I bought a couple of ponies in a private board sale, which came to just under $90 including $10 for shipping. Paid for the ponies and had them sent.

I have just recieved a customs form this morning, saying

1. The sender did not pay full postage
2. There is a customs charge

So, now i have to pay an extra $20 to retrive my parcel, including a handling charge because of the underpaid postage.

Basically, I cannot afford the extra $20, $90 was pushing it as it was.

Whose fault is this, I mean, the form explicitly says 'did not pay full postage'. I have no idea how you can send a parcel without full postage, i didn't know you could, but this is what the form is telling me...

So, who is responsible for the $20? I personally think theseller did pay ful postage, so can i challenge the PO and customs if i get the documents stating postage paid, cert. of mailing and customs info?

Hi there!
Man I hate when that happens! Im sorry you are dealing with that.
Well first off I would call your postal service to see how much just the POSTAGE shortage is, I would feel that not putting enough postage on a package is the sellers responsibility,
However, customs charges are your responsibility as a purchaser. I know many people say that you need to put "gift" on a customs form to avoid customs charges, but that is illegal and the fines for getting caught doing that are pretty steep. So it would probably boil down that in all fairness, both of you should pay for what part your responsibility is.
But thats just my feeling on the whole situation. Good luck to you~

You're not allowed to put Gift on the customs form? Why is that??? *freaks out as little*

If seller just put stamps on packet and didn´t check there were enough them
Postages are sellers responsibility, but buyer have to pay customs fees.

The only thing I can think of, its that

1)the seller didnt put "gift"
or
2) the seller put the value of the ponies on the slip, and if it was more than a certain amount, you have to pay duty.


To clear the "gift" thing up: Its *not* illegal to do that. *Buisnesses* must do it, not normal people.

SapphireMorningGlory wrote:

You're not allowed to put Gift on the customs form? Why is that??? *freaks out as little*

Well You can put "gift" on customs forms when it truly is a gift,( Or a trade of another pony) But that doesnt always guarentee that no duty charges will be given, It all depends on the amount of the gift that is claimed.

As for items that have been SOLD by you, by law you are to put the good and what its reason is for it being exported. Otherwise if you are caught selling and claiming it as gifts, the fines are pretty stiff..

It wasnt like that before 9-11, but after that, the government cracked down on exportation and importation of goods Maintaining "Security" issues for the crack down. And of course, CUstoms make more money with this proceedure because now they were forced to look into more items being imported and exported than before and could slap fines and Customs Duty on products that were mismarked, etc.

I know many people do put "gift" on thier items they export when they sell so that clients dont have to pay the duty. But I have also seen first hand what happens when they are caught as well.

And I have to admit, If I werent in the importing business, and registered with the government, I would probably be more inclined to put "gift" on my packages. But I just highly discourage it.

Right, i think the PO is screwing me over, i have all the postage receipts and a cert of mailing proving full postage was paid.

So... how do i challenge the PO over this... I don't mind paying a $10 customs charge, but i can't be paying for the postage twice, especially when it was paid for.

teeciehappycompany wrote:

SapphireMorningGlory wrote: You're not allowed to put Gift on the customs form? Why is that??? *freaks out as little* Well You can put "gift" on customs forms when it truly is a gift,( Or a trade of another pony) But that doesnt always guarentee that no duty charges will be given, It all depends on the amount of the gift that is claimed. As for items that have been SOLD by you, by law you are to put the good and what its reason is for it being exported. Otherwise if you are caught selling and claiming it as gifts, the fines are pretty stiff..

For when sending to the UK, you are only obliged not to mark gift if you hold a business license.

For a $90 package, if they put the full value of the ponies, then you might still get customs charges anyway, as the limit is something like £18 ($32ish) for merchandise, and £36 ($60ish) for gifts. Then minimum charge is abou £6.40 (or was last time I was charged customs, which is a while ago).

As long as the declared value is not over what you paid, then you as the buyer are liable. If it is over what you paid, then the seller is (partially) responsible (depending on the values).

The underpaid postage, however, is definitely the responsibility of the seller. You should be compensated for the extra you have paid and any charges incurred by that part (there is a fee for that as well). In all honesty, it's lucky it arrived at all!

Are you able to get a breakdown of the charges, or would you have to pay them to find out?

Just read the last post... it could be that some stamps have fallen off. I'm not sure what a certificate of mailing looks like - it could be that there was an error at the seller's post office and that it was weighed wrong.

If I may I know sometimes you will be charged extra shipping to get the item from customs to you - I have had this happen as well. So you will need to find out if the extra shipping is that or the senders not putting enough postage on it, before going after the PO and/or the sender.

I'd say based on the wording the correct postage for the original item to be shipped is off, but that's just my gut reaction to it. I'd find out what that amount is (as mentioned above) and have them take care of it, and as usual take care of the customs fees incurred as international ppl are normally accustomed to doing.

Putting "gift" on an item doesn't prevent a custom fee from being charged either, the custom fees are just chosen randomly, oftentimes from the estimated value of the item in question being sent. Makes sense that if something is sent w/ a value of 100 dollars it would be worth it to customs to charge a fee on that and/or higher estimated worth packages.

All I can think is if the sender's post office let the package be sent by airmail lettter post when actually it was over 4 pounds or over sized. If it was caught by UK customs then there would be postage due and fault would be laid at the sender's post office and sender for not knowing size and weight restrictions.

I am of course willing to pay the customs fee, but if it was the sellers PO and not her who priced it up wrong, who is responsible.

Working on normal customs fees, and the price paid for shipping, it seems like no postage has been paid, because its another whole $10 (what i paid for it to be posted) not just a couple of dollars that the postage was short by...

Maybe the label got ripped off in shipping?

Was original postage only $10? That would mean the package only weighed 1 pound for airmail or it weighed about 3 pounds for economy. If the package only had postage for economy and was sent airmail then it would be about $10 more. I'm of course assuming the package is from the US to the UK. Sorry if I missed it but did you say how many ponies were shipped and were they adults, babies, MIB or MOC?

2 boy ponies, airmail, i've had 3-4 ponies shipped for that amount before, so i think the postage cost sounds about right...

The seller charged you $10 shipping that means you pay $10 Shipping ONLY. I sell on ebay and I always undercharge on purpose $1-2 or more depending on the item. However there have been times I undercharged as much as $15 - it was the Pony Castle and the box was huge - but I would NEVER dream of asking the buyer for more money. In your situation here the terms of sale were $90 for the ponies and $10 for shipping - that's it, no more. It is the sellers fault that they didn't pay enough postage and sellers responsibility to correct this. Babynuzzle I am so sorry this happened to you, but some people are just irresponsible.

Sends hug,
Renee