Royal Mail International Delivery - Long Time Coming

[Guest]

I ordered some electronic servo control boards from the US on the 23rd May 2006. I purchased them online and as the order had taken a fair time to arrive, I'd actually begun to think that the order hadn't processed correctly (I never got a confirmation) and ordered elsewhere.

Yesterday when I got back from work I had a note in the letterbox that there was a parcel that was unable to be delivered as it required me to pay a postal charge for the customs duty, VAT etc.

I picked up the item from the Sorting office - my order from May 2006! It's now July 2007 -The parcel was postmarked 25th May 2006 Is that some kind of record?

:lame:

[Guest]

Thats One Btter Than Me... I Ordered Some Stuff From The USA In Jan 07, I Paid The Seller In The Us For The Goods And For A ' Tracked 'international Parcel Post Service With The United States Postal Service.... The Goods Left The Usa And I Was Given A Number To Track The Transit Of This Parcel.......

About 7 Days Later I Log Into The Usps Website And Their Site Tells Me The Item Has Hit Uk Shores..... This Is Where Royal Mail Parcelforce Takes Over.....

I Logged On 2 Days Later Onto Parcelforces Website And It Tells Me The Parcel Is In Customs At The International Hub

2 Days Later It Says In Customs - 'fees Due'

2 Days Later It Says In London West Distribution Centre Pending Delivery

The Next Day It Says Return To Sender - Economy Service !

So Dont Exactly Know What Happened, They Did Not Attempt Delivery, They Did Not Send A Card As Usual Asking For The Customs/ Import Tax That Was Due - They Did Nothing When My Parcel Arrived In The UK -but They See Fit To Send My Parcel Back To The Sender In The USA By Surface Mail !

So Having Spend £45 To Have Goods Shipped To The UK In A Speedy Trackable Manner - Parcelforce Totally Screw Up And Then Send The Item Back Via Surface Mail....

Having Contacted Parcelforce And Asking Why They Said It Was Because The Tax Was Not Paid..... But As I Did Not Know How Much Was Due How Could I Pay It !!! ?????

I Also Asked About Having The Parcel Re Delivered- But Was Told It Was Already On Its Way Back via Economy Surface Mail Which Can Take Upto 12 Weeks To Some Parts Of The US...... Needless To Say I Have $400 Of Stuff Thats Paid For Somewhere Between Here And The Usa... And I As Recipient Cannot Make A Claim Against Either Usps Or Parcelforce..... But Only The Sender Can Make A Claim... And He Does Not Want To Know As He Has Had His Full Payment And In Due Course He Will Get My Goods Back !

Parcelforce In My Opinion Are Dreadfull ! They Had My Name My Address And Even A Contact Number , But They Did Not Attempt To Make Delivery, They Never Made Contact By Phone Or Post And They Failed To Deliver The Goods....

Ok It May Be A Year On Alan But At Least You Got Your Goods, Mine Are On The Other Side Of The World !

[wonwinglo]

No it is not a record,when I worked for the Post Office many years ago ( circa 1968) someone had to deliver a letter posted in 1945 ! the letter had got stuck in a sorting office conveyor and was only discovered in the sixties.

Guy,your story of Parcel Force is bizarre ! I can imagine how flustrating that must be for you,they should give you some form of compensation for the trouble.

[Guest]

ongoing saga of undelivered parcels...

I'd actually got a fee of 15.89 to pay on a parcel from the us and the one I picked up from 2006 was a different amount.

I thought I'd have another check at the post office to see if the parcel I was actually expecting from the US was there...

...so I ask if there are any deliveries for my address and the guy dissapears and comes back - ask's if I'm sure it's there, so I say that it should be and a while later he comes back with a parcel but again the customs charge is a different amount.

So I'm thinking they probably still have the other parcel which was unable to be delivered that I had the customs charge note for...

It was for a quick change toolpost for my Taig Lathe from A2Z CNC in the US.

[wonwinglo]

One thing that you have to watch out for is Fed Ex delivery charges,unbeknown to the person who buys the goods,Fed Ex pay the customs on your behalf,they also bill you a handling charge usually around £14,I got caught out fairly recently with this one,having purchased the latest Microsoft flight sim software from the States,by the time I had paid everything it worked out very expensive,so beware of hidden charges not always mentioned by the retailer.

[Guest]

On my deliveryl Royal Mail charged an additional £8.00 fee to pay the £6.00 VAT on my behalf - the parcel from 2006 was a fair bit more expensive however there wasn't any additional fee's on that one. I guess Royal Mail have put their prices up a fair amount in the last year whilst they kept hold of my parcel!