Quick question for the UK girlies

[sewwies]

Have any of you ever had to pay tax on anything you've ordered? It hadn't even crossed my mind before my housemate mentioned it, and the 4 packages I've received so far have been fine (the most being about $38), but I've got a $60 one on the way and was wondering if I'd have to pay tax on that?

Thanks!!
Sarah

[Ghost]

Hi Sarah

Yeah I have a couple of times. I know what you’re thinking "custom tax a couple of time????????" Considering how much I buy and how many packages I've had since buy from overseas (about a year and a half now) I've only gotten stopped about two, maybe three times. But I'm almost positive that was down to the packages being large I'm sure and it did say when I got the packages that Royal mail stop anything with the value of £18 and over. But I've had things being around $80 that didn’t get stopped. Oh and the custom charge is just over £11

But here are a few tips that I've learnt:
[*]Do more orders to keep the packages small - I know your paying for more postage but with the GWP it works out good.
[*]Try and keep you orders around the $40-$50 mark - But I don't always follow this rule with SN, so don't worry about your recent order. Like I said above I've ordered $80 without getting stopped.
[*]Space your bulky items between orders - I know you want some brushes but try and get 1 at a time for the large brushes (smaller ones ok). Keep this in mind for the skin care stuff like the serums bottles and microdermabrasion/moisturising cream tubs.

Also if you buy anything from another company in the US, it's worth asking before you buy how thay package there items. I brought something from coastal scents (never will again) one of their palettes from my sister. Well they put it in a medium size box when it could have easily gone in a normal yellow bubble envelope like Karen's. And not only was shipping to UK $15 for something that weighed no more than my normal SN hauls, but because it was a box it got stopped by customs!!!!!!! Remember not every cosmetic company is as good and understanding as Karen's

Hope this helps Sarah

[sewwies]

Aah thank you so much! I've ordered stuff from overseas before now but they were all fairly small and I've never had any problems, but my friend got me thinking! I meant to keep this one small... but there was just so much stuff I fancied, this site is eeeevil!!! Hehe!

Thanks again!

[kitten1711]

Hi sewwies,

I have had plenty of orders from other companies stopped by customs - but never SN.

I quite regularly spend $50-100 per package but with no trouble so far......touch wood! I think because the items are usually packed in a padded envlope rather than a box, they draw less attention.

Txx

[Ghost]

oh your soo lucky kitten, I've had two of my larger SN hauls stopped by Royal mail. Literally nothing for a whole year then around xmas one got stopped then another one in January.

I had a right mind to start a mob and go after them, how dare they hold my SN goodies hostage Don't they know it was SN...........hey maybe that’s why they stopping them, to get extra money. They would send me a photo of my haul with the metro newspaper in front or royal mail employees playing poker, with my SN stuff as currency, oh the humanity

[sewwies]

Lol! Yes! Then maybe send you a swatch on a bit of paper when you don't pay up.......

[karen]

You're too funny Ghost!
Usually 8 ounces is the "magic mark" for packages- under that and they don't seem to mind on most packages- but over that and they start taking a closer look. If you're doing a big haul of big things- split it so there's 2 orders, and you'll actually save on shipping because of the way our postal system works. Under 8 ounces and they just charge by the ounce- if it slips over to 9 ounces they charge you for up to 12 ounces and it gets a bit worse from there. I tried explaining that on the shipping page, but we have a strange/complicated postal system.