Talking of scammers we think we have some attention from one. Mrs bought some dresses not realising they come from China. She got a notice from DHL saying they were in transit, but any import duties due would have to be paid before delivery.
DHL arrived at our drive, chap handed me the parcel, I can't remember but he may have taken a photo of me and parcel as they sometimes do nowadays. Nothing was said about paying any import duty.
DHL web site and Ts&Cs clearly state that the customer will have to pay any duties or taxes prior to delivery.
Several weeks later she got a letter on properly coloured, proper font DHL paper listing delivery charges, customs charges, VAT etc amounting to about £75. I'm not paying that, quoth she, I was never told there would be additional charges in the original order. So she didn't pay, getting a bit worried how a couple of dresses worth perhaps £20 could incur £75 of duty costs. Ignored it.
A few weeks went past and another letter on the same apparently authentic DHL headed paper with what you would expect if you hadn't paid what they asked for. These payments they want paying into a specified bank account.
A few more weeks and another similar letter demanding payment. Scan here, pay £75 (ish, not just a nice round number, which makes it look more authentic. Import duty, carriage charges, and VAT on all of those totalled about £75)
We found the original order which included carriage in the purchase price and want to send it to DHL as proof that we have paid all the carriage costs up front. However there is no address to send payment to, just bank sort code and account number.
So I looked up DHL in Companies House www in order to write to DHL with a copy of the original order. I was surprised to find lots of different addresses for DHL so I didn't choose one.
Mrs rang the contact number and was given an address to send the money to. She duly wrote a letter explaining that DHL are not adhering to their own rules and regulations - i.e. that duty will be payable prior to delivery. So she doesn't see why she should pay, and that the delivery charges were included in the purchase order which she wanted to send a copy of. If DHL had demanded these costs on delivery I would not have paid and would have told DHL they can keep the parcel and/or return it to wherever it came from.
Having been given the address she put the letter and purchase order in an envelope and took it to the Post Office to send Recorded Delivery. Mrs Post Office lady keyed in the address and Post Code to print the stick-on label as they do, and said hang on a minute this address does not exist.
So we will not be paying them whoever they are, via their scammy bar code thingy, and we will sleep soundly at night. I don't suppose they are going to come banging on our door for the money. If they do I will set Grettle on to them and they will leave with smoking tyres.
And we won't be buying anything more from Light In The Box.
