MartinUK
Interesting turn of events, could just be a case of you getting the wrong customs agent on the wrong day, but it would be a very big coincidence consider another poster had the exact same issue.
You know a lot more about this situation than I do, and I expect more than most, so the details you are giving here could be invaluable to others in the same situation, thanks for sharing.
Yeah I doubt it will just be a few of us, UK border control is clearly not properly taking the time to look at these EVGA warranty deliveries and just quickly slapping VAT charges on them based on the declared value. I'm pretty confident I'll get the charges back, I've sent away my BOR286 form this morning.
Inside was the evidence the BOR286 form specifically asks for but I also included my original Amazon invoice, the same one I uploaded to EVGA to prove I was the owner of the card. I printed a few pages of my support chat logs with EVGA that shows them state my card is faulty and needs an RMA. Finally, I printed off two emails I received from EVGA, the first, confirmation my RMA had been delivered. The second, the confirmation my RMA was accepted and had now been shipped back.
The last touch was a covering letter, the BOR286 form gives you a few lines to state why you think you have been incorrectly charged, but I also quickly typed up a 1 page letter addressed to the Border Force stating why the charge is incorrect and confirming the evidence I had sent to support my case. The other poster on this form who contacted Border Force has now been waiting 2 weeks, so I guess this is going to be 3~4+ weeks before we hear back...
So to recap, UK people, send your cards to EVGA via UPS using the proforma invoice EVGA customer support can provide you. It'll cost about £25, but it 100% gets to them with no customs nonsense or charges. But on the way back into the UK be prepared to get hit with VAT charges and need to fight with UK Border Force to refund you. If EVGA sent by UPS or something we'd probably be ok, but using German Postal service (DHL) is resulting in the hand off being done by Parcelforce in the UK and due to Brexit the UK clearly has no idea what it is doing with RMAs.
In positive news throughout this messy process EVGA customer service were great, my RMA was handled within 2 days and I received a 2080Ti back that can actually boost a bit higher than my last one so better performance. Small win. I'm in the 3080 step up queue so I've got that fun to look to next lol. Hopefully not going to be another £180+ charge to chase.