Buying from Amazon (US)

[MaryPlain59]

Is there a way of buying from Amazon US without incurring huge shipping costs and more fees for tax and handling charges when it arrives here? I have just bought a £4 item and have ended up paying nearly £40 to collect it from the delivery depot (completely my own fault for not going into the shipping costs etc properly before ordering) but I now have an Amazon.com voucher to spend and wanted to know if it's possible to avoid the same mistake again when spending it.

I’m not sure, but £40 on a £4 item definitely isn’t correct. To my knowledge you pay 20% VAT on an item plus a handling charge, which is usually £8-11 depending on the courier. You can dispute the charge online I think and claim a partial refund.

I think the tax threshold is £15 - so you shouldnt be paying any extra unless your item is over 15% - then as PP said its £8 handling fee + 20% tax. Definitely dispute it as that doesnt sound right at all. Unless the seller had the value marked incorrectly on the package?

Look on Royal Mails's website re customs charges, I think it's £15 too, so would query it.

Thank you all so much for replying to me, your information is really helpful and I am going to investigate it further now.

If you buy an item that is sold by Amazon.com, they will include the cost of taxes and handling charges in the final price, and will sort out the customs clearance of the item.

MyMallBox. It’s a US forwarding service. It would probably work better/cheaper if you were ordering several items but even with one they offer a service where they repack orders (so take it out of the original packaging and into smaller packaging - especially good as Amazon tend to overpack). If you have more than one order they consolidate, so take all packaging off and repack into one package.

I’ve used it and like it.