To ask anyone who voted for Brexit to pay my import duty

[Saddlesore]

I ordered a household item online and paid no attention as to where it was coming from (because I never did before). It turned out it was being shipped from Germany and I have to pay import duty and fees to receive it. WTAF!
I’m just having a rant because I fail to see how our lives have improved after Brexit - and don’t get me started on what my relatives in NI are having to endure. And no, Brexit did not deliver a triumph to the UK on vaccines because we would have been just as free to negotiate their delivery to us within the EU.

So, for anyone who voted for Brexit, have your lives really improved and are you happy that UK consumers now have fewer choices and more expensive ones at that?

So, while this is rather tongue in cheek, here goes:

Yes - YABU to want Brexit voters to pay your import fees
No - YANBU to want Brexit voters to pay your import fees

@wonkylegs oh I was talking generally about the issue of taxes and rich peoples’ perpetual desire to pay little or none.

Lol, I just want to say that I voted 'yanbu' and the vote cuurently stands at 51% yabu, 49% yanbu 😅. The irony!

Bloody hell OP - you have had some seriously batshit and unsympathetic replies.

I really, really hope that some of the desperately ignorant people on here soon fall foul of the regulations themselves - they'll soon change their tune.

FWIW I live in mainland Europe so it works the other way round for us. We would frequently order stuff from Amazon.co.uk but it just isn't worth it now.

It absolutely isn't always clear what the duty charges will be before committing to buy. You just end up with an invoice when the goods arrive.

One of the local charities where we are ordered a delivery of something from the UK for a recent event. Total cost was less than 100 euros but they would have needed to pay over 30 euros in excess charges to accept the delivery. There was no mention of this until the delivery arrived.

Only if everything has duo prices because we left the EU, so a leave price and a remain price.
You of course have to pay this for ever.

On the issue of importing huge building materials from Europe and beyond there is an argument on environmental grounds that we need to look at materials with less of a carbon footprint. Globalisation is great but there are consequences to this.

“Its been well publicised that import duty may be payable. Good reason not to buy from them.”

“Them” being who exactly?

Do people like this actually exist??

No wonder we are where we are.

FWIW I live in mainland Europe so it works the other way round for us. We would frequently order stuff from Amazon.co.uk but it just isn't worth it now.

Same here, we've had to pretty much stop ordering from any UK vendors....

The added complications such as restrictions on plant/food items entering the EU from the UK have been another hit on some small specialist British exporters..

Still I guess all that mattered to many was getting the ""job" done regardless of the actual consequences and I'm sure it was a case of G&Ts all round in some households on 1st Jan...

@loginfail

Sorry that you are having this issue too.

I am properly shocked by most of the comments on this thread.

I am assuming that the "just buy British then, how dare you have money to fritter away on "forrin" luxuries" brigade aren't planning on travelling to mainland Europe any time soon either, what with the potential costs of visas and car insurance and time-consuming assorted red tape that it will now involve.

can't even ask them to bring us some bacon now

Maybe you should check where you're buying stuff from rather than blaming others for your error.

The added complications such as restrictions on plant/food items entering the EU from the UK have been another hit on some small specialist British exporters..

And ordinary people. Someone was giving away their house plant collection they build up over the years because they found the paperwork too much

@catspider

Yes plebs, you heard the OP. It is your duty to vote the correct way so OP an continue to buy expensive products from the EU without having to pay a bit of more tax. Now get back to your minimum wage job, her latte won't make itself!

The biggest joke here is it will be exactly the “plebs” who will be paying a lot more for their everyday items as they will also be paying extra for the low value items they depend on.

The OP may have bought an expensive item from Europe, but where do you think the vast majority of ships from China dock? Most container ships carry goods for all countries within a geographical region, ergo a ship with products destined for the European market will dock in Rotterdam/Genoa/whatever is the most convenient port for the containers it carries. It is highly likely that goods bound for the UK will be a smallish % of the consignment, so unlikely to warrant docking at a U.K. port (or else it would need to be a dedicated cargo - unlikely with the current issues re ship availability etc) so it will probably be offloaded at a EU port and driven up to the UK, if you can find a lorry willing to do so it will probably cost €€€€. Therefore all those low cost items and fast fashion from Primark and supermarkets will have another layer of costs added, which will affect the retail price. This is not really going to affect the consumer who can afford Gucci, but those for whom a few £££ make a difference.

All very well saying buy British, but short of Aston Martins and whisky not much is actually manufactured in the UK, or if it is the technology lags behind demand (as quoted by a PP re building materials). Plus the aforementioned Astons and whiskies still need an export market, or need to import raw materials on a JIT basis (most of the car industry).

I think you should always have had to pay an import tax persoanlly. I don't have an issue paying extra tax on something when I am increasing my carbon footprint just because I like something better from abroad than I can find locally. They should use the money to fund more eco friendly solutions for freight imo.

@mainsfed

Are you the poster who bought that painting from Italy for €800 or something?

My first thought too.

I voted for Brexit and feel really really sorry for you OP.

Just PM me your bank account details and I'll reimburse your extra costs.

The old ‘forrin’ trope has been unleashed.
The planet can’t sustain things being shipped in from all over the world at our whim.

@BMW6

I voted for Brexit and feel really really sorry for you OP.

Just PM me your bank account details and I'll reimburse your extra costs.

So kind of you. While you’re at it, please could you sort out compensation for that car accident I had, fix my Microsoft account and reinstate my National Insurance number? Oh, and look into that Amazon Prime subscription that I don’t recall taking out.

@ginghamstarfish

Maybe you should check where you're buying stuff from rather than blaming others for your error.

What was bought, the amount paid and who it was ordered from is a bit irrelevant to the bigger debate...

Even if you assiduously make efforts to buy a UK manufactured saucepan/vase/television from a UK high street shop then unless the item is made out of raw materials dug out of the ground in the UK, and every single one of the component parts are manufactured in the UK chances are you are going to be paying indirectly some import duty.

You won't see it itemised in the sticker price but it'll contribute to the costs and you'll be paying it....

A lot of those raw materials come from outside the EU though?

@Saddlesore

As I thought - you completely miss the point. Yes, I should have checked but I doubt this item is available to ship from within UK anyway. My point is, just a short time ago we had the freedom to buy anything from the EU and had no import duty. So are Brexit voters happy to stump up (not for me, obviously)?

We are not missing the point, we are disagreeing that you considered your purchase properly, even though you were aware that Brexit had happened and that this was a potential problem.

And you're rude.

@Jahebejrjr

A lot of those raw materials come from outside the EU though?

I hope people don't think that if raw materials enter the UK from the EU there will be no charges to pay.

There's a reason why there's more than a little urgency being displayed to get "free" trade agreements and it's not to do with sub-£1000 vases from Europe.

..sorry..I hope people don't think that if raw materials enter the UK from outside the EU there will be no charges to pay.

I don’t think that to be honest.

@Saddlesore I recommend John Moncrieff in Scotland we have had new glass from them different shapes but very good

@tttigress

Couldn't you have sourced whatever you bought or something similar locally, would have been better for the environment.

To be honest, shopping for things remotely from a foreign country is pretty decadent.

And yet people buy things from china all the time but that's OK because it's cheap

I'm with you OP.

Yes, people buy things from China all the time. And is there a fuss about import fees?