I've been sitting at home today waiting for my boxes from the US to come via UPS. Around noon Matt calls me and says that the UPS office had contacted him asking that I fill out customs forms for my shipment. They email me the forms and I send them back. At this point I check the shipment of my boxes to see where they are. Two are at the Airport and 2 are in Southampton on route to being delivered... odd. At 3:00 the UPS man arrives with 2 of my boxes YEAH!!! Or so I thought! He tells me that he needs 125 pound (or $350) right then and there in order for him to physically give me my boxes. Having only a small amount of cash and no check on me he gives me the invoices and I call the office to sort it all out. He leaves with my boxes and says that he will be back tomorrow with my boxes after I sort everything else out with the UPS customs office.

The charges are for IMPORT TAX and DUTIES to be paid!!! ON MY OWN PERSONAL BELONGINGS!!!!! Something I shouldn't be paying for because non of what I sent is for resale. So now I'm wanting to know a)why I'm being charged and b) why two of my boxes were cleared without charges and why 2 were sent to my house with charges. I make the call and after speaking to about 5 different people who were Irish, English, and Italian I got someone who knew what to do. I explained to him that everything shipped were personal items and each box should have been treated the same and if someone would have told me I needed to fill out the form before I shipped them I would have.I understand paying for imports on items you wish to sell but shouldn't be charged for shipping photo albums and shoes which I'm keeping. So long story short I filled out all the forms for all of my boxes and they should come back tomorrow (hopefully).