Shipping from Japan to UK questions

Hi!

 

Sorry if there is another thread somewhere on the forums about this, I did search but mostly found people just generally commenting on shipping in threads that weren't specifically about shipping.

 

I've recently won a DDII body on Y!JA through Goody Japan, the body has arrived with them and in 48 hours they will send me the invoice for fees and shipping and asked if there was any preferred shipping type. If not they will use EMS.

 

I've heard that if you live in the UK and customs receive a parcel from Japan and it's via EMS, you will always get charged customs fees.

 

I'd REALLY like to try and avoid that.

 

The parcel will be around 2400g and this is what GJ sent me to look at and try to figure out the best option:

 

http://goody-japan.com/shipping.html

 

I'll admit it, I am not very good at understanding shipping at all ANYTHING with numbers and my brain just can't process it very well at all so I was hoping that someone here who is also from the UK, could chime in and advise me.

 

I mean, for all I know EMS might actually be fine and I just read it wrong (by it I mean a random post I once found on DoA)

 

Anyone?

I'm not in the UK but I am very familiar with Goody Japan and the doom of customs charges... ^^;

 

You can ask them to undervalue your package. So you can have it sent EMS (for a DD body this is the best method due to the size) and avoid customs charges entirely. ^_^

I've only ordered from Japan once, a doll and some parts from Parabox. My parcel was shipped EMS, and I paid customs. The customs was less than I expected because Parabox put the actual value of the parts I bought and not the retail total on the box. I didn't request this, this seems to be how Parabox interpreted the "value of contents" section. My parcel spent ~2-3 days on customs, iirc.

 

Whichever way you have the parcel sent, if it crosses the UK border it will go through customs. Sometimes, maybe if they are busy, you catch a break and they don't check the parcel properly . If you do get charged, and you think you've been overcharged, then all you can do is pay it, keep /all/ the dobleepentation, and start the very long, and laborious, reclaiming process (and I don't think it even gets paid back till the end of the tax year).

 

I think the best approach is to assume you have to pay customs, budget for it (duty of 5% on value+shipping for dolls, then VAT of 20% on that total, then ~£9-18 handling fee), and then hope that for what ever reason, you don't have to pay it after all ! As the shipping costs are included in the tax calculation, you might go for cheaper shipping to bring down the potential tax amount that way.

 

Good luck! I hope that you get lucky, and if you do have to pay customs, that it doesn't break the bank .