customs "examination" fee

has anyone had experience with being charged for customs to examine your shipment? My shipper on the UK side said that customs does x-ray or hand checks randomly and that they charge £48 for the former and hundreds for the latter. This hardly sounds fair and like a possibly bogus claim devised to extract money from expats.

rh

Yes, I do remember paying this fee. I don't recall any of my packages being opened. They were all in the same state that I had left them to the shippers in the states. I also questioned this fee, but was told it was a normal thing. I paid in the end. It was only £40, and I was desperate to get my stuff. You may be right on it being a bogus charge. I wanted my things more than I wanted £40 though.

I was told by Allied Pickfords (moving from UK to US) that this fee may apply as well - and they are a really big and rspectable company. Still, just because lots of places charge doesn't mean it's nice of them to do so. 

strangely enough, I haven't heard about this, and I employed Allied moving company to ship all of my belongings, furniture, knick knacks, etc. they too an inventory of the stuff, then taped it up etc and shipped it off, they hadn't mentioned about a fee that I'd have to pay along with what I've already forked over, which in fairness was nearly $4,000.00!!!!
So, if they expect me to pay extra money, there's bound to be a problem, I may flat out refuse, and throw my receipts in their faces and say "look, I've already paid!!!"
*shrugs* here's to hoping that nothing will come of this eh?

I did call customs today. They told me they know of no such fees but that I should contact the port where my things are to be sure. So, I'll have to find out which port my stuff arrived at.