I never heard of any dealer paying Customs fees (I don't belive that) The fees were incurred during transshipping, on theway to the dealer's agent in the UK that's why the fees were paid by them.and then suddenly it gets a new tracking number, never heard of that either. yeah, it was re-shipped out of the UK by the agent so of cause it will have a new tracking number
Usually if Customs gets your watch they will charge full tax and import fee for Brand name product compared to its Brand name value which is a large amount. They know the watch is fake and most guys aren't gonna run down a pay a big fee for a rep watch, or even admit trying to import one. Nope, not in the UK. It's quite common for this to happen. More common than an outright seizure until very recently. Unless the item is subject to a notice from the rights holder that is what happens and it's taxed at rep value.
My understanding is when dealers ship from other countries its to make it look like the package didn't come from China to you, however the problem is it still has to be shipped somewhere first, in this case from China to the UK, and it got caught by the UK this time.
So it all comes down to if the dealer has guranteed shipping, meaning they reship incase of seizure, if not then its on you to take the risk of importing a rep, some dealers reship free, some reship for half off, some tell you to go F yourself, all depends on what your agreement is with the dealer.
Pretty much +1 to all of the above but dealers have been paying any fees incurred in getting the item into the UK and to their agent.