DynamicSpirit
Established Member
A couple of months ago I bought an item online from a company in Canada. It was delivered by FedEx (without comment. They simply delivered the package, and as I recall I signed to say I'd received it). And I assumed that was the end of the matter.
But then a couple of weeks later I received an invoice from FedEx for about £24 headed 'Duty and Tax Invoice'. The invoice was itemized as £12 for 'VAT' (which possibly means customs import duties?), and then a £12 for 'advancement fee' - which turned out on investigation to be a charge FedEx levy for paying the 'VAT', supposedly on my behalf. (But the invoice didn't say that - the invoice looks designed to give the impression that it's entirely for tax - you have to go to the FedEx website to discover that 50% it is actually an admin charge levied by FedEx).
This all looked to me suspiciously like a scam, so I just ignored the invoice. I would expect any bill for any form of tax to come from HMRC, not from a private company. And given that the admin charge part of the invoice is for a service that FedEx claim to have provided but which I never asked them to provide, or agreed to them providing in the first place, I can't see how I could reasonably be liable for it after the event (either legally or morally).
Then a couple of weeks ago, I had a reminder threatening further action if I don't pay.
Given the extensive knowledge that people here seem to have, I wondered if anyone here knows anything about this kind of thing? It still looks to me like it's probably a scam - that FedEx, having already presumably already been paid by shippers to deliver items, are then trying to fool the people they deliver to into paying money that those people don't actually owe. But since I don't know how import duties work, I thought it worth checking, in case I'm mistaken. Googling around seems to show that it's quite common for FedEx to send out these kind of invoices to people who aren't expecting them, and there seems to be some conflicting advice online on whether they should be paid.
Anyone have any thoughts?
(And if it turns out it is a scam, what are the possible places I could go to to complain about it?)
But then a couple of weeks later I received an invoice from FedEx for about £24 headed 'Duty and Tax Invoice'. The invoice was itemized as £12 for 'VAT' (which possibly means customs import duties?), and then a £12 for 'advancement fee' - which turned out on investigation to be a charge FedEx levy for paying the 'VAT', supposedly on my behalf. (But the invoice didn't say that - the invoice looks designed to give the impression that it's entirely for tax - you have to go to the FedEx website to discover that 50% it is actually an admin charge levied by FedEx).
This all looked to me suspiciously like a scam, so I just ignored the invoice. I would expect any bill for any form of tax to come from HMRC, not from a private company. And given that the admin charge part of the invoice is for a service that FedEx claim to have provided but which I never asked them to provide, or agreed to them providing in the first place, I can't see how I could reasonably be liable for it after the event (either legally or morally).
Then a couple of weeks ago, I had a reminder threatening further action if I don't pay.
Given the extensive knowledge that people here seem to have, I wondered if anyone here knows anything about this kind of thing? It still looks to me like it's probably a scam - that FedEx, having already presumably already been paid by shippers to deliver items, are then trying to fool the people they deliver to into paying money that those people don't actually owe. But since I don't know how import duties work, I thought it worth checking, in case I'm mistaken. Googling around seems to show that it's quite common for FedEx to send out these kind of invoices to people who aren't expecting them, and there seems to be some conflicting advice online on whether they should be paid.
Anyone have any thoughts?
(And if it turns out it is a scam, what are the possible places I could go to to complain about it?)
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