Returning faulty item to U.S.

[SuperSecretSquirrels]

Does anyone know how this works with customs? (It’s clothing, so posting in S&B in case someone has experience).

I bought a few (expensive) clothing items from a shop in the U.S. and had them shipped to U.K., paying customs etc in advance as part of shipping (worked out at about another 40% on top of the cost of the items).

One of the tops is faulty, with holes all over it, so I need to return it. The shop has agreed to the return, but it looks like I will only be refunded the cost of the item, not the customs charge to import it to the U.K., and I may also be liable for customs charge back to the U.S.

Does that sound right or am I being taken for a mug? The top was $160, but it looks like it will have cost me about that in customs charges alone by the time I have returned it.

I'm not in the UK but fairly sure it's the same situation as here. Yes, you can claim back vat/duties over defective or returned items but if you didn't order DDP where they pay duties on your behalf (ie. you paid vat and duties to the courier and not within the checkout of the e-tailer) you will have to do a lot of admin with HMRC making sure to fill in forms correctly and providing lots of documentation which may not be worth the hassle for a small amount of money. If they did deliver DDP, I find it's a bit of a grey area, some shops refund you (usually if you have free returns label provided with a courier like DHL or UPS or an intermediary company who do all the vat/import admin for them) and others simply refuse to go through the administrative hassle on your behalf. By the sound of it, they're likely the latter. It usually says as much in their T&C, however that's for returns, I would probably appeal that since this is a faulty item not a return.

For the US import issues, I wouldn't worry about owing taxes there, under $1000 there's no import duties, vat rules differ per state. But so long as you fill in the customs paperwork that they're defective returned goods which essentially means they have no commercial value I assume you shouldn't have issues.

Thank you @botemp. That’s exceedingly helpful! I did pay for it all upfront with the shipping, so I presume that’s “DDP”.

They didn’t provide a returns label, just the address, so it sounds like I need to ask them for more info.

Their T&Cs say no international returns but seems they are making an exception for the faulty item.