I wrote to RMG/Parcelforce/Border agency to complain and I got someone from Parcelforces head office writing back to me in a very uncourteous manner. At the bottom she goes as far to say this. "I can advise we will defend any case brought on this issue. I can advise a very small number of people have issued proceedings in the past but all of them have either withdrawn before the hearing once they have seen our defence or the Judge had dismissed the case before the hearing and we have never had one case go as far as trial." How cocky is that!? Well I have requested information from her dept and given them the statuary time to reply. I wish to see this through so everyone can benefit from non misleading information from RMG. If they advertised that it's possible to not 'have' to pay their charges on their customs form then I probably would not have a problem with it. As it stands I feel they are misrepresenting the Postal Act 2001 which states the word "May" charge and not "have" to. I don't understand why HMRC specifically state that Royal Mail and Parcelforce will charge a handling fee. Though they also do mention the customs declaration form bit whereby you can import the item yourself and how to go about it. We will see if they reply to my requests.

Apologies for opening up a what is essentially a very old thread. I did however find it useful. Shame the Catcus chappy did not follow through with his NIP as this could have changed the law for good. However I digress. I have spoken to the HMRC who state that all the person receiving the goods (The Importer) needs to do to avoid paying a "Handling Fee" is to tell the sender to write on the declaration form "To be cleared by importer" HMRC wil then send the importer a declaration to fill out and then pay for said goods if there is a requirement. To make things quicker for anyone all fee's can be pre payed by the seller as long as they come from a country with a memorandum of understanding with the UK Memorandum of understanding countries are:- Hong Kong Channel islands Singapore New Zealand. It would appear (according to what I've read - I may also be wrong here) one can registered oneself on the Memorandum of understanding by not being one of the pre designated countries. I hope this helps anyone else not liking a couriers "handling fee".