Being charged import taxes for 3 pieces of paper and 0 to no response from Customer Relations Rep.

My mum sent me a parcel from Northampton, UK on 22 August 2017.

I received an sms to say I should contact Vanessa Vorster regarding my incoming shipment and the invoice payable on Friday 25 August 2017 @ 16:47. Thinking this was a **** of sorts I disregarded the sms as I was not waiting for a shipment of imported goods, but an envelope with 3 pieces of paper in them.

Vanessa subsequently phoned me on Monday 28 August 2017 to inform me that she requires my e-mail address to send me the invoice for my import... After receiving the invoice I saw that I had to pay R518 to get my parcel released. After contacting the call centre on ********** I was informed that the reason for this was due to the parcel's value being declared as R1992, to which I contacted my mum to find out *** Fedex is on about.

The value declared at Royal Mail was not the value of the 3 pieces of paper, but the amount that Royal Mail had to compensate her for in the event that the parcel got lost as that was the amount she paid the Police offices for the set of fingerprints.

I then contacted the call centre again and explained to them the entire thing to which the response was that they can send the invoice back and recalculate it as it was DOCUMENTS and not any form of goods. I was informed that they do however require this in writing and that I would have to contact Vanessa regarding this. I have sent her an e-mail to which I have received no response. My mum sent her an e-mail explaining everything again to her, to which Vanessa responded and I quote: "Dear Susan, Thank you for the below mail. Your shipment has been declared as a high value shipment as there is a commercial value of more than R500ZAR stated on the documents which were used to clear the shipment . Please kindly be advised that we have a holding policy of 48 hours –if we do not receive proof of payment within the first 48 hours we shall be given a final deadline of 5 days . If we still do not receive proof of payment by deadline we shall either be returning or destroying the shipment"

Now please tell me how on God's green earth can you place a COMMERCIAL value, COMMERCIAL being an adjective meaning "intended to make a profit" on 3 measly pieces of paper, probably made from sugar cane and pine not weighing more than 52 GRAMS!? 3 pieces of paper consisting of a passport copy, a set of fingerprints from the Northamptonshire county police department and a South African Police Clearance Certificate form.

Someone is taking the **** out of me and not one single person can fix this ****** ridiculous issue. I need this **** sorted yesterday as I need to get those documents to the Police Clearance Offices in order to obtain a Police Clearance Certificate for a ****** visa to New Zealand, or by George the **** will hit the fan faster than the speed of light.