Feeling completely ripped off for import charges of child's pedal car - $1,326!

[matte]

Hi everyone.,

 

I would like briefly describe the process we have faced importing a pedal car for my son into Brisbane. My father-in-law purchased the shell of a vintage Austin J40 pedal car back in 2012. He did a complete restoration on it and gifted to my son on his birth in 2013. The car has been stored up until now at their residence in the UK. My son is now coming up to 3 years of age and we wanted to ship it over so he could use it.

 

The pedal car was placed into a 1 cubic metre crate, total weight 90kg. It was collected from their UK address and sent to Brisbane port by sea freight. Total cost so far for this was £278 (£180 for collection and loading, £98 for LCL freight). The cost of shipping did not include charges for handling and clearance in Brisbane. My wife and I had to instruct a local customs clearance agent to handle this. The total charges for unloading and clearing the crate so I am able to pick it up myself from the port has amounted to a staggering $1,326! :eek:

 

Let me clarify, the item was processed as personal effects (owned for more than 12 months) so it is not liable for any GST or import duties. This amount is purely the cost for handling and a quick quarantine inspection. This is completely way over what I expected to pay in handling and clearance charges. I expected these to be around $300 - $400 at most.

 

Upon further investigation it appears $390 of this is just for quarantine to poke their head in the crate and decide no further treatments are necessary. Another staggering $438 has been charged in port handling fees by the agent appointed by the shipping vessel to unload the crate. I questioned this and did some research. I was told by the clearing agent that this is likely to be over-inflated because the company that transported the crate by vessel will be getting a commission from the local handling agent. In comparison with other handling agents, it costs the same amount to unload a full 20ft container which can hold 33 cubic metres. Do you think the they are charging all of the other shipments in the container the same amount? A nice tidy profit for them if they are. (33 x $438 = $14,454). We are not able to instruct our own agent unload the container from the vessel so we are held to ransom by the agent the vessel wishes to use.

 

I was wondering if anyone knows of any authority I can complain to who can investigate these charges further? I know nothing will probably come of it but quite frankly these charges are ridiculous. How can they be justified at all? How can it cost so much more to unload and clear the crate this end than it did to load it and ship it all that way from the other side of the world?

[Guest The Pom Queen]

I am so sorry to here this. Have a chat with Iron Chef, if anyone knows a way he will.

[Patphillips47]

We had some thing similar with a bag of clothing and excess stuff sent separately from our flight The cost in the UK was about £120 which seemed reasonable but when it got to the other end what a rigmarole

We had to go to the shippers to get the paperwork ,then to AQUIS to rubber stamp ,they queried that there were shoes in the bag

I explained dress shoes that had to been used in the country side or for fell walking ( I was asked all of this )

Luckily the lass was good and said she didn't need to go to the shippers to see the bag as that was about $150

She rubber stamped the paperwork - then onto customs to get thier rubber stamp - back to shippers with the papaework and I think they the gave us a bill for around $200 why I don't know as we had done all of the leg work

Am ultra cautious now and get full charges at both ends prior to moving anything !

[Peach]

I had a similar experience trying to send two bottles of wine back to the UK. The wine was worth $30 in total and Aus Post double and triple checked that I was sending within limits before accepting the package. I was charged approx $150, which I was horrified at (but I promise was a promise and I didn't want to let the gift recipient down) so paid it. A week or so later, I received a letter of demand from Royal Mail asking for 180GBP(!) before the wine could be released for delivery - this was made up of a 60GBP handling plus VAT based on what they valued the wine at plus the original cost of postage. Feck knows how they were allowed to factor in my postage costs. The appeals process appeared to be deliberately difficult and slow, so in the end I just paid it. I won't be sending wine to the UK anytime soon.

[starlight7]

They make me sick the way they go on- anyone would think you were shipping weapons to Syria or something. Pathetic money grabbing little Hitlers. More and more of it I'm afraid.

[Diane]

I had a similar experience trying to send two bottles of wine back to the UK. The wine was worth $30 in total and Aus Post double and triple checked that I was sending within limits before accepting the package. I was charged approx $150, which I was horrified at (but I promise was a promise and I didn't want to let the gift recipient down) so paid it. A week or so later, I received a letter of demand from Royal Mail asking for 180GBP(!) before the wine could be released for delivery - this was made up of a 60GBP handling plus VAT based on what they valued the wine at plus the original cost of postage. Feck knows how they were allowed to factor in my postage costs. The appeals process appeared to be deliberately difficult and slow, so in the end I just paid it. I won't be sending wine to the UK anytime soon.

 

Pretty horrendous - next time you should ask on here if anyone is flying back in the near future and could fit a couple of bottles in their luggage, then post it from the UK end when they get there!

[Iron Chef]

I am so sorry to here this. Have a chat with Iron Chef, if anyone knows a way he will.

 

I really wish I could. Unfortunately matte they have you by the short and curlies at this point, as they can hold the goods until you've paid. It may be worth a call here:

 

https://www.qld.gov.au/law/your-rights/consumer-rights-complaints-and-scams/make-a-consumer-complaint/