Re: Apple promotional items for a user group event
Re: Apple promotional items for a user group event
- Subject: Re: Apple promotional items for a user group event
- From: Ippei UKAI <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:04:01 +0000
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
So, this "Customs Duty + VAT + Administration Fee = £56.76" that the
invoice tells me "IMMEDIATE PAYMENT REQUIRED" is actually in the grey
area... (I've just realised that the actual value of items and shipping
is not included in the payment; sorry for confusions) Well, we, the
customer, did not purchase the goods, so actually the value of items
maybe should have been $0. But, anyway, the User Group Swag team of
Apple has already declared the actual value it probably really worth.
And also we have already received the goods a month and half ago. So,
the real question now is who has to pay it.
I still say the payment is not our part. We have never agreed to pay
anything, and the group does not have enough money anyway. Probably I
really need to talk to someone in Apple then... *SIGH*
Cheers,
Ippei
Ippei UKAI
President of EUMUS
Email: email@hidden
-------------------------------------------
Edinburgh University Macintosh Users' Society
Email: email@hidden
Homepage: http://www.eumus.org.uk/
On 16 Mar 2005, at 22:39, Jim Foster wrote:
Hi There!
Well, I live in Canada where, perhaps due to the proximity to the
U.S., I have a LOT of experience with having parcels delivered to my
home from places in the U.S. I can confirm that what you have
experienced, while at the upper end of the kind of single package
expense that I have seen, is something that happens when packages come
from other countries, particularly when they come via a courier firm
like UPS or FedEx rather than through the Postal system.
Here in Canada, anything that I buy from a U.S. source, even if it is
used and sometimes even if it is marked as a gift, is subject to the
same Federal and Provincial Retail Sales Taxes as would just about
anything that I buy at retail here in Canada. So, the Post Office or
the courier firm handling the delivery of the item is subject to laws
that say they have to take the U.S. value of the goods, convert that
to Canadian dollars, and collect the total of 15% retail sales taxes
represented by the Federal and Provincial taxes.
Further to this, there CAN be import duties. For the most part, the
parcels I get contain computer hardware or software and the current
import duty rate on that category of merchandise is zero percent. But
sometimes, especially I find with apparel products, there can be duty
to pay.
Finally, and this is where the real irritation comes, there can be a
charge for what are called "brokerage fees". Brokerage fees are
basically a charge for reimbursing the carrier for all the paperwork
and such that they have to do to get the package into the country and
collect the other fees that they then have to send off to the
appropriate level of government. If a package is handled by Canada
Post, meaning it was sent by the U.S. party via the U. S. Postal
Service who then turn it over to Canada Post at the border, there is a
flat charge of $5.00 Canadian for this service. But I find that when a
parcel comes via FedEx or UPS or many of the other courier firms, the
charge for brokerage services can and is much, much higher, all
without any very good explanation of what factors lead to a certain
charge.
I do everything I can to ask American sellers or exporters to use U.S.
Postal Service, but on many occasions they are not able or prepared to
do this because they have procedures set up with a specific vendor
which they feel are most cost effective for them and provide them with
a means to track delivery.
Most times, if there is going to be a charge by the delivery person at
my door, they ask for the money or cheque at the time they drop off
the package. But I have also seen situations where the delivery
person's job is just to deliver and get a signature, and then you get
a piece of mail a week or so later telling you how much you owe! I
sometimes think this is because their experience is that people refuse
delivery of packages when they know at the door how much they are
expected to pay.
All this is in a real "grey area" as far as fault is concerned. It is
not necessarily the fault of the sender in the U.S. if they are not
aware of charges which are going to be levied by their carrier at the
receiving end. My experience, however, is that when an organization
does a LOT of shipping to Canada, and it might apply to the UK as
well, they can sit down with their carrier and inquire about ways to
ship products which don't result in such charges. Sometimes this means
that THEY have to pay more at their end, but at least if they are
armed with this knowledge they can build it into any proposed charges
BEFORE the shipment goes out.
I have seen situations where the receiving party refuses to accept
delivery of an item because of these charges, and then if it is
something which they have purchased from the sender they ask the
sender for a refund. The problem with this is that the carrier will
ship the item back to the sender but will then expect the sender to
pay them a bunch more money for that service, which the sender has no
desire to pay either. Messy, messy, messy.
All I can say is that this is something which one learns about and
then makes sure doesn't happen again. One thing I have found which
sometimes works is to have the U.S. sender declare the items to have a
zero value. Trouble is sometimes the folks at the border do not agree
.. they can certainly open the parcel and give it any value they feel
appropriate. But it is worth a try.
Good luck!
Jim Foster
President
Macintosh Users East [MaUsE]
http://www.mause.ca
On 16-Mar-05, at 5:10 PM, Ippei UKAI wrote:
Hello,
In January, while we were planning our first event in early February,
we found that we can request promotional icoun from Apple
(http://www.apple.com/usergroups/request/). How supportive! We
requested some posters and clothes for the event. After a while we
received AUG T-shirts that our members wore at the event (posters
were not available) and two notepads which most visitors loved. The
event wasn't as popular as we hoped to be, but it was OK considering
it was the first time :) We thought it was very good of Apple being
very supportive to the user groups.
After more than a month later, last Saturday, I received an invoice
from DHL saying we need to pay £57 for those items. I'm very confused
about this. We have never agreed to pay any money. I checked the
online form above. It just says if a user group needs Apple
promotional items, they do the best to send it. I checked the email
from the User Group Swag team. It says they don't have posters right
now but the T-shirts were sent out for us. Neither of them says there
is any charge for the items. This is totally unacceptable. We are
still very small group which has just founded in last November.
Currently the money that the group has is only about £20 which is
absolutely needed to run a event at the Freshers Week next September.
We would not have 'requested' any item if we had to pay. I hope this
is just some kind of mistake.
Regards,
Ippei UKAI
President of EUMUS
Email: email@hidden
-------------------------------------------
Edinburgh University Macintosh Users' Society
Email: email@hidden
Homepage: http://www.eumus.org.uk/
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden