UK customs issue (subscriber T-shirts)

This isn't a dig against Giant bomb or it's staff, just a heads up if you are a UK (50 dollar) subscriber and have the member t-shirt that comes with it.

The address labels CBSi and the Giant Bomb Emporium use, have the total value of your subscriber order on them, in other words your $50 subscription that you paid is taxed when your t-shirt gets into the UK borders system. The total price you'll have to pay is $50 for your subscription, the $15 for the shipping (which you know about) and then and extra £14+ for tax and handling charge ramping the price up to approximately $85.

This didn't happen when Giant Bomb was part of Whiskey Media, but it does happen now. *shrugs*

I refused the customs charge (I'm poor, shoot me).

Anyway UK duders, just be aware of the total cost.

@dick_mohawk: This is good information for @rorie, I seem to remember a while ago he was asking for info about customs stuff to see if they could help UK duders out with this issue. That, or I imagined it.

Either way, Rorie is the one who can help with this, if anyone can. At least maybe get the declared value changed to $15 instead of $50!

@bollard: Yep, told Rorie as soon as I found out. No response though. I guess he's busy with stuff.

@dick_mohawk: He's a cool guy, I'm sure he'll get back to ya.

Yeah, I'm sure he will too.

UK tax allows for importation of goods below £135 to be free of importation duty, they will however charge import Vat on anything over £15. Parcel Force will also add on fees for paying on you behalf.

Seems this is a recurring topic http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic-31/i-have-to-pay-customs-for-my-damn-member-shirt-565917/

That seems really silly to put on the package, especially considering the t-shirt is technically a gift for subbing, not what you're paying $50 for. Hopefully this gets changed for people.

@dick_mohawk: It's the same for people in mainland Europe as well.

It's like this: European customs put a tax on goods coming from outside of Europe. When something is valued at over 22 euros (not sure about the UK amount) customs can make you pay extra for importing it. I've talked to Rorie about this before but there is nothing they can do about this. At least legally.

Okay, thanks guys. It just seems absurd.

Have a good weekend all :)

I think its a more complicated matter than simply that, considering that @dick_mohawk isn't shipping the whole subscriber item to him. Whats happening is they are assuming the package (which is just a t-shirt) is a total of $50. Yes VAT should be applied to this $50 totally, but the import cost of 12%ish should only be applied to the shirts value. Maybe they should adjust the system so that subscriber codes for t-shirts are on a separate order.

Only the value of the t-shirt should be on the customs form, not the total subscription value. A subscription/membership is a service, and UK VAT does not apply to services supplied to customers in the UK from businesses overseas.

I suspect that customs is somehow screwing you over (which I base solely on my short time in Germany when they screwed me over and some things people are saying here).

It feels like there is nothing you can do, even if it's technically not legal, though. I'm not sure how you fight customs for being shady. Especially Giant Bomb who I am sure couldn't afford a legal battle.

I don't know. This doesn't seem right, though.

I live in Finland instead of UK, but all I had to do was convince them that the t-shirt was a freebie and the $50 cost was only for the subscription. Screenshots of the order and the store page and after that I got the t-shirt shipped to me without any taxes.