Kicking up a stink about my perfume shopping saga

Personal finance columnist Jill Kerby got burnt online shopping recently. Has it happened to you?

Buying goods online can be problematic. Not only are you buying the item sight unseen, but returns can be a drag on your time and pocket, especially if you have to pay extra postage.

Since Brexit, there could now be VAT, customs duty, shipping charges, etc ito pay if you order from UK shops or suppliers. As of July 1, the 23% Irish VAT that up to then only applied to items worth more than €22 has been amended: all items imported from Britain and other non-EU countries, whatever their value, are now subject to Irish VAT of 23%. If this charge has not been included in the invoice because the UK merchant has not registered for Irish VAT, it is collected by the postman or the courier company.

Like many shoppers since the pandemic began, I’ve put on the green jersey and increased my purchases from local Irish businesses. That said, I let my guard down last month… and ended up opening a can of worms.

I ordered a small item of tiny perfume samples worth just €24.95 plus €4.95 standard postage, in the mistaken belief that it was coming from France, where the perfume is manufactured. The seller is in London. (I opted for ‘standard mail delivery’ but am still waiting for an answer from the merchant as to why they handed over the package to UPS, when I clearly did not tick that option.)

Had I seen the ‘small print’ note on the website that said that EU orders would be liable to charges “applicable on your order at time of delivery” I would have realised this wasn’t a French seller and I probably wouldn’t have completed the purchase. That said, I was only facing an Irish VAT bill of €6.67 on the total cost of €29.90 (including postage.)

Mistakes happen, and they’ve happened a lot since Brexit because so many people are still unfamiliar with the new tax and duty charges. The latter applies to any non-EU purchase worth over €150.

What I didn’t expect was a UPS courier demanding €25.12 when my husband answered his knock last week. “You owe me 25 quid,” he said when I got home and he handed me the little package with its yellow UPS ‘COD’ - cash-on-delivery – sticker.

In addition to the tracking and freight numbers, the sticker on my €24.95 item (plus €4.95 postage) listed the following: Freight Charges: 0:00 €; VAT: 0:00 €, Taxes: 6.67 € ; Customs DUTY: 0:00 € and Other: 18.45 €.

At time of writing I am still waiting for an explanation from UPS about what the “other” €18.45 charge amounts to it if it is not a freight charge, actual Taxes (as opposed to the VAT) or a customs duty. I did finally get their attention by going on Twitter to complain and to ask my followers for their UPS experiences, but I had already spent several wasted hours trying to contact the company via their on-line automated customer service portal, by email and phone. I was eventually auto-transferred to a bewildered customer service agent in the Philippines… who clearly had no idea what I was talking about or even where Ireland. {“Iran?” “Iceland”?}

Consumer complaints about this international delivery company seem to be rife. A jeweller friend of mine, who has had numerous problems with UPS deliveries –some still on-going - advises all his suppliers, both EU and non-EU, to use any shipper but UPS. Another friend, who paid a courier in February for VAT and duty on an item is still getting invoices from the company demanding payment. He put me onto a corporate ratings website, Trustpilot.

According to Trustpilot, there are 654 reviews from Irish customers on UPS.ie – companies and individuals who have engaged them to undertake a delivery or are receiving deliveries from them. 90% of UPS.ie reviews are classified as ‘bad’. This compares to another courier business, DPD Ireland that is registered with Trustpilot, DPD Ireland that has an 87% ‘excellent’ rating and just 8% worth of ‘bad’ reviews.

I rather doubt that I will ever get an explanation for that mysterious €18.45 ‘other’ charge: UPS has a lot more angry customers than me to deal with if the hair-raising complaints on Trustpilot are anything to go by.

But I’ve learned my lesson: I will be more diligent about checking online shopping websites and will confirm where the merchant is located, exactly what their delivery charges are and if they use couriers. Unless the UK retailer is registered for Irish VAT and includes it on their invoice I won’t be shopping with them. And I will always use a credit/debit card or via Paypal with a non-EU site in the hope I can avail of their ‘charge back’ services in the event of a dispute.

Finally, the government consumer websites citizensinformation.ie and ccpc.ie both provide worked examples of the taxes, duties and other charges that you may have to pay when online shopping in the UK.