Denise,

I think it depends what shipping carrier is used. I have ordered stuff from Ground Effect in New Zealand a couple of times and never been stung for anything, I think this is because it comes into the UK through the Royal Mail who aren't necessarily geared up to handle customs charges, especially with smallish and light packages. A lot of UK firms will also use the Royal Mail to send things abroad and I assume it will then get passed to the Postal Service of the country in question which may not apply the charges. FedEx/UPS on the other hand are ruthlessly efficient at presenting things to customs and are very geared up for this sort of thing (I could track on the FedEx website exactly when the government wanted payment!).

I have also misread the TE shipping policy and thought they sent things via UPS not USPS in which case there is probably a good chance of avoiding charges. So ... TE is now a serious option as they have a good range of girlie stuff (takes credit card out of wallet and hides it).