FedEx threatening to sue me

Homeostasis

Hi all.

I'm new to the forum, so if this is the wrong section, I apologise. I was googling around for one thing and the other and I guess I ended up needing the advice of a solicitor. I hope someone here can help. Or is at least consumer-minded enough to be able to offer some advice.

Basically, in May I ordered something from the US and it was shipped via FedEx. The item itself cost just under $80, plus another $40 P+P. The item arrived, I never heard from FedEx again, and just yesterday I received a letter from a Scottish debt collection agency demanding I pay €32.05 or face “formal proceedings”. And now some debt collectors have all my information and are threatening to sue and mess up my credit rating - all for €32.05.

If I owed them money then, fair enough, I would have paid. What's irritating me about all this is just how out of the blue it was. This instance was my first - and you can betcha my last - time using FedEx. I was not aware of any admin / duty fees or that I would have had to pay VAT to these people. I hadn't received a single communication from FedEx since May - not a single letter or e-mail or phone call of any sort, yet alone any communication indicating I owed them money - but yesterday I get a threatening letter from a debt collection agency demanding money?! Is this even legal?!

And also, would anyone happen to know the address of any FedEx office in Dublin (preferably the city centre)? I’ve tried calling both FedEx and the Scottish company (Avance), but neither are even answering their phones. I sent an e-mail to the later yesterday afternoon, but no reply.

Thanks for any help you could give.

Pythia

Have a look at this thread here, talks about Avance.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055334442&highlight=avance

Homeostasis

Thanks a lot for that. Should have searched a bit first.

Very helpful.

hellboy99

I was in a similar situation myself last year, months later I get a letter saying I own "X" amount duty.

I ended up not having to pay it, basically I told them that:

1. They should of informed me of this before dispatching it from the depot.

2. Or, the courier should of had an invoice with him stating the duty charged and should of not given me the package without payment of the duty.

3. Once I signed for it and had the item it became my property and was no longer theirs so therefore could not charge any further charges.

4. Informed them that other couriers ie. DHL will not release goods without duty paid and inform you of charges before dispatch.

Ring the debt collection agency first and then FedEx, try the above, it worked for me.

TheDriver

I got a bill from FedEx regarding VAT on US import items 7 months after they delivered the items. I sent a stinker of a mail because of the lateness and also being charged VAT on books (it was DVDs and books!) so they agreed to null the bill on this occasion.
Question is, do they end up paying the VAT and its their loss?

rkevin

guys i am going through this at the moment
my shipping cost was €30 and then fedex want to charge me the €10 admin fee which i see as a 33% increse in there shipping fee and a big money spinner for fedex
i have asked for a receipt from revenue for the duty and VAT paid as how do we know but fedex are keeping the money
keep yoy updated

rkevin

guy this was the action i took to them them and i did not have to pay
As the shipper states " Import Duty and Tax is the responsibility of you
the recipient to pay" so where dose it say for fedex to pay???
That dose not give fedex the right to act on my behalf and i have not
agreed to accept you to act on my behalf
After getting the letter form Avance yesterday i meet with my soclitor
this morning and here is my legal position

1.Fedex should have informed me of this before dispatching it from the
depot.

2. Or, the courier should of had an invoice with him stating the duty
charged and should of not given me the package without payment of the
duty.

3. Once I signed for it and had the item it became my property and was
no longer theirs so therefore could not charge any further charges.

4. Informed them that other couriers ie. DHL will not release goods
without duty paid and inform you of charges before dispatch.

5) There is no transpancey in to what Fedex is doing and it need to be
regulated which i now intend to follow up with revenue


He also informed me that he belives that fedex have breached the Data
Protection laws in Ireland http://www.dataprotection.ie by giving my
Detail to Avance and i now require the contract that Fedex have with
Avance so i can get the Data Protection commissioner in ireland to
review this case
http://www.dataprotection.ie

AntiVirus

Last November I was in Egypt and left an item of mine behind in the hotel. I rang the hotel and gave them my credit card details so they come send it on to me. A couple weeks later it arrived and I was happy

Then in February I received a bill from Fed Ex as well looking for 36 euros for some kind of admin fee?? A few more have arrived since then so I've kept them all filed in the same bin.

pred racer

OP. the only people who can influence your credit rating are financial institutions, just ring fed-ex and sort it out/or tell them to sod off.

darc

rkevin wrote: »

guy this was the action i took to them them and i did not have to pay
As the shipper states " Import Duty and Tax is the responsibility of you
the recipient to pay" so where dose it say for fedex to pay???
That dose not give fedex the right to act on my behalf and i have not
agreed to accept you to act on my behalf
After getting the letter form Avance yesterday i meet with my soclitor
this morning and here is my legal position

1.Fedex should have informed me of this before dispatching it from the
depot.

2. Or, the courier should of had an invoice with him stating the duty
charged and should of not given me the package without payment of the
duty.

3. Once I signed for it and had the item it became my property and was
no longer theirs so therefore could not charge any further charges.

4. Informed them that other couriers ie. DHL will not release goods
without duty paid and inform you of charges before dispatch.

5) There is no transpancey in to what Fedex is doing and it need to be
regulated which i now intend to follow up with revenue


He also informed me that he belives that fedex have breached the Data
Protection laws in Ireland http://www.dataprotection.ie by giving my
Detail to Avance and i now require the contract that Fedex have with
Avance so i can get the Data Protection commissioner in ireland to
review this case
http://www.dataprotection.ie

What a load of crap!

Fedex does not have to inform you of tax & duties before dispatch - you are importing the goods its for you to know tax and duty are due.

Courier does not have to have the invoice with them, it can be sent at a later date.

After you've signed for it, you've signed that you have accepted it and accepted T&Cs which include paying taxes.

Fedex have NOT breached data protection act - you owe them money, they passed the details to a collection agency. - Read the data protection act before trying to bullsh*t people.

Next time fedex or one of their subsiduaries deliver to you, you'll find they will look for all past due invoices prior to delivery.

jor el

darc wrote: »

What a load of crap!

Fedex does not have to inform you of tax & duties before dispatch - you are importing the goods its for you to know tax and duty are due.

Courier does not have to have the invoice with them, it can be sent at a later date.

True, but in the case of FedEx, they tend not to send an invoice at all, they go straight to a third party collection agency.

darc wrote: »

After you've signed for it, you've signed that you have accepted it and accepted T&Cs which include paying taxes.

You can't accept T&Cs unless you're shown them, or made aware of them. Signing for receipt is just that, signing for receipt. You're not accepting anything else, unless it's made clear to you when you sign.

darc wrote: »

Fedex have NOT breached data protection act - you owe them money, they passed the details to a collection agency. - Read the data protection act before trying to bullsh*t people.

Actually, they probably have. I have been in contact with the Data Protection Commissioner's office about debt collection agencies, and the told me that before your details are passed on to a collector, you should be informed of it. Companies that go straight to the debt collection agencies, without billing you and without informing you of this, are in clear breech of t he Data Protection Act.

Here's the exact reply I got from one of the compliance officers.

Data Protection Office wrote:

In relation to the sharing of information with collection agencies in the case of recovering amounts owed, a person should be informed at the time they are engaging in an agreement with an organisation that this transfer could take place in such situations. In the case of mobile phone companies, this may be covered in their terms and conditions/contract document.

If an organisation is selling the debt (it is not clear from your query
whether this has taken place), we would expect that the individual
customers be informed of this.

Without notification, what FedEx are doing is illegal.

darc wrote: »

Next time fedex or one of their subsiduaries deliver to you, you'll find they will look for all past due invoices prior to delivery.

I don't think that's true. When you pay FedEx to deliver something, they are legally obliged to deliver it. If the recipient owes them money, than that's a different issue. The contract is between the sender and FedEx. If FedEx decide not to deliver it, then they break the contract they have with the sender.

rkevin

darc wrote: »

What a load of crap!

Fedex does not have to inform you of tax & duties before dispatch - you are importing the goods its for you to know tax and duty are due.

Courier does not have to have the invoice with them, it can be sent at a later date.

After you've signed for it, you've signed that you have accepted it and accepted T&Cs which include paying taxes.

Fedex have NOT breached data protection act - you owe them money, they passed the details to a collection agency. - Read the data protection act before trying to bullsh*t people.

Next time fedex or one of their subsiduaries deliver to you, you'll find they will look for all past due invoices prior to delivery.

Darc you need to do a bit more research in to the legal side of things
i have told you what i was advised from a person that understands law and consumer rights.
I told u what i told fedex and they **** a brick as they replyed to my email within the hour so they are hiding something
As for VAT and duty we all know we should pay it but you are missing the pint. the point is i did not give FEDex the right to pay VAT and Duty on my behalf and then look for a €10 euro admin fee?
If fedex bring in 100000 orders to ireland a week that is an increase of 1 million income to them a week and any fool can see that

RTE

And also, would anyone happen to know the address of any FedEx office in Dublin (preferably the city centre)? I’ve tried calling both FedEx and the Scottish company (Avance), but neither are even answering their phones. I sent an e-mail to the later yesterday afternoon, but no reply.

Thanks for any help you could give.[/quote]

Hi Folks,

If anybody wants to contact RTE to tell their story about customer services by companies in Ireland please get in contact with us via
email at consumer.response@rte.ie or by return private message.

All contact with RTE is treated with the utmost sensitivity to you
and your story. Please get in touch

EL_Loco

What are the implications of leaving your goods at the port until you pay the VAT and Duty privately? How does Joe Public do it if they want not to incur the charge?

By virtue of the fact you're using FedEx you're taking on the costs incurred to get the goods to your door. These would include vat and duty and the over head in the paper work to get your goods released. Prehaps the 10 euro is an inflated charge but there is a processing overhead in doing it, i.e. man hours to do the work.

It's seperate to your initial issue but people seem to be a bit put out by the admin fee.

I can only assume if you're not willing to accept the vat and duty + admin fee that fedex, or anyone else, won't take your goods from point A in the first place?

Cabaal

EL_Loco wrote: »

What are the implications of leaving your goods at the port until you pay the VAT and Duty privately? How does Joe Public do it if they want not to incur the charge??

Joe public is breaking the law if they import without paying VAT and duty and items that are due it

rkevin

EL_Loco wrote: »

What are the implications of leaving your goods at the port until you pay the VAT and Duty privately? How does Joe Public do it if they want not to incur the charge?

By virtue of the fact you're using FedEx you're taking on the costs incurred to get the goods to your door. These would include vat and duty and the over head in the paper work to get your goods released. Prehaps the 10 euro is an inflated charge but there is a processing overhead in doing it, i.e. man hours to do the work.

It's seperate to your initial issue but people seem to be a bit put out by the admin fee.

I can only assume if you're not willing to accept the vat and duty + admin fee that fedex, or anyone else, won't take your goods from point A in the first place?

Most of the company dont do it this way
i assume that fedex just take the value of there shipment and add the VAT and duty and they make a one off payment to revenue but charge each customer €10 euro so if they have 20000 customers to deliver to then they get €200000 from them to collect Tax for the revenue dept
I asked for a recepit from revenue showing my name, my order number and what they payed and they could not get me one.
The fact is FEDEX are ripping off irish customers by charging them this fee which is making them a very large profit and there is also no transparancy of what they do with the VAt and duty that they collect

jor el

EL_Loco wrote: »

What are the implications of leaving your goods at the port until you pay the VAT and Duty privately? How does Joe Public do it if they want not to incur the charge?

The deal was made between Customs and Excise (who the tax is paid to) and the shipping companies. Joe Public has no say in the matter, as the shippers are acting as agents of Customs and Excise when they collect the tax. The admin fee for doing this is understandable, but the fact that it's so large is what gets me (and others). They can charge up to 15euro, which is a ridiculous charge for something so simple.

RTE wrote:

If anybody wants to contact RTE to tell their story about customer services by companies in Ireland please get in contact with us via
email at consumer.response@rte.ie or by return private message.

All contact with RTE is treated with the utmost sensitivity to you
and your story. Please get in touch

I would like to see a consumer advice program, such as yours, do a story on the use of debt collection agencies. Far too many companies are using them, rather than billing the customer for what they owe, they just pass on the debt. I think this is a clear breech of data protection laws, but there doesn't seem to be a single agency in this county that cares. I think this is the main problem that the OP of this thread has, he wasn't even billed by FedEx.

I've just emailed my own story, involving BT Ireland and debt collectors, so I hope you'll take this on board. I have two active complaints, with both the UK and Irish data protection offices, at present, as I believe both BT and their UK debt collector are in breech of their respective data protection laws.

gurramok

Just seen this thread now. I too have been a target of this Avance crowd.

It started about year ago with letters sent out about me owing money(about 40quid) to Fedex. Thing is, i never used fedex for anything in several years!

Rang up fedex, they apologised and said they had the wrong person. Someone else with my name resides in the same Dublin postcode had ordered stuff and never paid import duties.

Then the letters kept coming from Avance. Rang up Fedex, all apologetic and so forth indicating they will update Avance. Avance have invalid contact number so i sent email and fax a few times threatening them with legal action for harassment and such.

Never heard back from them in maybe 6 months now.

AARRRGH

I've been sued twice so I know how you feel.

There is no chance in hell they will take legal proceedings over €32.

the_syco

EL_Loco wrote: »

It's seperate to your initial issue but people seem to be a bit put out by the admin fee.

I can only assume if you're not willing to accept the vat and duty + admin fee that fedex, or anyone else, won't take your goods from point A in the first place?

People seem to be put out by the way they are never informed about it by FedEx when they get the package, but rather some debt collector 6 months later.

Homeostasis

rkevin wrote: »

I told u what i told fedex and they **** a brick as they replyed to my email within the hour so they are hiding something

You wouldn't happen to still have that e-mail address, would you?

derry

I rarely by goods from the net just airline tickets or hotels booking etc

If you go online to Forums in Europe the UK or USA or ireland there is non stop bad reports such and such extra charges at the time of delivery or some months afterwards increased costs

Best rule of thumb a 100 euro item online outside ROI expect final costs to be closer to 200 euros any time up to year after the purchace from hidden extra costs sitting in the pipe line

That figure seems to remain like that until 300 euros and then can be even worse after thatfor other hidden bombs

At ~10,000 euro items upwards Customs can sometimes decide to get personaly involved and pick a telephone number extra costs if they get in a huff ( better to use import agents for bigger stuff and pay fixxed fees )

Me I just prefer to buy the stuff mostly in EU or UK from shops and bring them back hand luggage or use the local slow surface mail postal service which is often two to Three days as everything surface mail these days goes airmail anyway and German and French and Spanish mail is very cheap compared to ROI

I once sent myself back a new bike from supermarket shop in Spain and saved 50% the price than ROI

The max limit weight to post from Spain was I think 20KG other wise then for bigger Items you need to use a carrier like DHL or Fed ex whatever

I still had my holiday in Spain and brought back cases loads of booze in the suitcases

My Friend sent himself back from spain a Quad bike via carrier like DHL or Fed ex marked box present from family second hand items and saved a whack of money
The import don't usually apply to personel items just to big shops

Big shops wont mark anything except the truth good is XXX and value is $.....

Saves me much of this grief from Fed ex or DHL whatever and just use internet to buy airline and hotel booking

Derry

Bluetonic

derry wrote: »

I rarely by goods from the net just airline tickets or hotels booking etc
Me I just prefer to buy the stuff mostly in EU or UK

Of course the UK is in the EU.

derry wrote: »

My Friend sent himself back from spain a Quad bike via carrier like DHL or Fed ex marked box present from family second hand items and saved a whack of money

Of course Spain is in the EU so it is not subject to VAT or Duty upon arrival in Ireland.

Your post makes absolutely no sense.

KhanTheMan

gurramok wrote: »

Just seen this thread now. I too have been a target of this Avance crowd.

It started about year ago with letters sent out about me owing money(about 40quid) to Fedex. Thing is, i never used fedex for anything in several years!

Exact same thing happened to me. I just ignored them. I get the odd letter now and again but i just throw them on the pile. I really hope the keep after me though as i am 100% sur ethey have the wrong person and its fun.

aurora03

gurramok wrote: »

Just seen this thread now. I too have been a target of this Avance crowd.

It started about year ago with letters sent out about me owing money(about 40quid) to Fedex. Thing is, i never used fedex for anything in several years!

Rang up fedex, they apologised and said they had the wrong person. Someone else with my name resides in the same Dublin postcode had ordered stuff and never paid import duties.

Then the letters kept coming from Avance. Rang up Fedex, all apologetic and so forth indicating they will update Avance. Avance have invalid contact number so i sent email and fax a few times threatening them with legal action for harassment and such.

Never heard back from them in maybe 6 months now.

Do you still have email address for Fedex?Looking everywhere for it.Wonder why are they hiding it.....Will be in touch soon....getting worried about an order....:mad:

aurora03

rkevin wrote: »

Most of the company dont do it this way
i assume that fedex just take the value of there shipment and add the VAT and duty and they make a one off payment to revenue but charge each customer €10 euro so if they have 20000 customers to deliver to then they get €200000 from them to collect Tax for the revenue dept
I asked for a recepit from revenue showing my name, my order number and what they payed and they could not get me one.
The fact is FEDEX are ripping off irish customers by charging them this fee which is making them a very large profit and there is also no transparancy of what they do with the VAt and duty that they collect

:mad:
[aurora03....I recently bought 5 items at Bitz Jewellery Auction..got ph.call last week they said i would have to pay 115.44 euro to release 4 items from station in Dublin..got no receipt from fedex so dont know what items i had to pay import fees on..2 items were cheap..waiting for 1 more item to arrive so im holding my breath..another big bill to be paid[blackmail]

craichoe

Bluetonic wrote: »

Of course the UK is in the EU.



Of course Spain is in the EU so it is not subject to VAT or Duty upon arrival in Ireland.

Your post makes absolutely no sense.

As long as its accompanied and is deemed to be for personal use.
If you send it by mail it will get stopped by customs for Duty.

This is it for UK Customs and Excise:
http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/dutyfree.html

When travelling from the EU* to the UK you do not have to pay any tax or duty on goods you have bought in another EU country as long as tax was included in the price when you purchased the items, the items are for your own use, and have been transported to the UK by you. This includes gifts, but does not include any item that is intended to be used as payment or to be resold.

If you bring back large quantities of alcohol or tobacco, a Customs Officer is more likely to ask about the purposes for which you hold the goods. This will most likely be the case if you appear at the airport with more than:

* 3200 cigarettes
* 400 cigarillos
* 200 cigars
* 3 kg of smoking tobacco
* 110 litres of beer
* 10 litres of spirits
* 90 litres of wine
* 20 litres of fortified wine e.g. port or sherry

Please note the following exceptions stand for these EU countries:

From Estonia - 200 cigarettes or 250g of smoking tobacco*
From Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - 200 cigarettes*

*No limit on other tobacco products as long as they are for your own use.

* The EU countries currently include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus (Greek part), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Irish Republic, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (but not the Canary Islands), Sweden and the United Kingdom (but not the Channel Islands).

Pretty much the same across the EU afaik
His post does makes sense.

Beano

craichoe wrote: »

As long as its accompanied and is deemed to be for personal use.
If you send it by mail it will get stopped by customs for Duty.

This is it for UK Customs and Excise:
http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/dutyfree.html



Pretty much the same across the EU afaik
His post does makes sense.

The original post was about a quad bike being sent from spain to ireland. There is no vat or duty payable on this item. The regulations you posted only apply to alcohol and tobacco.

aurora03

Homeostasis wrote: »

Hi all.

I'm new to the forum, so if this is the wrong section, I apologise. I was googling around for one thing and the other and I guess I ended up needing the advice of a solicitor. I hope someone here can help. Or is at least consumer-minded enough to be able to offer some advice.

Basically, in May I ordered something from the US and it was shipped via FedEx. The item itself cost just under $80, plus another $40 P+P. The item arrived, I never heard from FedEx again, and just yesterday I received a letter from a Scottish debt collection agency demanding I pay €32.05 or face “formal proceedings”. And now some debt collectors have all my information and are threatening to sue and mess up my credit rating - all for €32.05.

If I owed them money then, fair enough, I would have paid. What's irritating me about all this is just how out of the blue it was. This instance was my first - and you can betcha my last - time using FedEx. I was not aware of any admin / duty fees or that I would have had to pay VAT to these people. I hadn't received a single communication from FedEx since May - not a single letter or e-mail or phone call of any sort, yet alone any communication indicating I owed them money - but yesterday I get a threatening letter from a debt collection agency demanding money?! Is this even legal?!

And also, would anyone happen to know the address of any FedEx office in Dublin (preferably the city centre)? I’ve tried calling both FedEx and the Scottish company (Avance), but neither are even answering their phones. I sent an e-mail to the later yesterday afternoon, but no reply.

Thanks for any help you could give.

Address For Fedex is...FedEx GTS Dept,3a Airways Ind. Est.Cloghran Dublin 17...Hope you will get a Yes reply..Im waiting for one..I emailed them and got a NO Reply also..Companies that dont take ph calls or emails and dont give receipts are up to something?..aurora03..

Paulw

Beano wrote: »

The original post was about a quad bike being sent from spain to ireland. There is no vat or duty payable on this item.

VRT?? Surely that's a duty that must be paid on the import of a motor vehicle (including a quad bike).

Beano

Paulw wrote: »

VRT?? Surely that's a duty that must be paid on the import of a motor vehicle (including a quad bike).

vrt is not a duty. anyway, vrt only applies to vehicles for road use. quad bikes are not generally road legal.