VAT refunds at Heathrow T3
Jun 23, 2018, 3:49 am
#1
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VAT refunds at Heathrow T3
Passed through T3 today on the way to Asia and went to the usual VAT refund counter. It was closed and shuttered with a sign pointing me to Travelex across the walkway. The guy checking goods, passports, forms etc just stamped the form without paying too much attention. It was then that I noticed the queue: 25 separate people, only 1 person at the desk reviewing each form and paying out the VAT refund. The average processing time (out of the 2 that I watched) was 10 minutes. That meant more than 4 hours to get to the front of the queue 😀. I gave up - and I wasn’t the only one - I don’t get to the airport 4 hours ahead of my flight. Next time I’ll buy online (from the US) and just have it shipped. Most governments are staffed by people who couldn’t get a job elsewhere but May’s lot seem to have given up completely in terms of services. I wonder what impression that leaves visitors encouraged to spend in the UK and then unable to legitimately get their tax back. Not a good one I’d imagine.
Jun 24, 2018, 11:51 pm
#3
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They can indeed, although never as long as I saw it on Saturday - partly because there was just one lady working at the desk and nobody else in sight. I'd also never seen the customs kiosk across the walkway closed. Maybe that's new and everything's been outsourced to Travelex - although experience suggests that arrangements like that never work out well (cost-cutting already in evidence perhaps and no votes for anyone from foreigners leaving the country. It might simply be that they want to discourage us from claiming back the tax - in which case I'll help them reduce their admin by buying things in the US! I'll take a look when I'm through next week, it may just have been a one-off closure and the cheerful fellows who stamp the forms may be back on duty :-)
I don't know that it's possible to physically buy duty free inside the UK, you have to be seen to export the goods I believe. I was able to buy duty free at Tiffany's in downtown Tokyo the week before last and pick up the goods from the Tiffany's shop at Haneda which saved me the VAT and was easy to do. But I've not heard of anything like that in the UK. There were a large number of frustrated looking Chinese tourists in the queue when I was there, since I was headed for the Cathay flight as I assume they were as well, realising they weren't going to have enough time to get their VAT back. If we like them shopping in the UK - as we clearly do - then we need to treat them fairly or they'll go elsewhere.
I don't know that it's possible to physically buy duty free inside the UK, you have to be seen to export the goods I believe. I was able to buy duty free at Tiffany's in downtown Tokyo the week before last and pick up the goods from the Tiffany's shop at Haneda which saved me the VAT and was easy to do. But I've not heard of anything like that in the UK. There were a large number of frustrated looking Chinese tourists in the queue when I was there, since I was headed for the Cathay flight as I assume they were as well, realising they weren't going to have enough time to get their VAT back. If we like them shopping in the UK - as we clearly do - then we need to treat them fairly or they'll go elsewhere.