This is a good one!
I'm rarely in when Royal Mail deliver, so I often come home to a little red card on the mat telling me to come down to the sorting office and collect it.
In January I ordered some software on Ebay from a US supplier for $150, or about £75. Postage was $19, or about £10.
Then I came home to find a grey card on the mat. This demanded £21.45 in charges. The duty is merely VAT, at 17.5%, or around £12, so I scratched my head a bit at this.
Down I go to the sorting office. I query the charge, and they shrug and say 'nothing to do with us'. The parcel is presented, plus a sticker on the side, which says that the Royal Mail have added their own 'international handling fee' of £8!?!
And so it proves. A look at their web site reveals that a year ago they imposed this charge -- almost equal to the cost of international parcel post.
Clearly this is a rip-off. They've been paid to deliver the mail. If they want to put a sticker on it, that costs nothing. If they take money for the government, that costs almost nothing either. So the fee is just profit.
Is it really legal for Royal Mail to invent charges of any size, as a ransom demand, on mail for which postage has already been paid? Really? But who can afford lawyers in our country?
I don't much appreciate having to pay Gordon Brown £13.45 out of money which he has already claimed tax on at 46% (22% income tax + 11% 'national insurance' tax + 13% 'employers' -- as if! -- 'national insurance' tax). But Royal Mail are taking the p***.
Interestingly the sticker has two different telephone numbers on it; one is for HMRC about the VAT. But the other, added to the bottom, reads "Queries about contents or handling fee should be referred to Royal Mail International Tel: 08457 740 740". I imagine that HMRC got tired of getting irate phone calls, and insisted on Royal Mail printing this number as well. So they know, and Royal Mail know, that a scam is being perpetrated.
Adam Crozier, the CEO of Royal Mail, who thought this one up, is paid over £1m a year to invent ways to steal from the public like this. I don't know where he lives, but I hope his neighbours make his life hell.
See also:
http://paulm.com/inchoate/2005/04/customs_royal_mail_clearance_scam.html
The regulator is Postcomm. Their website is mainly about referring you to someone else! I've emailed a complaint to Royal Mail, so when they ignore it I can escalate it through their tree of people.
