Customs charges on a replacement order

[JamieTupholme]

I am most dis-satisfied with the service I have received from your company and I would like to make a complaint.
After receiving a Raspberry Pi TFT Screen (1601) for Christmas I began to use the screen in my project work. Having used it for two months, I encountered a problem. One of the connectors on the side of the screen that connect it to the PCB had broken.
After contacting your company by email, we established the screen was broken and needed replacing. The advisor told me to order the replacement online and enter the code and there would be no charge and the screen would be sent to me.
When the screen arrived in the UK it was not delivered to me and held due to unpaid customs charges. After contacting your company I was advised I would need to pay the charge as this was not included. This was the first point I was unhappy with the service. As a replacement for a broken part I expect the screen to be free from all costs.
The second issue I then encountered was an incorrect Customs declaration. When I phoned the courier to pay the charge, they advised me the charge would total £29!!!!!!! This was because the goods were declared as a business transaction valued at £45 on the declaration! This is not the case! The item (as CLEARLY SHOW ON YOUR INVOICE is a GIFT priced at £0.01 – if this had been copied onto the customs declaration then it would have cleared customs with no charge!!! As no money changed hands there should have been no VAT charge!!!! This error has cost me £29 extra for my screen and your company agreed that the screen was broken and it wasn't my fault!!
Before this incident I was a valued customer but now I shall be thinking again before buying your products.
Yours in disappointment,

Jamie Tupholme
Customer

[adafruit]

For replacements we mark as free/replacement, however some countries can and will charge not matter what even when they should not.

[autodios]

I can totally relate with you... Apparently adafruit doesn't care much about its customers overseas (thing that does not happen with Sparkfun, for example), and puts the complete amount (including shipping?!) as the value of the part being sent! It happened the same to me, I had to pay the exact same I paid for the actual part just on taxes, whereas, if they would have properly written the REAL amount of the part ordered, it would have been tax-exempt!
Makes no sense at all.
I hope they really think on what they are doing... I don't feel like ordering here again either.