Try UltraliteOutfitters.com very helpful on all aspects of sourcing the items you want and shipping at low cost.
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 In the past I've asked private sellers in the USA why they don't want to ship internationally. Seems that some peolpe live many miles from a main post office, and then face long queues (sounds familar?) & a time consuming process to send. Because of the distance, inconvenience,and petrol costs, many sellers will buy a numer of pre-stamped small boxes/packages valid for anywhere in mainland USA which they can just seal the item in and pop into the local post box. My experience is that anything Fedex, UPS, USPS or large operator these days seems to be automatically intercepted by UK Customs, with all those additional rip off charges from the Post office following on top, as well as about an extra weeks' delay before they get round to telling you they're holding an item 30 miles away for collecton and payment of their total rip off fees. I think it's the green insurance sticker on the pack which attracts UK Customs. As someone else mentioned earlier, there's no customs fees due on a total package cost of less than £18. I've used this lot previously for buying items from the USA from vendors who will only ship to mainland USA : BundleBox. They provide a legit USA address and work out online what UK customs duty is needed and you pay them one fee for whole delivery process. They usually have a special offer for new subscribers - I got half price postage. My tip of the day, though, which I use for small items which can fit in an envelope or small package, is to ask the sender if they will post using USPS FIrst Class International. This is the cheapest rate available, probably no more expensive than UK internal postage costs for the same size package. There's no insurance included, though, so no Patagucci, and whilst most private sellers won't mind, most stores will insist on USPS priority or higher, which is insured, but seems to always trigger UK customs interception. I suspect it's the green insurance sticker on the packkage which attracts UK Customs. I've never had a USPS FIrst Class International package fail to arrive - usually takes 5 or 6 days, It's seems a realy reliable service.
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 >with all those additional rip off charges from the Post office So its unfair that the Post Office charge for its service is it? >there's no customs fees due on a total package cost of less than £18. £18 is the LVCR limit for not paying VAT technically you might still be liable for Duty
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| Edited: 04/08/11 22:31 |
£8 on Troll Mountain may be a fair price for you, Bedouin, but to me delaying my delivery by at least a week, sometimes up to three, when you don't know if your precious parcel has been lost or what, writing to you a letter - 2nd class! - to inform you that you can collect you parcel from a depot 30 miles away, then charging you £8 "handling fee" when you get there, is a tad more than "unfair". For the record, concerning VAT and Duty fees, this is from the Royal Mail site: "Receiving mail from abroad All mail that enter the United Kingdom may be examined by customs, but normally letters, postcards and packets containing only documents or similar forms of correspondence are excluded.
If you are receiving a package from overseas (unless it’s from another EU Country), please be aware that it may incur customs charges. Any package assessed by HM Revenue and customs as being liable for customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8.
Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £18 are liable to import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £40 are also liable for VAT. Goods and gifts over these values may also be liable for customs duty. You no longer have to pay customs duty for goods up to the value of £135, however you will still be required to pay import VAT and excise duty where applicable.
Please note that these limits do not apply to alcohol and tobacco goods where both excise duty and import VAT may be charged. It is not permitted to send alcohol and tobacco products into the UK from another EU country unless prior arrangements have been made to account for the excise duty.
For more details please read the Royal Mail guide to receiving goods from overseas. You can also check the HM Revenue & Customs guide to Shopping (new window) on the Internet."
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£8 to Royal Mail for handling customs seems like a bargain compared to some. Earlier this year I had a sleeping bag shipped to Turkey from the UK using UPS. It got stopped at customs and UPS wanted to charge me the equivalent of £60 in brokerage fees to bring it through customs. In the end I had to travel 3 hours to the nearest customs to clear it myself. After the paperwork, I went to the customs warehouse and UPS had a truck there that they were loading up with parcels. If they were charging the same on each, one they must be making a fortune.
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Unfortunately there are people that will whinge at anything. KK seems to do everything he can to evade possible customs charges like sending his "precious" parcel without paying for a tracked service or insurance. He even complains at the extremely reasonable £8 clearance fee.
I have a good friend who works for Royal Mail and he had a good laugh at KK's assertion that his item is held up for weeks and that RM send out second class letters to notify of the charge and then expect a customer to collect a parcel.
Ho hum...
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Quote from Mrs Nesbitt to Bedoiun on another thread: "Christ, you're an irritating twunt." What she said.
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Ya just gotta laff... For the whole forum to see you have no answer to your idiotic post other than to reply with insults  As I suspected from your posts your a few packets short of a sack full of...
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As the mighty Bedouin wrecks yet another interesting and informative thread for no apparent reason other than to obsessively repeat his own peculiar brand of sociopathic trolling, one can't but help stifle a tiny yawn. In the words of the great philosopher: "Say goodnight, Sooty"
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 Ahhh, it's nice to see that OM's customary standard of erudite debate and fluent discussion supported by cogent argument is being upheld - brings a warm glow to one's heart  
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 Reprted to moderator
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 Well done Parky, beat me to it
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 Drop the abusive trolling please. And try to be nice to each other before Santa gets involved.
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Jon, now you've zapped the offensive comment immediately preceding my post, mine is superfluous. So remove it too if you want.
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best to leave your comment now skip as it puts everything into context. as background there was an extremely offensive post against bedders earlier today that has now been removed. it was directly before skip's post and is not connected to anything preceding it. well done jon on the very quick action. thanks.
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| Edited: 18/12/11 13:58 |
 I used to get stuff delivered to work from the US rather than having to go to the Post Office to collect it and I got caught for charges often but last few bits I got delivered to home got through OK. Mind you I do live in Belgium.
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