Order returned to sender by Royal Mail

bluedragon

I just had an order returned from the UK. The total value was US$26.98. HMRC charged GBP4.60 in VAT (about 25%) and the Royal Mail charged GBP8 for an international handling fee! The customer did not pick up the parcel (Royal mail ticked the "not called for" option).

I offered to resend if the customer is willing to cover the shipping or refund the goods but not the shipping. I suppose he will only choose the former if the notice was missed or he was away at the time. Has anyone dealt with such situations in the past? If yes, what was the outcome?

Thanks!
BD

Lawrence

Just to clarify, you sent out an order, and when it was returned back to you, you had to pay customs on it?

Hoddie

Sounds like the customer (in the UK) decided not to pay import duties and so the parcel was returned to the seller (in the US).

Technically, an EU-based customer is well within their rights to return any online order for a full refund for any reason whatsoever. Having said that, if you refunded everything except the shipping costs it's unlikely the customer would be able to do much about it.

A while ago I posted some info about Import VAT and Import Duty. Might be helpful for your buyer:
http://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/1134/non-eu-sellers-sending-packages-to-the-eu-import-charges

Lawrence

Ah that makes more sense, thanks

bluedragon

As @Hoddie described. Currently waiting to hear from the customer. If he agrees to cover shipping costs to resend how would he best pay for that?

Thanks

robernat

@bluedragon
Assuming the buyer paid with Paypal (most likely), you can look up the transaction on Paypal to get the buyers e-mail. Then send an invoice from within PP for the 'new' shippingcosts, I recently had to do the same on a US shipment that was returned to me with a 'RTS' on it (the buyer being a university, someone over in their mail room seems to have refused the shipment for no reason)

bluedragon

Thank you @RobErNat- that's helpful.