Redbubble and Customs Charge

[TherebytheGraceofGodgoI]

I’ve used Redbubble for a few years with no issues.
A few weeks ago I ordered two novelty items with a total cost of just over £20.
Today, I’ve been given a Customs charge card from the Post Office to pay £199 before they hand my package over. I’ve seen the package, it has import tax, VAT and handling charge, all adding up to £199.
how can this be right? There is no one I can talk to on line about it (gov websites advise and cut you off).
My package is only a mile down the road in the Post Office and I want it but will not pay £199 to get it!
Anyone else come across this? Surely it’s a mistake as it only cost £20.
So frustrating, awaiting a reply from Redbubble.

Omg that's insane! Did they give you a breakdown of the costs? Did they charge like £184 on admin or something? 😱

The lovely man in the post office let me take a photo of it to chase it up.
I held it in my hand and considered for a nano second of running out with it 😂
£43 import duty
£147 VAT
£8 handling charge

That picture says something about anything over £139 will incur import duty which you’ve been charged. Any chance they’ve overestimated the cost?

Well there you have it. You said you paid about £20 for it so they've massively overcharged you.

Have you had a reply back ftom Redbubble.
A relative has encountered the same problem.

I sent them an email and I had a generic type reply stating that I should pay the customs charge and they would reimburse me.
I replied pointing out that the customs charge was ten times the value of the contents and that would cost them £199, where as if they just replaced the contents it would cost them £21.
I stated that this is obviously a mistake on the senders part and I believe that instead of writing £20 on the customs form, they had written 2000 which has been mistaken for £2000. That would make sense of the £199 charge.
They replied, agreeing that there is obviously a mistake and asked me to bare with them whilst they looked into it. That was Saturday and I haven’t followed it up yet as I thought I should give them a few working days to investigate.
What is annoying is that I saw on my package that in the case of non delivery, it stated that the package should be discarded and treated as abandoned. Seems all nuts to me but there is no one to actually speak to about it. If you go onto the gov customs site, they also state to pay the charge and claim it back.
I would rather loose the £20 than fork out £199 on the off chance I get it back.

Just to add, I’ve ordered a few things for Christmas and received them with no issues from America and Germany.
This package has come from Spain, not sure if that makes a difference

This is worrying. Just ordered present at the request of Santa. What a silly mistake they made, hopefully it's resolved soon.

What happens if you don’t collect it? Are you still liable?

@mintbiscuit, I asked that at the post office and they said no.

@Wizzard130 I’ve had an email this morning from Redbubble who are sending me replacements. Fingers crossed.

Thats good to hear. My brother in law has now had the same response. So lets hope it does happen, which will be a great response from the supplier.
The goods I have ordered , in fact one day before brother in law ordered theirs have still not arrived with me yet. So will be interesting what charges I will have for the same goods.

@Wizzard130 when you order from abroad there is a sticker on the package for customs and the value of the contents must be declared on it. I think in my case it was printed or read incorrectly. Hopefully yours will be correct and you won’t incur a charge.
I’ve used Redbubble loads over the years and only once I had an issue and it was sorted. As the goods can come from anywhere, including America, it does take quite a while to get here.