12v Distribution panel

[P. H. StonesParticipant @p-h-stones25207]

I purchased a 12v distribution unit from Harbor Models in California USA at a price of around £80 plus p&p. I thought this would be useful in simplifying the wiring in an acquired tug. However Royal Mail will not release it until a further sum of £159.97 due to customs & excise is paid! I will not be paying this exorbitant sum and the unit will either be returned to the vendor or otherwise disposed of after 21 days. I will of course contest this. If anyone interested cares to turn up the website of Harbor Models they will find details of what the unit does and from that if they would let me know if there is a possibility of making my own unit I'd be obliged. I'm not an electronics expert so would like a schematic plan to follow should anyone be sufficiently concerned to offer their assistance. I'm not suggesting a copy because there is nothing to copy so a design would be both original & legal if one of you experts out there can produce one. I did try without success to find a similar unit in this Country before ordering. Needless to say I'm not at all happy with the situation but will not dwell on it here.

[P. H. StonesParticipant @p-h-stones25207]

As below

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

You should demand a copy of the Customs entry. The VAT should be 20% of the value and the duty – if any – will be very little. Unless the import agent has screwed up big time then the balance will be their charge. This is usually £8 with Royal Mail. Something does not add up; not unusual when RM and HMRC are involved. Parcel Farce are rather worse! I won't bore you with tales………….

To my knowledge there is no equivalent unit anywhere else in the world. You might try looking here for wiring diagrams which avoid the use of multiple voltage outputs **LINK** You may even find your acquired tug.

Dave M

[Michael SheridanParticipant @michaelsheridan92093]

That's mad. The supplier might have mis-filled the customs form (missed a decimal point out?). £150 to pay sounds like about £800 value.

I had to pay a bit more once because a supplier put the wrong (higher) value on the form, but that was only a few £, so I swallowed it.

Slightly OT … A couple of years ago I got a customs demand from RM for a package from New Zealand, for about £40. Item value was about £150 IIRC. I had no idea who might have sent me anything – no orders outstanding, etc, so I tried to get in touch with RM to see if the label said what was in the package (all they did was demand money without telling me that). But I could not find any way at all to contact them to get more information which I felt was appalling. in the end I just let it go. Still no idea what it was all about. I hope you have more luck.

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

You can get a 6 way fusebox here **LINK** …. I have installed one in a large scale model destroyer but it does take up quite a bit of space

[P. H. StonesParticipant @p-h-stones25207]

Thanks to all who responded to my posting. I have since visited the Royal Mail local office and spoken with a staff member who produced the package. It clearly stated $119 and subsequent phone calls to Excise & Customs (expensive of course) showed that some incompetent within the UKBA had misread the sum as $1190 and charged accordingly. The only way I can obtain the item is to pay the £159.97, complete a BOR 286 form, submit it with the invoice and customs label and claim the difference back. I calculate this will be around £134! UKBA does not rectify mistakes in any other way where Royal Mail is involved but I'm not surprised given its reputation. Hopefully, the refund will arrive quickly but as with any matter concerning Public Services I'm not taking it for granted although I should at least have the distributor sometime tomorrow. I'll only post again if things go wrong so thanks again to Dave, Michael & Shipwright for your comments and advice.

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Glad you've sorted it. UKBA should have refunded your money within 14 days. If not, the threat of involving your MP will usually stop everything else they do until you're happy.

Just as an illiustration of how wrong things can go we imported 200 identical motors from one supplier in the USA. These came packed in four boxes of 50 each. Each one had the correct documents attached – all identical, of course, but their routes were quite different:

Box #1 was delivered by Parcel Force after three days. There was no mention of a Customs charge (for the VAT) or handling charge (for Parcel Force). The guy just left it with us.

Boxes 2 and 3 arrived in the UK five days and six days later respectively, with a letter demanding I attend the local Parcel Farce depot to collect them and pay the VAT. The values were not the same. In fact, one was around £18 while the other was £26. Neither amount corresponded to the correct value.

Meantime we had been checking the courier's website and found that the first box i.e. the one we'd had delivered already, had been lost in New Jersey! Their tracking system never did find it.

After ten days we traced Box 4 to the local Parcel Farce depot, so I went to collect it. They hadn't sent me the usual letter asking me to turn up and pay them when I collected the package. Presumably an oversight? Trying to get the slack-jawed, glassy-eyed, knuckle-dragging neanderthal behind the counter to understand that I couldn't produce the letter because I'd not received one was a major exercise in self-restraint. Fortunately my scowl must have been a touch more frightening than his manager's so I guess I won that round with him. The VAT was £36!

Knowing a bit about VAT I simply paid up and claimed back the identical amount as Input tax on our next VAT return (VAT is silly like that), but Joe Soap could have been driven bonkers by this disaster movie.

As for UKBA, it was the unwanted child of UK Border Force (itself the bastard child of HMRC's earlier split) and has been split up due to its appalling performance. No doubt the same staff will have to apply to G4 for their old jobs back at half the salary. Nothing changes.

Keep the faith
DM

[Michael SheridanParticipant @michaelsheridan92093]

I was posting this somewhere else and remembered this thread and thought it might be relevant to tack it on the end.

 

 

I've just been using ebay to order some stuff (not boats) from the USA and found that ebay now have a thing called "Global Postage Programme" which may interest those who buy from the US.

 

 

This programme seems to address a frequent complaint about the nasty surprises that import duty, VAT and fee collection charges can spring on the unwary – or even the wary at times. It appears to cover all this stuff up front. The prices are given as three numbers:

Item cost

Postage

Import charges (confirmed at checkout)

 

 

These are in $US with estimated £ for the first two. Using Paypal you get the final total £ value before you finally commit.

 

 

I don't know if this applies to other non-EU countries, but it may not as the handling company appears to be Pitney-Bowes in CT. Ebay may of course have arrangements with other companies elsewhere.

It may also only apply to higher values (my order was about £250 + £55 p&p and with import charges grossed just shy of £400).

 

 

The charges may be a bit high but are not ridiculous. (The import charges on the above come to ~ £93 and the VAT would be £61+, but I don't know the duty rate, so ~ £30 for duty and fee collection/admin is probably not bad.)

Edited By Michael Sheridan on 19/08/2013 00:18:41

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