Rant: Amazon

[Bicurico]

I live in Portugal/EU and since the new import rules applied earlier this year, buying stuff from AliExpress is no longer worth the hassle, as everything goes through customs, no matter how inexpensive.
Customs will apply a flat rate of 12 Euro per package for handling, on top of that you pay the custom tax and then over all costs (purchase price, shipping price, handling price and customs tax) you pay VAT of 23%. A cheap 5 Euro item will grow to an absurd price of over 20 Euro. And of course this increases the shipping time from 2 weeks to 2 months... Conclusion: I stopped purchasing stuff from AliExpress, much to my regrets. This is a good example how goverments rule against the will of their people: the small individuals are no longer able to buy stuff cheap, but big enterprises use and abuse the cheap labour in China, while unemployment happens here. This is just the first part of my rant and I know I may not be totally objective here, which is part of a good rant...

Anyway, I ventured into trying out Amazon, as they do offer some of the products I am interested in. First two purchases went amazingly fine with next day delivery. This is something I never experienced and it is really great to have an ordered item delivered the next day, including saturdays.

Encouraged, I orderd something else and its delivery was set to 8 days. No problem, still better than ordering from AliExpress.

But then the item never arrived. Amazon was stating that if the item doesn't arrive on day X (the dealine), I could claim a refund the next day. Well, today is the day and what do I find? I have to click on a endless automatic chat session, where I need to speak with some weird seller (though I purchased from Amazon). And he now gets 48 hours to reply.

I might as well have purchased the item on eBay and with PayPal I am sure I would get a much better customer protection. I believe that the sale was just a scam and the seller never intended so ship the product (we are talking about 8 Euros, no big deal). But it pisses me off that you get scammed (I know, I will eventually get the money back, but it will cost me time and nerves) and it shows that as soon as you buy something that is not flagged PRIME or sold directly by Amazon, you are on your own. Ah, and products sold directly by Amazon are not cheaper than any other local vendor.

Conclusion: screw Amazon! Not going to buy from them anymore.

Thanks for listening. Would be interested if I am the only one with this kind of experience.

[wraper]

I live in Portugal/EU and since the new import rules applied earlier this year, buying stuff from AliExpress is no longer worth the hassle, as everything goes through customs, no matter how inexpensive.

Nope, cheap goods with VAT already paid on Aliexpress are cleared automatically and you should not pay anything additional. Of course if seller ships an item improperly, you may still need to pay. However I almost always buy with "Aliexpress standard/economy shipping" and was not hit even once. Also packages likely would not even pass through Portugal customs since generally they are cleared in some EU country to which they arrive first and then sent to destination country.

I could claim a refund the next day. Well, today is the day and what do I find? I have to click on a endless automatic chat session, where I need to speak with some weird seller (though I purchased from Amazon). And he now gets 48 hours to reply.

You did not. Not to say item was not even fulfilled by amazon. If you want reliable experience buy from amazon itself or at least fulfilled by amazon. Buying from a 3rd party seller who ships themselves is not much different from ebay.

I might as well have purchased the item on eBay and with PayPal I am sure I would get a much better customer protection.

No, and seller would have similar time to reply as well.

[pcprogrammer]

Nope, cheap goods with VAT already paid on Aliexpress are cleared automatically and you should not pay anything additional. Of course if seller ships an item improperly, you may still need to pay. However I almost always buy with "Aliexpress standard/economy shipping" and was not hit even once.

Same here in France. Delivery even improved. VAT is payed directly at purchase on Aliexpress. Sure it became more expensive due to the VAT and more and more shipping costs, but the cheap items are still ok to buy. It is the insane prices due to the shortages that keep me from buying stuff for the hobby. And I bought enough before it hit to keep me busy with projects for years to come

[magic]

Same here.

The stupidly high "customs processing" fees are charged by the domestic post for packages coming through the postal system from abroad and I believe it's their retribution for all those years of exploitation of the postal system by Chinese sellers.

With "AE standard shipping" or "AE saver shipping" whole containers of stuff are imported into EU by a shipping company hired by AE and then unpacked and delivered to customers by domestic post or some courier service, wherever they can get the cheapest bulk sending deal.

I have received several packages from AE since the VAT regulations came in and never paid extra at delivery. Even my mailman was surprised, as he could see the package was from China but there were no charges on it. I pointed out that the sender address on the topmost sticker on the envelope was a small town in central Poland

[Bicurico]

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess I will try and order something from AliExpress.

[unknownparticle]

Similar in the UK. We are charged the import VAT upto a certain amount, then plus duty over the amount, but what I resent most is the £12 charged by Royal Mail and Parcel Force for clearance and handling, which very often exceeds the carriage charge from the seller!!!  That is a nice little earner for those providers, for what amounts to a bit of key tapping!!!