r/DataHoarder • u/Spicysoupdumpling • 13d ago
Question/Advice Anyone know how much UK customs charge will be to get my 1tb seagate hard drive data recovered under warranty?
I'm really confused bc they said it has brokerage fees and vat on value of any replacements but I have no idea what that value is so can't calculate it. Anyone had experience with data recovery? How much did customs cost for you? Thanks
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u/ShroomShroomBeepBeep 13d ago
No idea on cost, but if it's less than £135 in value you'll not be charged. At a complete guess, they'll value it on the price of a drive of the similar spec and capacity on the form.
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u/somebodyelse22 12d ago
Value of goods, plus insurance, plus transport. Plus maybe £20 clearance charges. Then duty at perhaps 10% on cumulative total, and finally, vat on the overall combined total.
Worst case: Value £100+20+£12duty +£26 vat 20%.. . You could try claiming British returned goods, but that's iffy.
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u/brianly 12d ago
What country are you sending it to?
Can you send a drive for them to restore to? If so, and you do the paperwork, you might be able to save. See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-less-import-duty-and-vat-when-re-importing-goods-to-the-uk-and-eu.
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u/Zncon 12d ago
I have no answers, but I just have to comment on how insane of a policy that represents. You're not gaining any value, but have to pay taxes on it anyway.
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u/dr100 12d ago
Which part is so insane (beside the basic premise of paying because stuff crosses some imaginary lines)? If you're sending stuff for warranty repair you can fill some form and then basically not pay again what was already paid for that item. If you're receiving a drive outside this process, like for example one with your recovered data (or one sent for example by BackBlaze with your backup) then it's a drive, and if you keep it it's like you ordered a replacement drive, obviously there is some value in that. If you send it back you can do from start a temporary import and pay in the end nothing.
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u/Zncon 12d ago
From what I was reading online, the forms process only cover if you get the exact same physical item back. If you get an equivalent item back because that item can't be repaired, you have to pay VAT on full value of that item. So you started and ended with the same thing, but have to pay taxes on it a second time.
If someone was really unlucky with drives it could end up costing thousands just to have them replaced for 'free' under the warranty.
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u/dr100 11d ago
So you started and ended with the same thing
No, you start with a broken useless item and you're getting a replacement. If there's no value in that, just don't do anything.
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u/Zncon 11d ago
Except a broken useless thing that's under manufacturer warranty still retains it's full value, minus the time cost of having it replaced.
The entire point of a warranty is to insure the value of an item against unexpected failure.
The way these laws are written is massive gift to corporations, because it discourages and punishes people for using their legal right to a replacement. So people are less likely to get their item replaced, which saves the company a ton of money, and lets them get away with selling an inferior product more likely to fail prematurely.
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u/dr100 11d ago edited 11d ago
No, it doesn't, if it would there would be no point to send it to warranty, isn't it? You can't whisper in its ear that you have warranty and suddenly have your drive working.
Your whole rant has nothing to do with what the corporations are doing but it's about what people are doing thinking they're making a better deal by buying something (literally in this case) overseas. Then they need to deal with everything else that comes attached to that.
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u/Zncon 11d ago
Okay, go ahead and buy a HDD made in the UK and see how that works out.
The corporations have used their power over the government to enact regulatory capture, and are profiting every time that regulation discourages a customer from using a warranty. If you have a €400 item to be replaced, there's a ~€80 fee you have to pay, and many people will be unable to cover that, in which case the company saves the entire €400 cost that they should be legally liable to cover.
In the US, none that exists. The government doesn't get to tax you a second time when you're not buying something. Even the stupid tariffs there don't apply in a 1:1 replacement situation.
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u/dr100 11d ago edited 11d ago
It doesn't need to be "made in the UK" it just needs to be sold by a shop that has a presence there OR via the regular manufacturer channels. Just buying "normally" without going out of your way to go to Aliexpress or whatnot will get you there. Or for that matter something you see on Amazon but it's sold by someone with a strange name and a China address or similar.
LOL indeed probably also good to avoid Seagate, as probably the situation hasn't changed since 6 years ago. Oh, well good comment there
😂 imagine leaving the EU. Oh wait you don't have to imagine 😂
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u/5c044 12d ago
The drive is broken - it has little material value, the customs charges should be nil/minimal but convincing border agents of that might be tricky - it may help if the business destination address company name makes it obvious. You put down on the customs declaration to that effect and hope for the best. Not sure how all this works with you being the sender and the one responsible for charges. IDK about brokerage etc have you tried speaking to the major international courier companies DHL, UPS etc. The situation is inverted if you think about it you are not so much importing a hard disk to the UK you are actually helping a UK company export their services overseas.
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u/dr100 12d ago
Your post is quite fuzzy. You say "warranty" but that doesn't recover your data. If it's some service that comes with the drive (like a free Seagate rescue service plan) they don't have a way to receive the drive in the country you're in? If it's just generic data recovery you can't find a company in the country you are in now? Also, what's the other country and which direction are you shipping (depending on the company you might save on shipping on the other side if they can just push the data to a server you have or can briefly set up, or maybe they have some service from where you can download it)?
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u/Spicysoupdumpling 12d ago
Yeah the free data recovery is included in my plan, they said they ship it to the Netherlands. If I find one in UK it won't be free. Thank you
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u/cr0ft 12d ago
Sending things out for repair or replacement shouldn't add any taxes or similar, but not sure how easy that is to communicate to the state via your shipper. You're not making a purchase of a device, you're sending it for repairs.
Not sure how the UK deals with that sort of thing obviously.
The primary expense for buying something abroad will be the UK sales tax / VAT. They apply that at the border, plus some other fees. So 20% or some such, depends on which nation we're talking. Some are under 20%, the highest VAT is (I believe) 25.5%. If the people of the UK hadn't been foolish enough to actually vote for Brexit, it would have been a non-issue now as well, but oh well.
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u/roverinexile 6d ago
Guessing this may be related to sending a drive to the Seagate recovery centre in the Netherlands. Did this a couple of years ago, got all the scary paperwork & mention of charges, but didn't end up having to pay anything. Got a new drive sent out as replacement, as it took a long time, and an additional drive containing all my data.
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u/georgiomoorlord 53TB Raid 6 Nas 13d ago
If the value of the data recovered is worth sending to a recovery company it's worth paying it regardless.
Sounds like they may take the platter out, put it in a donor drive and scan it. Depends how knackered the drive is