I never said Creation Watches had done anything wrong ??? I simply wanted to know why I was charged £32 for a £100 watch when previously I have only paid a few £'s to DHL for more expensive watches. Creationwatches never gave me an explanation, so I simply said that if this was going to be the norm, I would go else where...Originally Posted by robert75
Don't blame Creation. It's not their fault and they have no direct control over it. You were just unlucky. [Edit: Although it now seems they declared the full value in this case]
It looks to be about £106 x 20% = £21 plus £12 fee from DHL. That's about right.
You were lucky. Blame UK Border Force, HMRC, and the law for lack of consistency.
Last edited by markrlondon; 29th March 2017 at 12:42.
No, the "measuring instrument" thing and the delivery address don't help at all. It makes no difference what sort of customer it is or where the delivery address is in the UK.
In fact having the item misdescribed on the customs declaration can be counter-productive; you can end up paying more tax, not less. In one case that happened to me, the Border Agency (as it was at the time) inspector misread the description (which was something similar to "measuring instrument") as "musical instrument". This resulted in me paying Customs Duty and VAT when only VAT should have been due. I was able to reclaim the overpaid Customs Duty and extra VAT (since VAT is charged on the item value and Customs Duty!) quite easily afterwards but a lot of people might not have realised that they were overcharged. [Oops, I previously mentioned this episode above]
In practice, only two things can cause the full amount of tax to not be charged on imports:
(1) Under-declaration of value on the customs declaration. This is pretty much universal from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Russia, Ukraine, and so on, but unknown from Japan.
(2) Possibly in some cases: Lack of staff at Border Force (who do customs inspections and import tax assessments on behalf of HMRC) to inspect the customs declaration on packages from certain locations. If it really happens at all then it's rare.
Last edited by markrlondon; 24th March 2017 at 19:13.
OK. Now I come to think about it the value was under declared quite considerably.
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I bought a Casio G Shock GA1000 from them last November..... the analogue hands started to loose 3 hrs per day within 2 months. Reported the problem to them..."Take it to a watch mender" was the answer from them... very helpful!. Anyway Casio UK have it at the moment, hopefully will be done under warranty.
Yup, I happily buy from Creation but always on the understanding that I'd not go to them for customer service (other than non-delivery), repairs, or warranty.
Used them and had problem with a SKX007. They were totally useless don't seem to want to help at all, in the end I replaced the movement myself as it was cheaper than the postage back to Singapore
One thing for sure they will not be getting any more of my money
I had a Seiko stopped too and DHL slapped me
With a nice bill for tax and delivery charge . Watch wasn't that cheap In the end
Seikoboy
I've just ordered a watch from an eBay store holding itself out as being in the EU, yet the tracking says it's coming via Japan.
Now my geography GCSE is a bit rusty but if I end up paying duty I am going to be pissed off!
It might be they ship to a EU warehouse and then ship to you, so I don't think you wont have to pay duty :)
I've had a few watches from reaction and it does appear to be a lottery with the extra charges.
Well it looks like Creation watches declared a value of £106 on the DHL paperwork (even though they mention optical equipment or similar) - so that's why I got stung with £32.
Fair enough, but as I said to them in an email if this is going to be typical, then there's no real benefit using them?
They just replied by saying even if customs charges are added then their watches are still cheaper than anybody else?
It's a bit misleading their statement on their ebay store of..
"Although it is rare, the buyer is responsible for payment of any duty/GST/VAT/ Administration fee"
Well, if they are now declaring full value to DHL prior to shipment then it's 100% likely DHL are going to charge VAT+Admin fee on all items sent from Creationwatches to the UK??
It would be unfortunate if they are now declaring the full value but, even so, it's true that their prices are usually still very good. For the most part it still seems to be worth buying there, even with VAT being added on.
Personally I'd be rather surprised if they have begun declaring the full value as a matter of course as very few Singaporean vendors seem to do so but surprising things do happen.
Why they use the "optical equipment" thing I do not know. It offers no advantages as far as I can tell and if they choose the wrong category then it can actually result in having to pay more tax than is really due.
By the way, you did not need any of those questions marks. They make no sense in the above message. A question mark denotes a question (either explicit or implicit) and you did not ask any questions above, neither implicit nor explicit; you only made statements. Just felt like pointing this out. ;-)
I did try reading "Personally I'd be rather surprised if they have begun declaring the full value as a matter of course as very few Singaporean vendors seem to do so but surprising things do happen."
But without any comma, I ran out of breath :)
Got an Orient Bambino delivered today from Creation in Singapore. For the first time the full value of £100 was declared on the invoice so DHL turned up at the door looking for £31. No prior warning from DHL about the charge but the driver was decent enough to follow me down the road to the cash machine as I had taken the day of work. Still got a bargain I think so can't complain.
Last edited by DAZZABABY69; 29th March 2017 at 18:15.
I started a thread about this. I just got done £36 on a £125 Seiko. The days of Singapore watches slipping through are over.
Agreed ! As I said if Creationwatches are declaring upfront the value to DHL we are going to get charged - I was actually charged on route.
I've got two seiko's on the way from Creation (£133 each). If I'm charged, I hope it's on route, so I can pay online and not have the hassle of the driver needing payment.
You might get an email from Creation Watches saying DHL are trying to contact you.
This means you have charges to pay.
I then entered the package number onto the pay customs webpage and then it lead me to payment. So yes it was during transit.
Thanks for the info, will keep an eye out for the email. I have had to pay before this way, but it was ages ago on a jdm Seiko Sarx027 from Creation. By the looks of this thread and another, it looks like it's now on all watches from them. Oh well, all things must pass as a wise man once said.
It was a good ride while it lasted and I wonder why they now seem to be fully declaring. Time will tell about how long it lasts.
Yup - I just got stung. Creation watches, DHL delivery for a Singapore sourced watch. Ah well, all things must pass.
According to tracking my watch arrived at Heathrow at 18:42 last night. I received the email at 5:57am.
I suspect customs and excise have warned Creation of any further misdeclarations. Threatening them with a banned list perhaps?
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Just received a Seiko Turtle from Creation. It took 46 hours from ordering to being in my hand. Marked as "measuring equipment" and, so far, no request for additional payment.
Yes, I've been nabbed. Tracking info says it's in Bristol and available to recipient upon payment. Will contact them shortly to sort it out. Unfortunately this rubs Creation out for me, not their fault, but there we are.
Update, £64 fee charged on £266 order (two £133 watches). Paid online by debit card, email immediately received from DHL showing payment completed. Tracking still showing "held awaiting payment" but I went on DHL live chat and was assured the payment is complete and the parcel will be delivered.
It's a pity, because there is now no real saving over online UK vendors for the same watches, and these will be without the hassle of making separate custom payments etc. Still, can't really complain about paying legitimate taxes I suppose.
I wonder if rules (or enforcement of existing rules, perhaps) have been tightened up in Singapore, possibly due to extra-territorial pressure from other countries.
Depends on the watch I think. Creation was often cheaper even with VAT factored in, in my experience.
There are also other far east vendors in Hong Kong and Malaysia we can go to, if Singapore is now no longer cost-effective.
Im sure I had an e-mail from them yesterday or the day before....offering good prices on some Seiko Prospex..........Seemed like good price, but with the duty added on...not so good a price I guess?
I've used them many times since 2009, bought Monsters, SKX-s, Turtles and some Citizens from them. Always had good service, incredibly fast shipping with DHL from Singapore and always payed customs taxes, because in Estonia all the DHL/Fedex packages are going directly to customs. NB! Creationwatches are quite helpful with declaring packages value for customs if needed. For me it's probably best place to buy cheap Asian automatics, because Skywatches doesn't ship to Estonia.
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