Received Amazon parcel from China. Now FedEx billing ME £30 for customs duties?

[KenzoBaby]

I ordered an item from Amazon. Transpires it came from China. I have just received an invoice from FedEx referring to the item and invoicing ME £30 for customs duties!

I have emailed FedEx and suggested they invoice the sender instead. I have also messaged the seller on Amazon but WTF?! Has this happened to anyone else? Surely I don't have to pay it?

I used FedEx once before to send an item to the US and they were no end of trouble! Hence how annoyed I am at seeing paperwork from them on my doorstep once more!

Thanks.

It's interesting that MN posters spend so much tome checking every single detail before purchasing something. Must be how they manage to locate the infamous MN chickens.

A lot of Ebay buyers have been complaining about this stuff for a while - sellers manage to make themselves look like they're in the UK and hide the fact that the items are coming from China. I think Ebay might even be looking into how to crack down on this problem.

I've had several things from Amazon that have come from China, & never had this problem.
Do get in touch with them, they are brilliant with refunds.

When you buy from some retailers, they give you the choice to calculate and “pre pay” the duty, or for you to pay on receipt. Makes the bargains in the Nordstrom sale quite a bit more expensive...

I’ve found before that they mis-declare what an item is when shipping from China - my sister ordered a bespoke prom dress, and the packaging declared it as fabric samples rather than a complete dress to get around duty.

How strange, I've had lots of stuff from china via Amazon and other companies and have never paid an import fee

You don't have to pay customs duty on low-value items.

@Nikhedonia I can't stretch a chicken but I do always check this myself after being stung. Once bitten twice shy.

When Dd2 was born friends in nz sent me gorgeous gift package - baby stuff. I had to pay import tax of £35 to customs before they would release the gift to me 😕. That's a lot of ££ when you are living on SMP

update: the seller has said if I scan them over the FedEx invoice they will pay it. Hopefully they start doing this for all their customers or at least put it more clearly in the product advert. Thanks to all for your advice!

I had a royal mail postcard telling me I had to pay about £15 to release an etsy item from the US. I wouldn't mind so much but it was half tax and half royal mail 'handling feel.