I finally received a reply from Royal Mail today regarding my above post.

Dear xxxxxxxx

Thank you for contacting Royal Mail, regarding the fee we charge for
handling items of mail that have incurred a customs charge.

HM Customs raise charges (import and excise duties and VAT) on packets
arriving from abroad that contain dutiable goods. Royal Mail collects
customs charges and an additional clearance fee from the addressee. Royal
Mail's clearance fee contributes to the cost of the administration and
handling of these items and the payment to Customs of their charges on
behalf of the addressee to speed delivery of the packet. The Customs
clearance fee is £8.00 for each letter post item, Small Packet or bulk
postbag.

Royal Mail cannot advise on general Customs matters. Please contact the HM
Revenue & Customs National Advice Service on 0845 010 9000 or visit the web
site www.hmce.gov.uk if you need more detailed information regarding:

. Commercial and Pro Forma invoices
. VAT
. Certificates of Origin
. Movement Certificates
. Invoice Declarations
. Import and Export Licences
. Customs charges on mail arriving in the UK

We recently assessed the costs of providing the customs clearance service
for customers importing goods into the UK by post, and discovered that we
were operating this service at a loss. Unfortunately, we can no longer
afford to offer any service at a loss and cannot subsidise this activity
using another income stream. It is for this reason that our fee has
increased to £8.00, which accurately reflects the costs involved.

In order to obtain a refund of this fee, you would first need to
successfully challenge HM Revenue and Customs and obtain a full refund of
the customs charges. Once you've done this, you can send us evidence to
show that you have received a full refund from HM Revenue and Customs and
we will then refund the handling fee to you as well. Please send it to us
at the following Freepost address quoting your reference number RMxxxx-xxxx

Glasgow GEMS Team
Royal Mail Customer Service
PO Box 740
GLASGOW
G22 6WW

I'm sorry to advise that I cannot find any records of any payment being
made on-line for this item.

The Royal Mail website accepts payment from Mastercard or Visa credit
cards, as well as most debit cards, for example Visa Delta, Maestro and
Switch. If you're trying to use a different type of card, this might
explain why you're experiencing problems.

If this is not the case, and you have carefully checked that you entering
all card details correctly, but are still experiencing difficulties, please
reply to this email with further details including the error message being
displayed and we will certainly look into this matter further.

Alternatively, you can visit your local Delivery Office to pay for and
collect the item being held for you. Just remember to take the notification
card with you together with a recognisable form of identification.
Alternatively, you may wish to affix the required amount of postage stamps
to the notification card and post this back to the Delivery Office
concerned, who will then arrange for your item to be sent to you on the
next available delivery.

Thank you again for contacting Royal Mail and I hope the information above
concludes this matter for you. If you need to get back in touch, please
remember to quote reference number RMxxxx-xxxx.

Kind regards

xxxx xxxxxxx
Customer Service Advisor

As to be expected I guess. So I went to my local delivery office in Edinburgh this evening to try and collect the parcel, but only prepared to pay the customs fee and be invoiced for the clearance fee. I explained that he was breaking the law, but the operative refused stating that he couldnt sanction releasing it on payment of the customs fee only, and advising me to phone the manager in the morning. I cold have called the police at this point but as I live only 5 min from the office I agreed to phone the manager in the morning. So I guess I will see what happens tomorrow. I am really angry about this issue and will pursue it even if it means paying the fee and pursuing it through the small claims court. Can those that have done this already say how much you have to pay to do it? Has anyone done it and failed?

Thanks, Dave

Dick Emery:After speaking to the head of Parcelforce I was allowed to collect the item and pay customs only. They then sent me an invoice via mail which I am ignoring to see how far they chase it.

Bill THEM double their clearance charge for your time in collecting it. They were paid to deliver to the addressee, and they failed to do so.

Cheers,

Jim

After speaking to the head of Parcelforce I was allowed to collect the item and pay customs only. They then sent me an invoice via mail which I am ignoring to see how far they chase it.

I too have now fallen foul of this for the second time by the Royal Mail - the first time I paid it reluctantly. Having read a lot of threads on here and on other online sites since, I have decided to take a stance this time around. I received a card through the post today with a demand for £16.90 for Customs Charges, there is no mention that this includes an £8 clearance fee. So instead of paying it I have sent the following e-mail to the Royal Mail through their website and will see what response I get,

I received one of these "Unfortunately we can't deliver your item because there's a fee to pay" cards through the post for an item I ordered online in the US on 25SEP09. The Royal Mail is full aware that according to the Postal Services Act (1) it is a criminal offence to withhold delivery of a parcel once the customs fee has been paid (no attempt was made to deliver the item and then invoice me or ask for payment upon delivery), (2) it is against the law to bundle the charges together (there is no mention of a £8 clearance fee, just that payment of £16.90 is due), separate invoices must be provided. Indeed the customs charges have already been paid to HMRC by the Royal Mail, therefore my debt to HMRC is discharged at this point and the debt to the Royal Mail becomes a civil debt, and so the Royal Mail has a legal obligation under the Postal Services Act 2000 to deliver the item without delay. Section 104 (2) para (d) of the Act says that a postal packet shall have immunity from "retention by virtue of a lien".
I am more than happy to pay the Customs charge that Royal Mail has paid on my behalf but then want my parcel released for collection or delivery as it should be under the law and then be invoiced for the clearance charge separately.

Hi. I too have just gone through this thread and used the information to phone Parcelforce HQ and told them in no uncertain terms that what they are doing is illegal and unacceptable. They still say that what they are doing is not illegal. I asked that I be able to pay the C&E charge at my local depot and they invoice me for the clearance fee. This they agreed on and I collected my parcel and paid just the C&E fee.

Now I wish to dispute the clearance fee when/if they send me an invoice based on the fact that:-

1. they never delivered the parcel and I had to go collect it myself from the depot. Thus they broke the agreement of delivery which was made when I ordered the item and postage was paid (I know it was EMS that was paid but surely it also applies to the partners who then deliver the post as they receive a share of payment through their global partners?)

2. I was never notified that the parcel was being held. No card through the door. They say they sent one but I never receieved one and it was only after searching for my tracking number online that I was able to find out out that my parcel was being held at the depot since the 10th of August 2009.

3. I never recieved an invoice.

Now I will just let you know that I am unemployed and have small means to contest in a court of law and in fact am a bit of a dummy when it comes to laws and this kind of thing. However I want to contest this if at all possible as it is an extortion and needs to be exposed as such. I do not wish to be a poster child for this but someone needs to make a stand.

Any advice on what I can do if/when I receive the invoice for the clearance fee?

Hi everyone, I found this site via google and have read this thread with great interest. I currently have a parcel stuck in customs and parcelforce's site shows its currently status as "AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGING" so I know that I will have to pay VAT/duty as well as pf's ridiculous £13.50 handling charge. I'll be disputing this charge once their ransom letter arrives on my doorstep, thanks to the advice in this thread :)

On a side note, I paid around £6 VAT + their £13.50 clearance fee around April, as I didn't know it was illegal for them to demand payment for this clearance fee back then. Would I be able to claim this back?

Thank you in advance for any help!

CDM:

I finally received a response back from my MP, who contacted Pat McFadden on my behalf following my complaint about my parcel being held to ransom. Here is that reply:

Thank you for your letter of 28 April, enclosing correspondance from your constituent, xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx of xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx about the difficulties he has experienced with Parcel Force. I appologise for the lengthy delay in replying.

Under the Government's postal sector reforms introduced in 2001, Royal Mail (which includes Parcelforce) has been given greater commercial freedom, as the management and unions themselves requested, and Government has assumed an arm's length role as a shareholder in a public limited company. Subject to agreeing its strategic plan with us, the Board can structure the business as it decides best to meet the challenges of market development and changing customer needs.

The issue your constituent has raised is an operational matter for Parcelforce and not for Government. Packages sent to the UK from outside the European Union are subject to customs control. Royal Mail and Parcelforce are required by law to work with HM Revenue and Customs to ensure that all customs charges are paid before an item can be delivered.

I have been assured by Royal Mail and Parcelforce that they do not make money from the handling fee, it simply covers their costs, on behalf of Customs, for paying any outstanding duty and collecting the duty due.

- CDM

COMPLETELY missed the point, of course. Holding the parcel until payment is illegal, and that's that. What a waste of space these people are.

Jim

I finally received a response back from my MP, who contacted Pat McFadden on my behalf following my complaint about my parcel being held to ransom. Here is that reply:

Thank you for your letter of 28 April, enclosing correspondance from your constituent, xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx of xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx about the difficulties he has experienced with Parcel Force. I appologise for the lengthy delay in replying.

Under the Government's postal sector reforms introduced in 2001, Royal Mail (which includes Parcelforce) has been given greater commercial freedom, as the management and unions themselves requested, and Government has assumed an arm's length role as a shareholder in a public limited company. Subject to agreeing its strategic plan with us, the Board can structure the business as it decides best to meet the challenges of market development and changing customer needs.

The issue your constituent has raised is an operational matter for Parcelforce and not for Government. Packages sent to the UK from outside the European Union are subject to customs control. Royal Mail and Parcelforce are required by law to work with HM Revenue and Customs to ensure that all customs charges are paid before an item can be delivered.

I have been assured by Royal Mail and Parcelforce that they do not make money from the handling fee, it simply covers their costs, on behalf of Customs, for paying any outstanding duty and collecting the duty due.

- CDM

tandym:

I just said the fee was paid under protest (which it had been). If it's illegally collected, they have to give it back. They certainly don't want the matter coming before any judge!

This country needs class actions (maybe a Group Litigation Order could be used), Scotland is getting them soon.

So did you just get back the fee + costs, or anything beyond that?

As I say, they cave in, becase as you say, they certainly don't want it coming before a judge - that would set a precedent, and the floodgates would open.

tandym:

Scotland is getting them soon.

That's good - since that's wher I am! :-)

I just said the fee was paid under protest (which it had been). If it's illegally collected, they have to give it back. They certainly don't want the matter coming before any judge!

This country needs class actions (maybe a Group Litigation Order could be used), Scotland is getting them soon.

I guess the important thing is - what becomes the basis of your claim. i.e. what are you claiming from them - refund of the fee? That can only really be on the basis of the fee being unreasonable, bypassing, if you like, what I see as the main argument, viz., the delaying of delivery till you have paid (and that's going to happen, even if they stop charging their fee!). If you claim based on the delay, what are you claiming for? Their fee has nothing to do with it, so it would have to be consequential loss; a very difficult thing to prove or quantify.

The attack has to be on the wilful delay for this to be in any way meaningful; what SHOULD happen is that they turn up on your doorstep to deliver the package and ask for payment for the duty/VAT there and then, along with their fee if there is one. That's what other delivery agents do, and that's what the law intends that they should do. They simply flout the law on two bases; 1) they fear they won't get paid if they do it as they should (and I have some sympathy with that, but that's their problem.) 2) the Postal Workers Union decided that its members (posties and parcelfarce drivers) should not have to carry payments made. I have NO sympathy with that - collecting monies on delivery was, and still should be, part of the job they took; if they don't want to do it, change jobs.

By <appearing to be> caving in to the few like us here who dig their heels in, they are actually protecting their position; a tiny proportion making what is, at the end of the day, a very small fuss, being pandered to allows them to keep the completely illegal process going......

No easy answer, but it's easy for the majority of complainants here (and elsewhere) to take their fees as the issue to challenge, where that is not the case - the fees are purely secondary. The issue is simply that they illegally delay delivery.

Would you like to post her letter here?

Bert Impetigo:

Good work! But - did you "win" (as you say they settled) on the fee being unreasonable, or on the illegality of delaying delivery because of a lien? I don't mind paying the fee, (though I do mind the size of it!) but I strongly object to them delaying delivery until I've paid it, which is the bit that's illegal.

And, please don't forget everyone - this is NOT just Parcelfarce, but the Royal Mail Group, which means that the delivery office for normal letters (and hence small international packages that they ransom as well) can be dealt with in exactly the same way.

I'd be grateful for a copy of her letter that you mention.

The fact that they collect it in a criminal manner (of course as you correctly state being fully aware of this but know they will get away it) is primary (and as you also state definitive) and the unreasonable aspect is secondary & could I guess be argued. Luckily, you don't even need the secondary argument. They settled with no admission of liability however I will post the letter to show how arrogant the Royal Mail lawyer mandy Talbot was and how stupid she thinks I must be by referring to the Postal Services Act as the Postal Services Bill (I think I referred to bill as an oversight in my 1080 small claim characters but I think Royal Mail got the gist =) ) thus trying to state a bill is not lawfully passed .. but ignoring the fact a previous refinement of it was as an act for some time!! Also she refuses to give a disclaimer that she will not collect the charge in future therefore I may proceed with the action. Her defence appeared to me at one point to be arguing PF was not governed by said act her "im too clever response" when asked if she felt that was really the case was something along the lines of she has never plead that the act doesnt apply to "royal mail group ltd", again clear as mud and sneaky wording!!

Note the Parcel Force line chumps are telling people they are not regulated as a private courier but when passed the items in this way from an overseas postal service, and since they refer anyway to their chargers under the gazettes as allowed for by the Postal Services Act 2000, this is nonsense. It's just a convenient way to try and slip the net, and avoid the regulator too (the regulator will typically say they cannot help you with Parcel Force). As they are however correctly stating on Consumer Direct phone line is tell them you will pay the VAT/duty and ask them to deliver the parcel then invoice you the £8/£13.50 'clearance fee'. They're doing their best.

Well done on that one, its common sense that what they are charging is unjust.

I wouldnt mind a copy if thats ok ?

Thanks

Paul

I'd also like a copy of that letter. Indeed why not post it here?

- CDM