Customs Charges

Ahh, today I got my order from the Animal Rescue Site. Remember I recommended them on the Recommendation page the other week? The items I bought are great. The only bummer is that I ended up having to pay a £12.99 customs charge to get them! Gah. Apparently commercial items over £18 incure a VAT charge. The charge was £4.99 - with Royal Mail then bulking it up to £12.99 for their ‘handling fee’. Does it really cost £8 for Royal Mail workers to handle it?

What are your thoughts on customs charges - or buying items from abroad? Maybe I shouldn’t have bought from abroad, as it’s not so environmentally friendly as buying from the UK - but when you hear of the Animal Rescue Site donating food to animals, it makes you want to help. The items looked good, were what I wanted and needed, not available in the UK AND I got to help out some animals at the same time. But then they had to be shipped from the US and I got a whopping customs charge on top.