There is a second charge on the way. Is your customer expecting it?

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Order placed Despatched Customs hold The second bill

Order summaryMadrid, Spain

Jumper: £25.00
Delivery: £5.50
Total paid: £30.50

Paid in full at checkout

GB → ESDespatched

14 Calle de Serrano
Madrid 28001
Spain

No duty or tax prepaid

Customs, MadridHeld

Classification queried
Declaration does not match the item
Duty and import VAT unpaid

Not released for delivery

Import charges dueRef 4471-B

Already paid at checkout: £30.50
Duty: +£3.66
Import VAT: +£7.17
Carrier handling fee: +£8.00
Now due: £18.83
What the order really cost: £49.33

Payable before delivery

Paid in full at checkout. This is the price they agreed to. Despatched. As far as your customer knows, it is finished. Stopped in Madrid. Nothing moves until somebody pays. £18.83 they never agreed to, from somebody who is not you.

The box is rarely opened. The declaration always is, which is why it’s so important that the data is correct before the parcel moves.

Landed cost

Checkout Madrid

Item value: £25.00
Postage: £5.50
Duty: £3.66
Import VAT, 21%: £7.17

Total to pay£30.50

Calculating duty and import VAT Committed at checkout

Address validation

Ship to Label

14 Calle de ~~Serano~~ Serrano
Madrid ~~28OO1~~ 28001
Spain

Checking the address against the lane Deliverable as printed

Customs data

Customs declaration CN23

Description: ~~“Cotton knitwear”~~Cotton and acrylic jumper
HS code: ~~6110.20~~6110.30
Value: £25.00

Checking code, description and value Matches the item in the box

Two parcels, same destination, different outcomes.

Order placed Label generated Despatched The border Delivered Weeks later

With Ascent

The decisionon the documentation, before the label

Kept

Without

Held The decisionon the documentation, at the border

Returned

The same basket both ways: a jumper, £25.00 goods, London to Madrid.

Without Ascent

Paid at checkout£30.50

goods and postage only

Demanded at the border+£18.83

Customs detail AddressHS codeDescriptionValue

No landed cost shown. £30.50 taken.
Label printed. Nothing checked.
Despatched on an unchecked declaration.
Held at the border. £18.83 demanded.
Still held while the other one is delivered.
Returned to sender, or £8.00 more than it needed to cost.

With Ascent

Paid at checkout£25.00

deliverydutyimport VAT

Owing on arrival£0.00

Customs detail AddressHS codeDescriptionValue

Landed cost committed. £41.33 taken.
Label printed. All four fields passed.
Despatched on our own network.
Through the border without stopping.
Delivered. Nothing owing.
Closed. No charge, no refund, no return.

Every shipment requires clearance. Ascent lets you decide when that happens: before the parcel has moved, whilst changes are still free, or on a customs officer’s desk two weeks on, with your customer waiting.

If the parcel comes back. The cost does not.

A refused delivery is not a delivery problem. It is four of your own lines, and none of them sit with the carrier who caused it.

The saleRefunded in full, including the postage you had already paid to send it.
The carriagePaid twice over. Once to send it out, and again to get it back.
The goodsOut of your hands for weeks, and not always saleable by the time they are back in them.
The customerAsked for money by a stranger, for something they bought from you.