No, I'm not talking about the recent statements from North Korea. When I got home a few minutes ago, I had a letter from Parcelforce asking me to pay the import duty and VAT (plus their admin fee) so that they can release and deliver my package. As I have only placed one order from an overseas supplier recently, it could only be one thing - my order of Koreans from Old Glory 15s. I've just made the payment online and hopefully they will be waiting for me when I get home from work tomorrow.
So, that throws a little bit of a spanner in my plans. As I need to get my army painted and based for Campaign in early May, I'll probably have to spend this weekend sorting out the figures I'll need, prepping them and getting them primed. My Swiss may have to wait a little bit longer to get their flags done.
These should be a fun army to paint up and as they will be (mostly) "uniform" relatively quick and easy to do.
So, what can you expect to see on the blog over the coming weeks?
Some progress on the Hasslefree figures for Donogh
Lots of colourful cavalry
Lots of white and black uniformed infantry
some pretty dull looking peasants
As the infantry are mostly medium foot, with a few lights, I'm considering painting them on their final bases just to save a bit of time. It will also allow me to take them into work so that I can do a little bit during my lunchbreak.
Import duty and VAT? Gah! Ok, now I can't be annoyed at high shipping rates to the US and the exchange rate.
ReplyDeleteoh yummy.
ReplyDeleteMight start another army.
No wait, another one? Please don't tempt me... I've already too much stuff.
Dabbled in this army in 28mm once, good luck and good painting Tamsin.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised and dismayed you are having to pay more to get your stuff! - I have ordered lot from the good ol' US and it just came, usually quite quickly too!
ReplyDeleteWhy did you have to start Koreans? - I have loads I need to paint myself in 28mm! AAG!
PS: hope you are feeling well now?
They should have told you upfront about these extra charges. But then there have been changes in laws recently on both sides of the Atlantic and prices are way up.
ReplyDeleteThe admin fee is a bit cheeky but here you'd suffer even more. They've been known to charge VAT and duty on the product, call the S&H a "service" and charge VAT and Duty on that and then charge VAT on the Duty you just paid....
DeleteI've heard some true horror stories about Revenue via a friend in DHL, who unfortunately has to explain it all to angry customers over the phone.
@ Styx - yup, my order was just large enough for me to get hit with both (the VAT was much the larger part)
ReplyDelete@ Seb - shinybloodyitis is an incurable disease and is believed to be highly contagious. You are probably already infected ;)
@ Fran - cheers. They'll make a nice change from all the non-uniform stuff I've been painting up before this.
@ Herkybird - Given the value of the order I knew I'd have to pay both. However, I did get a 10% discount from OG15s as my order was over $100 (if I'd ordered another $150 of figures the discount would have been 30% - wish I'd done that now).
ps - I am feeling well now
@ Anne - I was fully aware that my order size would attract these charges. A sad fact of international purchases.
Well I won't be buying anything from overseas then if you have to pay more bloody tax, we pay enough of that already!!!
ReplyDeleteA Korean army? Cool! I can't think of the last time I saw that in 15mm. I'm looking forward to looking and learning as you go.
ReplyDeleteglad to hear your feeling better bummer on the extra tax but will be fun to watch this army build.
ReplyDeletePeace James
Being a Kiwi we almost always have to import fig's.To avoid the tax we generally ask for them to be packaged into several smaller packs and posted separately. This has never been a problem, at least from all the Brit companys that we deal with. Might be worth a try next time. Worst that can happen is that they "NO"!!
ReplyDeleteThe service fee i9s really annoying! It all depends on how honest the shipper is with his valuation. I order a lot of stuff from the US and some firms know the limit they need to keep the value below to avoid this...
ReplyDelete@ Ray - normally within the EU we are paying the tax indirectly via the supplier. When you order from outside the EU you have to pay VAT yourself (plus the admin fee) when they come into the country. If the value of the goods is under £15 you don't have to pay VAT. I can't remember the level where you have to start paying import duty as well.
ReplyDelete@ Andrew - I think it depends on the company and the size of the order. To avoid VAT and import on my order, they'd have had to split it into 13 packages, which would probably have cost me a crap-load more for shipping.
@ Rodger - I feel for you on that score.
@ Legatus - it's swings and roundabouts I guess. The shipping cost of splitting the order into multiple packages below the limit is probably the same as for a single large shipment plus the import taxes.