Hi all,
Basically I no longer post ourside UK but very occasionally I do give in to very keen customers !
However ref Brexit I hear the some customers refuse to accept parcels once they realise local tax may now be applied ( I’ve had to pay this myself for fabric bought from the US ) .
I’m thinking of adding this to my policies :
‘NON UK POSTAGE /REFUNDS -
Posting outside UK Please READ !
I do not usually post outside UK and only do so rarely - I do not know what the situation is wrt local tax applied to UK goods , payment of such taxes will be the responsibility of BUYER. If on arrival you choose not to accept delivery and return item because of additional tax to be paid I will refund the price of the item once I receive it back BUT not delivery costs that I have incurred.’
I have all the usual Distance selling policies in place.
Is that fair ? what would you suggest ? is there a specific Distance selling rule covering this ?
I really don’t mind if it discourages non UK buyers - it’s very small part of my customer base .
I would just state that you will refund the cost of item not any local taxes customer incurs.
No need to mention you rarely post outside of UK etc.
But I will say it’s pretty easy to offer overseas delivery with few caveats. The majority of overseas customers are used to paying extra vat and sales tax on imports. EU customers are quite savvy so maybe remind them of their extra liabilities when they make an enquiry?
I don’t think you can legally withhold refunding the postage on not accepted returned parcels. If the person went to their payment processor and did a charge back for goods not received then you would be forced to do a full refund.
I would switch off all non UK shipping destinations and then if someone wants an item enough they will contact you which opens up the dialogue for you to give them an update on current postal delays to their country and remind them that local sales taxes/ vat might be applicable on their order. (I’ve always found that a quick google allows me to find out approximately how much the taxes will be so I can warn them that it will be approx X + a handling fee charged by their postal service)
That’s the bit I’m not sure about - ref declined receipt of parcels.
I refund postage under all other circumstances but it’s the ’ refusing to accept delivery situation ’ I’m not sure about ? I’m expect you are right though.
I’ve switched off postage outside UK both here and darkside but I get the occasional request. Before the EU customers were very easy to deal with anyway , some USA ones tended to sometimes have unrealistic expectations on delivery. I took US options off last March.
Thanks
I’m still digging around for a definitive answer but here’s what I think I will do …
If a customer refuses to pay import tax eventually the parcel would be returned , at that point I think it’s possible that additional postage charges ( for the return) might be applied (I’ve seen a reference to that in another site ) . So I think I will put something in about refund will exclude any costs that are associated with a refused parcel being returned due to non payment of tax.
But please if anyone finds out or has direct experience then let me know - I do know a few (darkside) people have had items refused by customer over tax charges.
Thanks!
If the buyer is in the EU, legally you cannot say that you’ll only refund the cost of the item and not the postage if they refuse the item. What I am doing is making EU buyers aware (before I even make their order) that there may be custom fees to pay. So far all my EU buyers have been happy to proceed with their order
I have sent several commissions abroad in the last couple of months. I have told the client that they are responsible for the customs charges they might incur on entry. I have now started to put that on my listings too. So far I have had no complaints but most of my orders are below 150grams so I assume they haven’t been charged. Tax and customs charges vary with each country. You could specify that you only send to certain countries? A lot of items below £30.00 don’t seem to get charged at customs.
It’s got nothing to do with the physical weight of the item but the monetary value declared on the customs form - my items are lightweight but for most countries they attract additional customs charges due to the value. The threshold at which fees start being applicable in normally around 20 euro/ can$20 (it used to be £15 for this country).
My mistake then! Each country varies on charges. Have you tried using the government exports checker? You just need to put the country in you want to send to and it will tell you the customs charges for that country.Check duties and customs procedures for exporting goods - GOV.UK
I tend to find a taxes calculator for the receiving country (google is great for this sort of thing), ideally one on the website for their postal service so that it tells me of the handling charge that the postal carrier levies as those can sometimes be quite large.
it’s a tiny proportion of my business!