Dave

I went to Thailand last month and bought an amazing antique marble bust in the River City complex of a Chinese goddess. I agreed the price which included delivery, and paid. A few days ago we found out she landed in the UK, but were hoffiried to learn that the shipping we paid apaprantly only covered delivery to the UK. We are expected to pay a fee to the importer , &quot;rental&quot; (which goes up &pound;8 for every day we don;t pay to send her on) and delivery to London. The total is as much as we paid in Bangkok for the thing. The original receipt does not detail what was covered in the &quot;shipping&quot; charge, and the shop manager's English was not good enough to clarify this when we shopped.<BR><BR>Does anyone have any info on shipping goods back, specificlaly to the UK - shouldn't the full charge we paid in Bangkok cover deliver to our address? Where is a good source of help for this?

LouiseUK

I don't have a clue I'm afraid, but I doubt there is much you can do about it! Can't you pick it up yourself or get a courier company to collect it for you - much cheaper than incurring &pound;8 per day I would think!? It does sound like a lovely bust you have bought though, we are going in April and are staying at the Royal Orchid, and first stop will be the River City for us when we arrive! Good luck!

Sarah Rey

If you import 'anything' into the UK or anywhere else for that matter you have to pay import duties, VAT etc. You also have do complete paperwork. To do all this you either drive to the aiport, pay the duty and VAT to customs and pay the airline local fees ( if any ) or you have to get and Import agent to handle this for you. In Australia it costs about A$50-100 for agent fees and I guess that is about 20-40 UK pounds.<BR>The exporter cannot include UK timport duty and VAT, sorry to say but even if they had sent with a courier like DHL or Fedex they may have delivered it but you would have fees to pay.

Sarah rey

P.S<BR>This is something people should remember when buying anything overseas and having it sent home. Many do not realise that there are import duties and VAT(tax) to pay. You would be shocked that even the smallest and cheapest of items attracts duties and tax. If you bring something with you in your baggage then it is within your 'allowance', and most countries have actual fixed value of goods that you can bring in. Having said that I have been with visiting friends who have taken masses of things back to Europe, but they were from Spain and Germany, when I asked if they were worried about customs duty they laughed and said they weren't worried.<BR>The experience of the OP is a reminder.

Kathie

My experience is like Sarah's. I&quot;ve had things shipped to me a few times, not from Thailand, but from other countries. The store pays for the shipping to Seatte, but I'm responsible for transport from the airport and for the duty. When you bring things home with you, all the items get added together for the purposes of duty. In the US, you get a duty-free allowance of $800 per person (family members can pool their allowances) and then a low rate on the next $1000 per person worth of goods. <BR><BR>There are big advantages to bringing home your purchases with you, often, even if you have to pay an excess baggage charge to your airline. In the &quot;old days&quot; airlines often waived excess baggage fees, but they have tightened up on that.

Dave

Thanks for the feedback. The annoying thing is that the duty and VAT is only 44 pounds, it's the extra fees added on my the importing agent that make up the bulk. Guess I'll know next time.

Ingrid

Dave:<BR><BR>I have shipped original paintings from various countries during my travels and never had this experience.<BR><BR>The gallery always has me pay the fees and taxes in their office and they take care of it from there. The paintings usually have to be opened to clear customs in the US, but I haven't paid anything extra.<BR><BR>Sorry you are going through this. I also wonder why it was not sent direct from Thailand to the US? Could you have requested that?<BR><BR>Ingrid