My wife recently and very kindly ordered a VERUS Engineering sound tube delete from Flyin Miata in the US. The item was $31.99 but shipping was estimated at over $50 dollars with UPS (no other choice) resulting in a charge of over $85. As expensive as this sounds if all shipping tax duties etc are covered it was just about acceptable. However we then received no further confirmations, email etc until UPS contacted us to confirm a shipping date and request a further £25.67 (£14.42 import tax and £11.25 Brokerage Fee).
We tried to contact Flyin Miata and got delayed responses to 2 of our 4 emails all too late to stop the delivery without incurring return postage fees and lots of hassle. The responses from Flyin Miata when they finally came were polite and professional but basically they were completely uninterested in making any attempt to sort anything out. It felt like our custom was too small and insignificant to be of any importance to them. We also pointed out that the website should have been much clearer on the TAX/Import duties to which they responded by sharing the links to where the small print on this is buried in their website.
Lessons learned and that I wanted to share with everyone on the forum.
Im never going to buy anything from Flyin Miata again!
Don't assume that when a website says TAX included it means all TAX included (on this point we must take some blame for assuming that, but we expected a confirmation of the estimated shipping cost to clarify this and that never came)
Do not use UPS for any low value items as they have a fixed rate £11.25 Brokerage fee on top of duty regardless of item value
Once an item has been shipped it really is too late to take action without incurring some cost
The only saving grace is that the item itself is really good but it hurts having paid best part of £100 for something that retails at $31.99.
Im too busy to enter into further debate with Flyin Miata and did make it clear that at least if they made the gesture of refunding the Brokerage Fee charged to us by their only choice of carrier i could at least post something positive in this Forum. THEY CHOSE NOT TOO saying it was not their responsibility.
You will have to do your homework a bit better in these cases and read all the small print that you now admit you did not read!
Buying items from the US has always been a lottery with certain charges not being charged and in other cases they are charged. I always double check the website selling the items and have never got these surprises but you must do your own checking that you did not do 100%!
On the “Flyin Miata” website under “About Us” Para “Ordering/Tracking” it clearly states than the buyer is responsible and that they should check the relevant authorities (HMRC) website for details. All carriers have a fixed fee if they are required to act as the importing agent paying Taxes/Duties on the buyer/importers behalf. Have you ever tried to stop a letter you’ve posted Royal Mail? Of course not, it’s impossible, the same goes with anything in any carriers system. Once it’s on it’s way. that’s it until it arrives, unless it gets lost in transit of course.
It doesn’t help when big seller intermediaries like ebay do all the work for you. Their take it or leave it price includes all deductions with no unexpected costs.
Lots to be said for that really.
I have been lucky on occasions when buying abroad but it seems that anything from the US is always scrutinised.
I would put this down to experience - some of the charges I have paid in the past have doubled the cost of an already quite pricey item. With the weakness in sterling and increased US postal charges buying from the US is regrettably often not an option.
Can’t remember ever selling to the US. so unfortunately no consolatory effect that way either
Ebay don’t always do the work for you. I regularly buy stuff from the USA and you can get a variety of options. Some sellers sites say nothing, others warn that all taxes/duties/charges on importation are for buyers account and other show a charge additional to postage/carriage to cover the import costs.
Glad this is getting an airing on the site. Yes, the joys of paying Brokerage to ship from Europe are just around the corner.
Thanks for the comments some thoughts below:
Still think its not beyond the whit of suppliers to make it clear at the point of purchase rather than elsewhere on the website its just not customer friendly.
I have never tried to stop something I have already put in the post box always thought that might be difficult (my arms are too fat and not long enough). Funnily enough thats why I expected an email prior to shipping. If only that was the case.
I have been buying parts for a Chevy for years from the USA. The best advice is to assume that you will be paying import duty vat and a brokerage fee on anything you buy, if you don’t get charged consider yourself lucky. In the old days you could estimate that the actual £££ cost would be 1:1. With the $ at today’s exchange rate it’s more like 25% more. Best way is to either buy from UK / Europe or take a vacation in the US and bring it back hoping you don’t get caught by Customs on the way back.
The trouble with a lot of US companies and people is that they really don’t understand that there’s a world outside the USA. eg Q: “Where are you from?” A: “England” Q: " What state is that in?".
Why did you buy the delete kit from the USA ?, the component parts from your local Mazda dealer are about £ 36.00 (plus VAT) that’s how I did mine including the grommet,
HOSE: B-05-065-D02-0, PEFA-13-220 (Includes the oil/air seperator)
GROMMET: M-05-059-F0-1-0, P51B-13-252
Hope may help future delete pipe people. rgds Paul H, Bicester.