I've ordered some Christmas presents for my nephews from Japan, and it looks like I have some customs VAT to pay.  Fair enough.

When I track my parcel, I can see that it's "Awaiting Payment of Charges"

So, how do I pay the charges....?

Turns out, Parcelforce

1. Send me a letter through the post. That should probably get here tomorrow
2. That letter contains a code. 
   
3. I can then take that code, go back on-line and type it into a different page on their website.
   
4. I pay the customs charges on-line.
5. Then they will approve the letter to be delivered
6. It's shipped from their hub to my house.

So, I have to wait on a letter telling me that I've got to go on-line... despite the fact that I'm already on-line and looking at the exact package.  Hopefully I'll get my letter tomorrow.  But even then it's going to be a minimum of 2 days completely unnecessary delay.

When you build on-line tools, there is little point if you are not going to consider your users.  When I build tools, I always try to consider this rule...

"For every reaction, make an equal action"

If you are going to give your user an important piece of information, please try to think about their possible reactions and cater for a sensible range of the actions they'd want to perform. 

So, here's an idea Parcelforce (and even though I hear that you're going to charge me £13 on top of the customs amount for this nonsense, you can have it for free).