can get a $1,500 order from Leeke and not have to pay a single penny in customs fees. (And I only pay state use tax on the items I keep, which is usually less than $100 so my tax fee is usually under $10.)

*SIGH* Must be nice! LOL I'll order my dolls to go to my USA address next time then.

I just bought a NS bust part from Volks that cost £22 with shipping. Customs was only £5.50 but the Parcelfarce clearance fee of £13.50 hiked the charge up to £19!! Thats almost as much as I paid for the bust itself!! Not a happy bunny

Yeah, sadly most Japanese companies are like this, they are a bit too correct

I paid 83 euro extra for a DDIII body... 17,50 eur for EMS NL, 21% VAT + 4,2% Doll tax (charged when value is over 150 euro) I didn't even know they charge extra tax over dolls and doll accessoires

 

I probably gotta pay over 150 euro extra when my DD Sheryl arrives

OMG that's horrible!

I won two DDs in a lottery and decided to buy both. The combined customs charge back into England was almost £300! I could have bought a new doll for that!

That's the most ridiculous fee for dolls and accessories I've ever seen. It shouldn't be like that. Robbery.

yeah it is, you should always add 25% ~ 33% extra in your calculation when ordering something from Volks (or above the duty free price).

In theory it's pretty much correct because untaxed goods should be taxed (that's the idea, which is fair... if you like it or not), but since Volks doesn't subtract the tax in Japan (which is pretty stupid... ) you pay;

 

-Tax over goods in Japan

-Tax over shipping (EMS)

-Customs fee (17,50 euro in my case)

-VAT in EU (which is calculated over goods value + shipping)

-VAT over toys/toy accessories in EU (which is calculated over goods value only)

 

I always use this calculator: http://www.importcalculator.com

Which is always correct (+-1 euro )

Lesson learned. I won't order anything over £13-18 from outside the EU ever again that's for sure. To have that amount be so low to import anything (not just dolls but literally anything) is bonkers.