Author Topic: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe  (Read 6464 times)

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Offline SilverSolder

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #25 on: June 19, 2020, 01:48:19 pm »

[...]  1. As I said in OP, VAT is usually waved for packages of low value coming into Austria [...]


I thought only personal gifts were exempt from VAT?  (and usually quite small amounts of money, the specific amount varies by country).

 

Offline tooki

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #26 on: June 19, 2020, 03:17:34 pm »
So to recap, you ordered things for 53.37 EUR, expected to be billed 10.71 EUR of VAT, but instead were billed for 14.33 EUR, which is 3.62 EUR more than you expected, or 6.8% of the initial total price of your order.

No.
1. As I said in OP, VAT is usually waved for packages of low value coming into Austria, depending on your luck, and the invoice clearly stated VAT was not due. I also said in the OP that "It is not a big order, so it does not hurt much". In short, I was wrongly charged 14.33, which is over 26% of the order value.
According to your own original post, the confirmation email said "Duty and customs paid by Digi-Key, VAT due at time of delivery". That’s clearly not saying “VAT is not due”, it’s saying the exact opposite.

And to be clear, that exact wording is shown on the website during the checkout process, before actually placing the order:

So it’s pretty clear that VAT is not covered by Digi-Key, and that it will be due on delivery.

As for the amount, the shipping is a plausible explanation. Another is that the item in question perhaps is taxed at a higher rate than normal stuff? I dunno what EU VAT rules are like.

As for the exemption, I suspect silversolder is correct. Also the question of whether the €20 exemption means €20 of VAT due, or on €20 worth of merchandise.
 
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Online wraper

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #27 on: June 19, 2020, 03:22:24 pm »
As for the exemption, I suspect silversolder is correct. Also the question of whether the €20 exemption means €20 of VAT due, or on €20 worth of merchandise.
EUR 22 worth of goods excluding shipping cost. If this value is exceeded, then VAT is applied to both goods and shipping cost.
 
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Offline SilverSolder

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #28 on: June 19, 2020, 04:28:35 pm »

To qualify for the "gift" exemption,  sender has to flag it as a gift in the customs document.   Not likely that an electronic component vendor will do that!
 

Offline janoc

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #29 on: June 19, 2020, 06:27:12 pm »
If this is the same as they do here in France (where shopping at Digikey is the same pain), that "government fee" is most likely not "government" at all but it is the UPS flat fee for them filling the customs paperwork (even when none is required) on import for you. At least here in France they itemized it on the bill like that and didn't hide behind any "government fees" last time.

UPS loves to charge this, here in France it is more like 20 euro.

No, do not mix things up, this clearly isn't the case. It wouldn't be just 3.62EUR, and with the standard Digikey "Duty and customs paid by Digi-Key, VAT due at time of delivery" delivery, that 20EUR or similar cost should not happen and would be an actual mistake. I have never seen it with Digikey; with others not specifying DDP, this does happen.

Though, I order from Digikey supplying an EU business VAT number, so I don't have to pay anything at delivery time.

That's because you are mixing it up. VAT would never be billed as "government fee" plus the OPs invoice clearly states it is not VAT that is being collected.

That is most likely the UPS charging the paperwork filling/brokerage fee and nothing to do with VAT.

That you didn't have to pay anything means little - as I have said multiple times whenever this sort of thing with Digikey came up (just search the forum, the OP is by far not the only person complaining about this), it depends a lot on which country you are in. When I lived in Denmark, I have been routinely ordering stuff from Digikey with no issues. Once I moved to France, I have got a nasty surprise in the form of these extra fees slapped on every order. So that you don't pay anything in Finland says absolutely nothing about the situation in Austria or France where the customs regulations and laws are different. This is not harmonized across EU!

 

Offline Siwastaja

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #30 on: June 19, 2020, 07:25:07 pm »
That is most likely the UPS charging the paperwork filling/brokerage fee and nothing to do with VAT.

Yes you are right this is a real possibility. That raises the question: what happened to the VAT? The OP has agreed to pay the VAT at the time of delivery, this is well documented and happens with Digikey. Needing to pay VAT should happen everywhere, regardless if there are unexpected extra costs in France for example. If your guess is correct, which it might be, that this bill was something else than VAT, the VAT would be still unpaid!
 

Offline benj38Topic starter

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #31 on: June 25, 2020, 05:54:48 pm »
Just wanted to let you guys know that DigiKey came through in the end!

Without saying why they have changed their mind, they have issued me a refund for the 14.33 Euro.

The email about this simply read "Attached is a copy of your memo". Go figure.

I am very glad that they have decided to honor the terms of the agreement, and thought you should all know.

Thanks everybody for their comments and observations in this thread.

 
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Offline Psi

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #32 on: June 26, 2020, 12:52:46 pm »
They probably read this forum. 
 :-DD
Greek letter 'Psi' (not Pounds per Square Inch)
 

Offline jc101

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Re: Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe
« Reply #33 on: June 26, 2020, 04:45:10 pm »
I bought a batch of parts from DigiKey mid May, including a cut tape of 100 items that cost £200+.  They arrived in a couple of days as normal, packed everything up and sent them to my assembler.  Roll round to mid June, assembler doing a check before loading their machine says it's the wrong part in the DigiKey bag.  A few photo's later and sure enough, the tiny ICs in the tape are 5 pin and right ones are 6 pin.  The labels on the bag are correct, just the wrong item packed.  They only come in the one footprint, so I know I hadn't ordered the wrong part in error (been there, done that).

So, a month after delivery, I give DigiKey a phone to ask what the options are.  About 6 minutes later I had an apology, a refund on my card, and no need to ship anything back.  I was quite impressed really.  Still waiting for the odd part to come back from the assembler, as I'd like to know what I know have 100 of.
 


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