cdwow: No more customs charges: It's Official!

[Gorshin]

This is an email I received from cdwow earlier today, oh yes, party time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

Hi Paul

Thank you for contacting us.

The warning that items over £18.00 may incur a customs charge has been
removed from the site as we have introduced new shipping procedures to
prevent these fees from being passed on to our customers, and are confident
that items will no longer be stopped by Customs and Excise.

While this cannot be guaranteed 100%, we are satisfied enough to have the
warning removed from the site.

If items are stopped and charged we will look at each case individually with
regard to a refund or reimbursement of the charges via a CD WOW! e-Voucher.


Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can help you with any other
questions that you may have.

Kind regards

Andrew
www.cd-wow.com


-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: 25 August 2004 21:35
To: helpdesk@cd-wow.com
Subject: Re: no customs charges????


Dear cdwow,

Is it correct that customs charges no longer apply to products above £18 in
value ordered from your website? I have noticed that you have removed the
warnings.

Paul

[Gorshin]

But: look what they've done with the price of Star Wars:
http://www7.cd-wow.com/searchresults...ield=star+wars



I was all set to buy from here too!!!!! Will keep an eager eye on the price though....

[Simon6776]

Hmmm... well maybe they are paying the customs charges themselves, in a round about way, and passing part of the cost on to the customer by way of price rises. Can't blame them, I suppose, but at £32.99, it would still possibly be cheaper to import from, say DVD Soon, and pay the customs fees.

[bobbles]

perhaps it is not such a great idea to mention this in a public forum

[captaineyecatch]

Great one - now HM Customs know all about it. CD wow will be getting into trouble over this.

[Gorshin]

mods: delete thread if you wish. I don't mind.

[Fatti]

Originally Posted by captaineyecatch

Great one - now HM Customs know all about it. CD wow will be getting into trouble over this.

HM Customs may have already emailed CDWOW and asked them exactly the same question....and signed it Paul. Im not trying to be funny, but if someone on these forums can ask the question why cant HMCE.

[deanjamin]

Why should it matter if HMCE know about it or not? - the fact that CD-WOW are re-shipping via 'safe' countries completely takes Customs out of the equation does it not?

See Ordering from CD-WOW with Customs charges

[Simon6776]

I agree, we should keep quiet about retailers who undervalue items to avoid customs, but if CD Wow are merely using different shipping procedures, so that items come from Europe, I can't see anything wrong with that. Or have I missed something?

[bobbles]

better to be safe than sorry.

I can not believe it is a simple as to ship to europe from america then ship to the UK to pay no import tax. Sounds dodgy to me and we know HMS customs view on cd-wow.

[captaineyecatch]

It sounds like they are dodging the customs fees/ import tax which is Illegal. Something that HM Customs will be very interested in.

[Indiana Jones]

I might have this wrong but it just sounds like they are now shipping items over £18 to an office in mainland europe, paying any customs charges there and then sending the items from europe into the UK so that when they arrive here there will be no customs for us to pay, doesnt mean they are doing any illegal, as long as they are paying the fees at some point I would have though HMCE wouldnt have a problem with it.

[thebigkung]

As Indiana Jones says, Items over £18 are probably now being shipped to one of the newer EU countries that have recently joined and who have a lower import duty and tax. From there they can ship to anywhere in the EU without further charge. As mentioned with the cost of star wars, that they are probably passing on the extra cost for these more expensive items, but it means that they can still offer a full range of titles in the hope that people will not go elsewhere. I think it's called a business

If it's legal then HMC should have nothing to do with it, but that's not to say they won't interfere.

Just IMHO.

[kelvin]

Originally Posted by thebigkung

As Indiana Jones says, Items over £18 are probably now being shipped to one of the newer EU countries that have recently joined and who have a lower import duty and tax. From there they can ship to anywhere in the EU without further charge.

So why make the comment that the absence of charges is "not 100% guaranteed"?

If this was the case, then any additional charges by Customs & Excise would be illegal - CD-WOW could happily claim that no import duties would apply (in 100% of cases) knowing that the full backing of EU Law was on their side. The fact that they've failed to state what the new policies are, together with the absence of a total guarantee is a little suspicious IMO (although I emphasise the fact that it is just my opinion )

K.

[bobbles]

it may very well be perfectly legal I still maintain we are not doing ourselves any favours discussing it in a public forum.

Why take the chance?