Does anyone know what's going so wrong with An Post on behalf of Customs?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I know that their workload has probably increased immensely because of Brexit, but they seem to be getting all kinds of shit completely wrong.

I currently have an Amazon order sitting waiting for a customs charge to be paid even though I already paid Irish VAT when I bought it. Even if I wanted to pay the charge and get the thing I can't because they haven't sent me the details that I need to log in and pay. (Usually sent as a postcard if they don't have my email or phone number.)

A few months ago a friend sent baby clothes as a gift (about $50 worth), and they asked for €72 in charges and VAT even though children's clothes are zero VAT rated. I contacted customer services and they said my choice is to pay or not pay and have it sent back (I had it sent back). They couldn't have cared less that they got it wrong.

One of my friends had to pay charges on package from The Netherlands because it transited through the UK (not intentionally, the sender just put it in the post at her end and that's the route it took).

It's really frustrating, not least because there is no way at all of sorting it out. They can make mistakes/do whatever they want and there is no accountability.

Sorry, my question should have been, does anyone have any inside knowledge on this? Is it because they've had to take on loads of new workers and not trained them? Do they have a lot of temporary works who don't actually know how it should work? Are they trying to process too many packages for the number of staff? Do they get a nice kickback from Customs for processing and putting on charges, so they do it whether or not they should?

No ability to comment on the specifics I'm afraid, but VAT and customs are two totally different taxes. So paying the VAT does not mean that you don't still have to pay customs duties - which are dependent on the commodity code of the item.

Appreciate that is no help, and it sounds very frustrating!!!

They are two different taxes, but it's a cheap item (about €30) so it's well under the customs charge limit of €150 so it can only be VAT that they are wanting to be paid.