I have been a bit naive in ordering something from a German website to be delivered to the UK. The item is sold via UK retailers but I, for some reason, thought if I buy directly from the company that if I were to encounter issues with the product it would be easier to liaise directly with the company etc. but it is also £20 cheaper directly from the company.
Anyway, it is now with Royal Mail waiting to be delivered to me but I received an email from RM this morning requesting I pay £76 in customs charge. This is well over half the cost of the item and I wish I had just bought it straight from a UK retailer and am now obviously more than happy to pay the £20 price difference. When ordering, the website didn't inform me about a potential customs charge and the way in which they advertised UK free delivery didn't initially raise any flags to me that there may be an upcoming customs charge. To be honest, I very naively didn't pay attention to where the company was based when ordering and assumed it might have been UK based given how "ordinary sounding" their free UK delivery was being advertised.
Anyway, I wanted to ask: if I refuse to pay the customs charge, and the item is not delivered to me, the item would be sent back to Germany - would I get a refund? Has anyone had any experience with this or is it entirely dependent upon the company? It is a reputable company but also a small-ish company.
Any advice greatly appreciated.