UK airport VAT scam
 

No surprises ...

The airport VAT scam: Retailers told to come clean after being accused of pocketing millions from discounts on duty-free sales - Home News - UK - The Independent

I don't buy from these places as the prices have been bad for many years. Far be it for me to suggest that the skewed pricing of CAA and privatisation has anything to do with this.

One of my pet hates. Want to buy a newspaper show your boarding pass - crazy stuff.

But now I know why. Mrs VC often buys gunk in Boots and many times she has come back to me to get her boarding pass so it was so they can scam us for 20% VAT.

I feel the next PPI Type feeding frenzy coming on:ok:

I can buy the same brands of chocolate cheaper in the supermarket in Singapore than in airport Duty Free shops.

What you pay in airports, particularly for cigs and alcohol, bears little resemblance to the true duty-free price.
I remember it well from, for instance, RAFG and Saccone & Speed in Gib.

It's not just in the UK, I can't recall any EU airport where there are two prices, ex-EU and intra-EU.

And it's not just the shops. LCC prices for on-board dining :yuk: on ex-EU flights, and this includes flights to Switzerland, are exactly the same as intra-EU flights. They appear comfortable to charge us usary prices but then go on to screw us out of the VAT amount as well.

Well, we do have a choice, dont't we? - we can buy our overpriced snacks and drinks, not including booze, at the airport shops.

And they wonder why pax load up on the booze at the airport!

If pax like Darren and Sharon on the annual jaunt to Malaga are gullible enough not to realise this already and cannot simply wait to buy their booze and fags for a far cheaper prize at their destination, then more fool them!

This is no news.

It's got nothing to do with duty free booze and fags!:ugh:

It's about the things you buy in the likes of Boots, WH Smith etc. so if you need to buy some sun cream and you are flying outside of the EU you should pay 20% less for it.

That is why they ask to see your boarding card for everything you buy they log your flight and if it non EU claim back the VAT whereas, in fact, they should reduce the price to the customer by the 20%.

Airport price rip-offs ?
Now, breaking news...Bear defecates in woods !

Well not really no. I would expect to pay a premium for buying anything in an airport (disregarding duty free-just talking about the normal shops), if they were to not keep the VAT they would just increase the price, so in the end it's all the same.

Luckily for me (but unfortunately for WH Smith & Boots etc), the only items I might buy at an airport are newspapers or books, both of which are VAT exempt anyway. Alas, Mrs Seafire however, like a previous poster, invariably and suddenly finds something she "needs" to export to warmer climes.
Little wonder that companies of all sizes and colours call the UK "Treasure Island"!

Incidentally, does anyone know the consequences of simply refusing to proffer a boarding card? Even perhaps by tendering the exact purchase price? Although apparently WH Smith are now saying boarding cards are requested, but never demanded.

My point still stands, booze and/or fags or absolutely anything else on sale in any UK airport comes at a premium.

If pax are gullible enough to believe they are getting tax free or VAT free then more fool them! :ugh:

Is it really not that obvious it's a total rip off?

Like any retail advice - shop around and do your homework, don't just pitch up to the airport and expect discounted prices, this is the UK after all.

Having worked in several major UK airports, I can tell you that there is ONE set price for all products in every single shop and VAT or tax free does not come into it regardless of destination or otherwise.

Airports are for travelling, not shopping

Well, airside at Swiss airports all goods for export (i.e. not including drinks/food for consumption on site) are free of the 8% VAT.

That doesn't mean the prices are any lower than on the high-street, but it does mean every traveller (except domestic - who are not allowed to purchase) is paying the price free of VAT. They don't pay the VAT for some customers, and not for others.

However comments re airport pricing are valid. I once priced an iPad at Dixons at LGW. Their 'bargain price' was higher than the price on Apple's UK web-site, which included the 20% VAT.

Don't buy from airport shops. It's the only way they will begin to treat us like real customers.

Wot he said.

Anyone who thinks they get a good deal in any airport on the planet needs their head examining.

My experience of Dixons retail was that they were cheaper than a landside store.

To be honest if people see a price and are happy to pay it, I don't see the relevance of the whats and the whys regarding what happens to their money once it has been handed over. If they were happy to pay it then what's the problem?

I always thought they asked for boarding cards so that they can see which flights make the most money which is important when it comes to negotiating handling fees and the like and not taxation.

Many years ago, the SUN newspaper did a feature on duty free rip offs. Is showed a half bottle of whisky was cheaper in a certain supermarket than Heathrow duty free.

There followed an advertising campaign by the airport trying to show that prices were the same as high street ones on various non duty free products.

Some things can be cheaper, I bought a BOSE noise cancelling headset for a large saving over city prices. Having aircrew ID often brings a discount.

Personally I would not show my boarding pass unless the price was cheaper. Sod em.

Quote:

Well not really no. I would expect to pay a premium for buying anything in an airport (disregarding duty free-just talking about the normal shops), if they were to not keep the VAT they would just increase the price, so in the end it's all the same.

Well they couldn't could they?

That would mean a product would have two prices one for EU one for non EU.

You don't seem to understand the problem here.

Under rules purchases made airside in UK are free of VAT if they are for flights to non EU destinations so a £10 item should be £8 after the 20% VAT was refunded at source to the purchaser. If travelling to EU destination the VAT is due and the item is £10.

What these bandits are doing is asking to see boarding card and then logging all non EU sales and claiming back the VAT for themselves.

Duty Free sales and prices are a red herring in this debate.

On that subject Bombay Sapphire gin is frequently cheaper in Supermarkets in UK than in DF shop although it higher strength in DF. Also Three Barrels Brandy was £15 Per litre in Morrison's recently and £23 pounds in Gatwick DF:eek:

Can they sell it if you won't present a boarding card? That is, is it contrary to airport/tax authorities/management requirements?

Will they sell it to you without one? That is, is it contrary to airport/management requirements?

I know at Swiss airports they must scan the boarding card(s), to weed out the wholly domestic passengers.

But there is nothing to stop them having price A for ex EU travellers and a separate price B for EU travellers is there not? So in reality the way it is is a savings of 20% for the non EU traveller because it heist they will just increase the price by the 20% to maintain profit.. It's not like you can shop around, you are a captive audience

I posted a while back on another thread about seeing a young Scandinavian guy get to the front at T5 to buy something like a bottle of water and they asked him for his BC - he didn't shout but said he'd "have to find it" - slowly unpacking his enormous carry-on rucksack one item at a time as the queue grew, and grew.... and grew....

Eventually the chechout girl siad "here - pay and just go"

If we make a habit of loading up the wire basket and getting to the checkout and then saying

"oh dear - I can't find my card - I'll just have to leave this basket here"

they might get the message

I refuse to produce it on the grounds that it is unnecessary. Sometimes the staff say that they are not allowed to process the transaction without it, but they usually give in to get rid of you.

Of course, WHS now wants everyone to use their dreadful self-checkouts, in which a boarding card is a necessary step towards completion. I go for the counter, but if I'm forced to use the checkout I use an FR card from a previous flight, in the admittedly faint hope that WHS will get done for VAT fraud by using the same details mutliple times to reclaim VAT.

On the wider issue of airport rip-offs, I can never understand why anyone buys the over-priced tat that is presented in these places. And I was responsible for setting one up at a UK regional. We sold spirits, fags and smells in the "duty-free" shop (all flights were domestic or EU, so duty was included) at 120% or more of the High Street price and 70% mark-up. We even sold over-priced holiday wear as "duty-free" (75% mark-up). For some reason people thought all this was a bargain, and sales were fantastic.

Much of what is described as "duty-free" in fact is not dutiable in the first place, in the UK at least. In some countries where the airport(s) have "duty-free" shops, there is actually no "duty" on anything.

If you have time (as I do; I always allow far too much time to get to the airport and through security) you can have an amusing time asking the shop managers what the duty is that their products are free of, according to the banner above the entrance. Most of them don't understand the question. This goes especially well at LHR.