| General > General Technical Chat |
| uCurrent shipment issues to European countries |
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| Jeroen3:
--- Quote from: German_EE on April 06, 2015, 07:29:46 pm ---What I cannot understand is why Dave is having all these problems yet I get packages from Mouser and various Chinese EBay sellers without problems. The last package was an LCD display costing about seventy Euro and I never paid a cent in duty. --- End quote --- Jonestronics is honest on the package with the price. Chinese put on "Gift Electronic 1$" for something 30$. Or even worse, there was no declarations form AT ALL on the outside of my package. Jonestronics doesn't use low-priority shipping. If you use UPS or DHL (somewhat faster than bulk) in china, you'll most likely also have customs problems. Australia isn't china. I would estimate far less packages from Australia than from China. The average value should also be higher from Australia. Jonestronics also names the company. Indicating something was sold. Otherwise make it name "sample". If you want to ship to europe, use DHL or UPS shipping. Where the package (should) stay with DHL or UPS the entire trip. They pay customs in advance for the receiver if they do not have an account with them. Normal mail will transfer the package through several companies, making it slow and badly traceable. (btw: see the app AfterShip) |
| kjs:
--- Quote from: German_EE on April 06, 2015, 07:29:46 pm ---What I cannot understand is why Dave is having all these problems yet I get packages from Mouser and various Chinese EBay sellers without problems. The last package was an LCD display costing about seventy Euro and I never paid a cent in duty. --- End quote --- Mouser and Digikey do all the import stuff for you and pay the taxes and duty. They even have European offices even though the stuff usually ships from the US. That's why you never have issues with them. The Chinese sellers usually declare the stuff as gift and at a very low value. I have seen several of them been caught and returned but at the volume which comes in they can't catch them all. --- Quote from: Jeroen3 on April 06, 2015, 08:57:23 pm ---If you want to ship to europe, use DHL or UPS shipping. Where the package (should) stay with DHL or UPS the entire trip. They pay customs in advance for the receiver if they do not have an account with them. Normal mail will transfer the package through several companies, making it slow and badly traceable. (btw: see the app AfterShip) --- End quote --- If you take the UPS or Fedex or DHL prices for shipping it is usually cheaper to buy local and also get some warranty. That makes all the good deals moot unless it's a high price item. If I buy on alislow or fleabay I expect the goods to take 4-8 weeks until they show up. If I need it faster I bite the bullet and go to a real distributor like Mouser or Digikey. |
| Zucca:
I bought a 550€ Logic Analyzer from Australia, shipped with DHL it bounced twice against the German Zoll/Custom (first they don´t know what a logic analyzer is, second they asked questions about the sender), now it will arrive soon. My guess I will pay about 200€ on custom theater. Keep you posted. I paid 143€ on custom. BTW Germans loves rules and following them (with such a passion it amaze me every time), the rest simply doesn't matter for them. I have some issues to live in this country: just got 100€ fine and 1 point on my driver license because I slowly cross the red light with my bicycle. I get a fine form the German police once every year at least, it is part of the system and is nothing I can do to avoid it. And yes at the end I love to live in Germany, everything is so efficient and work so well (compare to other country I was). Breathtaking. |
| EEVblog:
--- Quote from: Towger on April 06, 2015, 11:45:26 am ---But only Germany appears to have problems. --- End quote --- Correct, no other country has this issue. |
| janoc:
--- Quote from: Howardlong on April 06, 2015, 01:39:56 pm ---(In addition, in certain states like France, for example, they can also exhibit local selectivity on implementation by pronouncing "Bof".) --- End quote --- :-+ :-DD I would say that the problems in Germany are more of a local nature - the Zollamt is certainly not equipped to check whether or not the device is EMC compliant or not. They only check the paperwork acompanying the package - what is the thing (=which part of the tax/custom code applies), its value (=how much is the VAT and customs fee). If it is electronic, does it have the right signs/stickers attached (CE, ROHS, recycling signs)? If it doesn't, they hold it and/or you have to pay some default fee - which could be calculated from an arbitrary administratively set amount, like 300 euro. The problem is the rather anal German implementation of the ROHS/CE directives and their penchant for "Ordnung" - you could mail even a smelly excrement in a box, but the papers need to be in order. Ordnung muss sein! I didn't have any issues importing stuff from China and other places to neither Switzerland, Denmark or France, with the exception of the customs and VAT fees here and there. Which is to be expected, but only Switzerland levied these systematically - in Denmark I was almost never asked to pay anything and in France it is really rare for small items. The only exception is if it is not sent by regular post but by UPS, Fedex, DHL or some such - they will always declare the goods for you and will always collect the fees + their own processing fee. I know that Slovakia will hold the package on arrival until you pay the VAT + customs (if applicable, I think packages under 200 euro declared value are exempt), but I have never heard about them checking for ROHS or CE marks, unless it is some form of mass goods import (like a palette of Microcurrents). So make sure that you have the customs declaration attached, the content is declared correctly along with the price of the goods (excluding the shipping, customs fees are calculated from the value of the goods, not the cost of sending it) and that you put the CE and ROHS marks on the box. Both you can self declare, but considering the shipment is from overseas where the EU directive doesn't apply, nobody would check your papers - our market is full of USB phone chargers without CE or with fake/untested CE, for example. One alternative is to sell the item as a kit of parts, then the entire CE and recycling mess doesn't apply, only ROHS. Another one is to find a reseller in Europe and let them handle the issue. Adafruit and Sparkfun do that, for example. It is a win-win situation - the manufacturer/vendor doesn't need to bother with the local formalities, the customers get to pay only local shipping fees instead of potentially exorbitant overseas ones and the package arrives (usually) a lot faster. |
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