We cannot arrange customs for you because those are our of our control. You have to handle the customs with your local government. It's not a difficult process - we've had no clients who have had trouble with customs. As for home delivery, we can and do arrange that, but customs happens in the middle. Please email us directly for more information: sales@sinthetics.com

Having done some research over the last few months, here's a rough idea of how I believe it works.

Customs duty is worked out on - doll price + shipping costs.
Import tax is worked out on - doll price + shipping costs + customs duty.

Customs duty can be from 0% - 85% but is usually between 5% and 9%.
Import tax is the same as VAT at 20%.

So....using Xe.com for currency conversion and for this example 7% customs duty, here's a rough total.
I'll use the Alicia 1H example http://sinthetics.com/gallery/alicia/alicia-1h/ and the top 'buy this version' which is $5700.00 plus shipping $800

doll + shipping costs
£3,632 + £510 = £4,142

now add the customs duty at 7%, (doll + shipping) = £290
£4,142 + £290 = £4,432

now add import tax 20%, (doll + shipping + customs duty) = £887
£4,432 + £887 = £5,319

So the total cost would be £5,319

One other thing about customs duty and import tax, and I'll show you by extreme example.
You purchase your doll in January $5,000 (£2,500) while the exchange rate is £1 = $2.
She arrives in the UK in March and the exchange rate is now £1 = $1, you'd pay the customs and tax at the March rate.
So instead of paying x% of £2,500 as it was in January, you pay x% of £5,000 as it is in March.

Is there any way the exchange rate can be predicted?

Unfortunately not, especially with the volatile markets at the moment. It's just luck of the draw, although the Pound has consistently been stronger than the Dollar for more than 5 years.

You can check current conversion rates here: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

The calculation is very accurate, my customs fee was around £550.00 in Jan.

Thank you very much I have found this very usefull t,o work out my total cost
Cheers:tu:b