Duties, taxes and fees

User Experience
1

I ordered a Flex sensor and power supply, having raised a local grant to cover the purchase costs. I’ve just received an email from the courier stating there’s £71.13 to pay for duties, which was completely unexpected.

Appreciate it’s probably my naivety, but I’d suggest these additional costs need to be stated at the time of purchase - I’m sure there something in the small print, but it’s an annoyance, and a cost I will now need to personally cover.

Given the US is getting into tariff wars, maybe it’s worth thinking about a different distribution process, maybe using a service like Amazon.

I have bought items from the US before via eBay, and if I recall, their shipping quote includes any duty costs.

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2

Make sure the demand for duties is legitimate and is related to your shipment. If you got the demand by text message, it’s probably fake.

Criminals regularly send out fake demands for duty payments to snare the unaware.

Usually it is the shipper’s responsibility, and not the consignee, to file the necessary import paperwork and pay duties. Procedures are different for different countries, and corruption and graft are bigger problems in some areas.