Hadn’t checked my UPS Choice App since yesterday evening, just decided to check it but not expecting anything to show up.
But…
As of 28/03/18 18:18 UPS are showing 2 orders processed from GlowForge, so perhaps in a few more hours it will update to say they have the packages 
Guess I had better not hold my breath though, at least if they do get picked up today they can do the majority of the journey to the UK over Easter.
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Got our UPS emails this morning and ‘should’ have crumb tray and GF by end of day on Tuesday after Easter too!!
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Guess I must have just missed the last run of Pro’s so even though your Golden Ticket was a few days after mine @tracey_grundy we are in the same run. We just have to hope now that UPS don’t play “catch” the parcel, at least I know my local delivery guy is good it’s just the monkeys before him in the chain 
Was thinking, all us UK owners should keep in touch, it could prove useful especially for help / materials.
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@glowforge22 is yours a Pro also? Might explain as the last lot appeared to be Basics.
Definitely agree about UK owners keeping in touch. Maybe create a facebook page? It would be interesting to know whereabouts people are too. I’m in Northumberland.
I’m next to the sea in cloudy/wet Norfolk
One thing I was wondering about is our free store credit, which with shipping & duties is possibly worthless. It may be that if we could combine orders that the shipping rate reduces relatively, therefore one location could be used delivery with internal UK delivery being significantly cheaper.
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Anyone expecting a delivery had a phone call/message from UPS? Realised had an answerphone message left this morning at 10am. Rang the number 0345 7877 877 option 6. No answer then cut off. If they’re going to be shut, surely they should blinking well tell you before you hang on for however long waiting for someone to answer. Supposed to ring back before Tuesday too. It’s a bank Holiday weekend - are they going to be open for me to call back before Tuesday when the delivery is supposed to come???!!!
Grrrrrrr!! Rant over!!
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They haven’t called me. No missed calls today. I did check the tracking info on the UPS app and it says my GF Pro has already departed the USA (Philadelphia). Strange thing is on my last few USA parcels, I have had a “Norwich GB Must Pay Duties” before the Philadelphia departure.
I notice the $ rate has dropped again, down 2 cents, thats another £7 duty.
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Blinking heck - just had the email from UPS requesting fee payment of £839.49 for my Pro!!! Say what??
£819.01 Government Fees and £20.48 brokerage fees.
Has anyone else had this lovely surprise as yet??!
I hear throwing Glowforge’s into the harbor is an effective protest against VAT and duty fees.
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Think someone’s made a mistake with your duty?
Had my email as well but my fee is the more expected £709.12 though I think someone else was only charged £690ish but I am putting this down to the dollar rate change!
@glowforge22 yours is obviously a Pro also, I take it? When is yours due? Is it Tuesday 3rd too? Thought ours was a tad pricey mind.
Yes, it’s a Pro. The duty was 691.82 and admin fee of £17.30. So it could be that the declared value on your GF is wrong or they have used the wrong duty rate. Certainly we are paying VAT at 20% but am pretty certain there is also an import duty of around 9% going by the figures. In theory if you have paid too much you should be able to claim it back from HMRC as long as you can prove the correct value/mistake but have never done this myself.
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I think I’ll try to get through to UPS via telephone again tomorrow and query it. Good to know that someone else getting the exact same thing at the exact same time in the UK is paying £140 LESS so I can ask to check. Otherwise, a claim it will have to be. Bliddy typical though. Why can’t things just go smoothly…?!
The commodity code that came with the glowforge and that @Rita has given before attracts an import duty of 4.5%
and the exchange rate is set month to month by HMRC so something is definitely wrong with @tracey_grundy 's payment demand.
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Just to add that’s on top of the VAT @20%
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The duty is added first then VAT is added. But that doesn’t add up unless we are really being ripped off on the exchange rate:
My fee (£691.82 / 20) * 100 = £3459.10
Then -4.5% : (£3459.10 / 104.5) * 100 = £3310.14
The declared value should have been $3473 - $150 (Proofgrade)
So any exchange rate of 3323 / 3310.14 = 1.0039
If you actually do the sums with a duty of around 33% then VAT of 20% you get nearer to an exchange rate of 1.4
Something is seriously wrong here!
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I have recently had a big argument with UPS about overcharging VAT on a Chinese import. I didn’t get anywhere and they stopped replying after about 14 exchanges. I think I will have to raise with with HMRC or my MP.
They add a thing called VAT value adjust to the shipping cost before charging VAT on it. That is supposed to be added to the shipping cost to get it to the UK to standardise the VAT on an import regardless of how far you live from the port but they add it to the door to door shipping cost.
Also if the commercial invoice does not show that shipping cost they add it to the total so you pay VAT twice on shipping.
The exchange rate is given to them by the HMRC so they can’t change that.
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I believe the current HMRC rate is 1.39, so using that figure I would have expected to pay around £66 less in tax if GF didn’t reduce the value by $150! This £66 just about matches 20% of the $478 shipping charge. This is unacceptable! What are GF playing at by not listing the shipping charge is included on the invoice! This on top of the £42 I had to pay for the proofgrade “gift”. Perhaps @dan would care to comment, so far it just seems to be 1 mistake after another.
So by my reckoning is they didn’t reduce the price by the promised $150 and they didn’t declare the price included shipping then thats £91 ($127) extra I have had to pay. Let alone that I had to pay 20% on the $67 shipping cost of the proofgrade and the £11.25 admin charge. So all in an extra £112
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I’m phoning UPS first thing tomorrow to query it but chances are I will have to pay and make a claim. BUT as you say @glowforge22 IF we have all been diddled with GF’s paperwork then added to the £140 overcharge there’s even more they potentially ‘owe’ me too.
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And then of course we get our GF which is missing lots of the features promised 2 years ago, not to mention the air filter or the fact that us Europeans have been at the back of the queue even though they were happy to have our money for the last 2.5 years.
Sorry, had to get that off my chest! To be honest its not just GF being a pain at the moment for me, I seem to be having a run of bad service at the moment from everybody, including a neighbor who is trying to steal the land that gives me vehicle access to my property.
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