today – a mere seven weeks and two days after i ordered them online in a fit of drunken impetuosity – my chippewa biker boots arrived after their long sea voyage from america. mind you, my joy at their unexpectedly early arrival [i'd been told they'd take between 8-12 weeks by surface mail] was tempered slightly by the fucking outrageous blood money whacked onto them by the leeches at HM customs…
to be precise £49,90 in customs duty on a pair of boots which only cost US$170 in the first place! now. according to the currency converter on my comp’s calculator that’s £50 [near as dammit duty] on a pair of boots costing £95. ie. over 50-fuckin-%!!!
so i goes on the fishin’ net and trawl through various pages on various sites; government, parcelforce, EC tax laws and [eventually!] find out the following. let this be a cautionary tale for anyone else foolish enough to think that ‘free market economy’ somehow meant er… an economy with a free market in goods:
- first they charge you import duty on the cost of your goods plus the postage you paid – thank god i only paid $30 for surface mail and didnae splash out the $60 for airmail!…
- then they charge you VAT on the total of the cost of the item plus the postage plus the import duty…
- then parcelforce charge you an additional fee on top of that for handling the customs fees – [£8 on my parcel]
on top of all that shite, the fact that i’d ended up paying $250 for the boots in the end just left me feeling let down and disappointed at the waste of money – when i should have been all excited at getting a new toy through the post. i think i’ll stick to ebay from now on. at least their cut isn’t quite such a piss-take!
