Import Duty on Replacement Good

Hi All,

I recently purchased an EVGA 7900GT here for my PC and after a few weeks of use, the card started to act up so I registered the card with EVGA and began a RMA for a new card. The company is American based and all RMAs for defective cards ship to/from California.
So last week EVGA shipped me a new card and sent me an email with tracking details for the video card.
I have been tracking the part and for the last 4 days its been in customs in An Post in Portlaoise.

Now the question !! Why would I have to pay import duty on the replacement card. Ive already paid fully for the card once and this card being shipped to me is a replacement for my defective card. I am then shipping the defective card back to EVGA in US.

If EVGA have their processes correct they should mark replacement items as something like "no cost replacement for faulty component" on the customs form. That *should* ensure it passes through without charge. Obviously this is open to abuse, but I guess if you got on to Portlaoise with a copy of the RMA documentation it should be sorted easily enough.

z