Author Topic: uRuler  (Read 204164 times)

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Offline chip273

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #250 on: November 07, 2013, 07:15:27 am »
I think at german customs only small-minded bumptious nah, I'm not gonna continue.
Point is, they are adhereing exaclty to the law, by each word. If a device has no CE it can't enter the country. But they would never check if that CE sign is really appropriate. I have even heard of a case where someone had to pay customs for a "forgotten at holiday hotel" videocamera where the hotel sent it in by mail.  |O

Worst part is; German Customs do not even trust the CN22 Declaration of contents anymore. They demand that you show them the confirmation of the moneytransfer, ie Paypal excerpt or bank statement. This of course means that your packet or parcel does NOT arrive at home anymore, but instead you have to go to customs to pick it up, after waiting in line for at least an hour (I was once there when it was empty, no one else, just me, still had to wait 50 minutes)

I am curious how this will affect the uRulers. Because I am sure that there was not Declaration of contents from Dave, also no Invoice on, or in the envelopes. Might even go back to dave, or it will land in court. We'll see..

@Dave : Yo did throw in a CE sign somewhere on the uRuler, didn't you ?
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 07:23:32 am by chip273 »
 

alm

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #251 on: November 07, 2013, 07:30:33 am »
As far as I know marking equipment not covered by the new approach directive (which last time I checked didn't cover rulers) is not allowed, so a good bureaucrat should refuse a uRuler with CE mark.
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #252 on: November 07, 2013, 07:37:55 am »
I contacted my mailing house, and they are surprised as I am at the delay.
They have confirmed that the rulers were shipped on Oct 25th, but not through Australia post, but through a mailing service called direct link:
http://www.directlink.com/en/contact/Pages/home.aspx

Their deal with Direct Link is that (for example) it's two days to New Zealand, in the hand. So something has indeed gone horribly wrong. They are chasing up with Direct link now and will get back to me tomorrow.
 

Offline yann

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #253 on: November 07, 2013, 08:43:14 am »
FWIW, I'm in Sweden and got an email reading "Your reward has been sent out today" Oct 25th. Nothing has shown up so far, and mail within Sweden rarely takes over a day (except for Sunday).
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #254 on: November 07, 2013, 08:43:30 am »
Mitch Patterson remarked that DLWW stands for Direct Link World Wide. That now makes sense!
Still does not explain the delays, as their contract with my mailing house specifies they should be much quicker than this.
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #255 on: November 07, 2013, 08:44:01 am »
FWIW, I'm in Sweden and got an email reading "Your reward has been sent out today" Oct 25th. Nothing has shown up so far, and mail within Sweden rarely takes over a day (except for Sunday).

That's concerning.
 

Offline yann

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #256 on: November 07, 2013, 08:48:25 am »
'Postage Paid Australia' appears to be printed on the envelope under the Swedish sticker. Does Sweden gave the cheapest postage rates in Europe?
For us mere mortals, Swedish postage rates are so expensive people abroad frequently don't believe it. Feel free to try posten.se and a currency converter.
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #257 on: November 07, 2013, 09:17:22 am »
Quote
I could have spent 5 days packing them myself, and then 5 days via Australia Post and almost everyone worldwide would have had them by now.
Wrong, German Customs are rigorous with everything not from the EU. Australia, China, USA, Hongkong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, doesn't matter, it always takes an additional 2 weeks for my packets. Always. (Even if the item value is so low that I don't have to pay anything, or even if it is just a paper letter, yes even the handwritten ones.

By the Way, hi, I'm new in the forums..

What's up with that, by the way? 

I was following the Pebble watch fiasco, and the German customs people are outright draconian in making it as difficult as possible for backers to get their loot.

I guess zey didn't have zer PAPERS!
The larger the government, the smaller the citizen.
 

Offline Jorpy

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #258 on: November 07, 2013, 09:19:33 am »
'Postage Paid Australia' appears to be printed on the envelope under the Swedish sticker. Does Sweden gave the cheapest postage rates in Europe?
For us mere mortals, Swedish postage rates are so expensive people abroad frequently don't believe it. Feel free to try posten.se and a currency converter.
Stil cheaper than in Denmark..  (postdanmark.dk)
 

Offline Towger

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #259 on: November 07, 2013, 09:33:17 am »
Quote
I guess zey didn't have zer PAPERS!

We call that the Little Hitler mentality: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Little%20Hitler

Customs here often look for the PayPal receipt, but they know how to use email! 
 

Offline Tjofras

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #260 on: November 07, 2013, 09:34:50 am »
FWIW, I'm in Sweden and got an email reading "Your reward has been sent out today" Oct 25th. Nothing has shown up so far, and mail within Sweden rarely takes over a day (except for Sunday).
I wanted to add to this. I live in southern sweden pretty close to Malmö and i did not get my rulers with todays mail. My only conclusion is that the rulers did not get posted to the swedish post the same day.
 

Offline Hypernova

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #261 on: November 07, 2013, 09:57:05 am »
Ok, quick international tally in order of arrival:

Sweden
Singapore
Taiwan (me)

Anyone else? This is an alarmingly short list.
 

Offline Tjofras

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #262 on: November 07, 2013, 09:59:14 am »
I contacted my mailing house, and they are surprised as I am at the delay.
They have confirmed that the rulers were shipped on Oct 25th, but not through Australia post, but through a mailing service called direct link:
http://www.directlink.com/en/contact/Pages/home.aspx

Their deal with Direct Link is that (for example) it's two days to New Zealand, in the hand. So something has indeed gone horribly wrong. They are chasing up with Direct link now and will get back to me tomorrow.
It says that Direct link is part of PostNord on their site (in the logo). PostNord is the holding company for Sweden and Denmarks postal services (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostNord). Could it be that they put the swedish postage stamps on the letters even though they didn't travel trough sweden?
 

Offline necromncr

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #263 on: November 07, 2013, 10:11:37 am »
fyi: HongKong - Slovenia : approx 2 weeks (14-15 days). NZ - Slovenia used to take 11-12 days for non-expedited deliveries. Still waiting for mine (slovenia)
 

Offline RandomNumber

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #264 on: November 07, 2013, 10:37:11 am »
Just wanted to ask if anyone thought about the CN22 Declaration? (Didn't see it on the envelope pictures on twitter)
I think some countries may even reject postage without that declaration.
In Germany customs should "normally" forward a CN22 declared envelope without problems to you if its declared worth is below 22 euros and they don't have any indications that the declared worth is not correct. Even this process takes 3-6 weeks from australia to germany, sending from germany to australia is a bit faster.

If you missed the CN22 declaration, I think every german recipient will be notfied by customs and need to declare whats in the envelope. This adds about 1-2 weeks.
I don't know how other countries handle that, but I think it is basically the same procedure (but maybe they have faster customs?).

If they sent it from sweden, everything ist fine, no need for CN22 or anything-custom-related within the EU. But then the problem exists for non-EU countries.
But I don't think they send a whole bounch of Rulers from Australia to Sweden, because that add a big problem: tax and duty. They would easily exceed the free boundaries and have to pay $$$ tax/duties for importing uRulers.
It should be much cheaper to send it from china/singapur/taiwan directly to every recipient in the world than paying taxes and duties for an import of 1000 rulers or so.
I mean, think about it, sending from these countries to any country in the world costs nearly nothing and you don't need to pay taxes/duties (that's up to the recipient, but in this case it should be no problem bacause it is below the free boundary for every recipient).  That's probably what they did.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 10:41:33 am by RandomNumber »
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #265 on: November 07, 2013, 10:51:26 am »
Ok, quick international tally in order of arrival:
Sweden
Singapore
Taiwan (me)

Taiwan is 50% complete then!  :-+
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #266 on: November 07, 2013, 10:52:36 am »
Just wanted to ask if anyone thought about the CN22 Declaration? (Didn't see it on the envelope pictures on twitter)

You do not need a CN22 declaration for regular letter mail.
 

Offline RandomNumber

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #267 on: November 07, 2013, 11:00:02 am »
Just wanted to ask if anyone thought about the CN22 Declaration? (Didn't see it on the envelope pictures on twitter)

You do not need a CN22 declaration for regular letter mail.

I think that's only true if your envelope does not contain any goods.
(just checked that on the hompage of german post; it says clearly that you need to have a CN22 declaration if you send goods as letter mail in an non-EU country.)
Maybe customs do not recognizes that there are uRulers in it, but you used special envelopes (afaik) and that is probably obvious.

But despite that it seem that it works without it, at least in sweden.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 11:18:11 am by RandomNumber »
 

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #268 on: November 07, 2013, 11:14:36 am »
I think that's only true if your envelope does not contain any goods.

Not so in Australia.
It is only recommended that it not contain material goods, it is not a condition of carry.
Whatever fits within the 50g weight limit and the letter size limit 5mm thickness (+L +W), gets treated as a letter.
 

Offline Towger

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #269 on: November 07, 2013, 11:15:56 am »
Don't worry too much Dave.  This is more fun than if they all arrived on time and without incident  ;D
 

Offline RandomNumber

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #270 on: November 07, 2013, 11:19:30 am »
I think that's only true if your envelope does not contain any goods.

Not so in Australia.
It is only recommended that it not contain material goods, it is not a condition of carry.
Whatever fits within the 50g weight limit and the letter size limit 5mm thickness (+L +W), gets treated as a letter.

From where do you have that?
Australia Post says basically the same as german post on their website:
Letters -> "No Extra Cover, containing written correspondence or documents only" -> "No customs documentation required"
Letters -> "No Extra Cover, containing items valued at no more than $500"  -> " CN22 Customs Douane (Green Form)".
(http://auspost.com.au/parcels-mail/country-customs-regulations.html -> Which customs form do you need?)

So I think you should have added CN22s.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 11:26:36 am by RandomNumber »
 

Online sleemanj

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #271 on: November 07, 2013, 11:29:03 am »
Could it be that they put the swedish postage stamps on the letters even though they didn't travel trough sweden?

I'd suspect that's the case.  From my limited understanding of how (the quite complicated) international mail systems work, it's a bit like telephone network termination charging, the originating mailer sells postage and keeps everything they collect, the terminating mailer "bills" the originating mailer a termination rate for their mail.

That source to destination terminal rate is set I think by the UPU (in lieu of private agreements), based on relative mail volumes and standard prices determined by the UPU.

So my guess is that Swedish Post has a better terminal rate than Australia Post generally speaking (higher volumes I suppose), and so the postage is "sold" by Swedish Post at a cheaper price since they have a lower termination rate - it doesn't matter how it actually arrives in the terminating region (after all mail may go through many countries on it's way).

I think Swiss Post probably has the same sort of operation, I've received packages marked Swiss Post before that certainly wouldn't have come from Switzerland :)
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Offline wilheldp

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #272 on: November 07, 2013, 11:33:21 am »
You know Dave, I'm a very impatient person. When I order something online, I want instant gratification. And the micro ruler is one of the longest times I have waited for anything. But at no point have I been the slightest bit impatient. It all boils down to communication. Your updates are invaluable, and you are teaching us all good lessons about how to handle large scale crowd funded projects. Keep up the good work, and don't worry about the delays. We are learning more from your troubles.
 

Offline JackOfVA

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #273 on: November 07, 2013, 12:03:46 pm »
Some of my small amateur radio related electronic kits fit into a padded envelope (US type 000, a bit smaller than an A5 sheet for those of the metric persuasion) and I sell quite a few to European customers.  Typical value is US$ 25.  These kits go with a CN22 customs form and used to be delivered in Germany in about two weeks from shipment, sometimes as fast as 10 days. 

Beginning a year or so ago, these small envelopes shipped to Germany have run 30-60 days delivery. Likewise with larger kits that ship in a cardboard box but are sent "first class parcel" with the CN 22 customs declaration.

Sweden has the fastest delivery, with Norway and Finland being similar. I've had kits in the padded envelopes delivered on a Friday following Monday shipping to Sweden. UK delivery used to be as fast as Sweden, but has become slower - still better than Germany.

I've also heard reports from friends in the ham radio kit business that German customs is rejecting some shipments that do not have the CE approval mark.  So far, I haven't run into that.

Italy is a huge problem, and before I accept an order for delivery by postal service to Italy, my customer must agree that either (a) the package is shipped with insurance [expensive]; or (b) risk of loss is upon the customer.  Likewise with Russia.  Chances of a package being delivered in either Italy or Russia is < 50%.

 

Offline fs

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Re: uRuler
« Reply #274 on: November 07, 2013, 01:22:00 pm »
You know Dave, I'm a very impatient person. When I order something online, I want instant gratification. And the micro ruler is one of the longest times I have waited for anything. But at no point have I been the slightest bit impatient. It all boils down to communication. Your updates are invaluable, and you are teaching us all good lessons about how to handle large scale crowd funded projects. Keep up the good work, and don't worry about the delays. We are learning more from your troubles.

+1
 


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