General > General Technical Chat
uCurrent shipment issues to European countries
<< < (6/13) > >>
janoc:

--- Quote from: kjs on April 06, 2015, 09:04:24 pm ---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.

--- End quote ---

That's not completely true. Digikey will not pay the taxes and duty, that is left to you, the recipient. They just send it from their US warehouse in a "hail Mary" style, letting you sort out any local messes. What they do right is that they declare the goods properly and are likely well known/registered with the customs, so you are unlikely to have issues. However, should anything crop up, good luck.

Digikey's "office" in France is pretty much only a phone/fax line and the French mutation of the website. All business is done directly from the US.
wraper:

--- 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.

--- End quote ---
And make this a huge pain in the ass to your customer. If it is send by Post/EMS, I will need just to pay the duties in the post office/ to the delivery man, that's all. If DHL/UPS, I will need to gather a shitload of papers and make not so short trip to the customs (a bit outside the city). Wait in a queue for an hour, talk with them another 30 minutes and if I got lucky I pay the duties by credit card, cash not accepted. Then I need to send a scan to the DHL/UPS and wait for next day delivery or visit their office personally and wait another 40 minutes until they will find my package. Of course DHL/UPS can offer a clearance too. You just need to pay about 30 EUR to them, provide even bigger pile of papers, waste a few days in total in this process and you will get the package.
HighVoltage:

--- Quote from: janoc on April 07, 2015, 01:39:52 pm ---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.

--- End quote ---

No, they can not test it but what they do instead, they send it to one of there agencies to test and then you get a letter if you are allowed to pick it up or not.
It is just a hassle that nobody needs.
I have lived in many countries, but Germany must be the toughest when it comes to importing things.

Some China based companies got smarter and have a european shipping center in the UK.
So, lately when I order something from China, it was first shipped to the UK and then as a EU package from the UK to Germany.
janoc:

--- Quote from: HighVoltage on April 07, 2015, 02:51:41 pm ---No, they can not test it but what they do instead, they send it to one of there agencies to test and then you get a letter if you are allowed to pick it up or not.

--- End quote ---

Do they really do that? The testing I mean. That would cost an enormous amount of money - a single run of just EMC compliance testing (part of CE mark) is in thousands of euro - which nobody would ever pay for individual, non-business imports.

That's why I am suspecting more that they just check papers (rigorously).

janoc:

--- Quote from: wraper on April 07, 2015, 02:28:29 pm ---
--- 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.

--- End quote ---
And make this a huge pain in the ass to your customer. If it is send by Post/EMS, I will need just to pay the duties in the post office/ to the delivery man, that's all. If DHL/UPS, I will need to gather a shitload of papers and make not so short trip to the customs (a bit outside the city). Wait in a queue for an hour, talk with them another 30 minutes and if I got lucky I pay the duties by credit card, cash not accepted. Then I need to send a scan to the DHL/UPS and wait for next day delivery or visit their office personally and wait another 40 minutes until they will find my package. Of course DHL/UPS can offer a clearance too. You just need to pay about 30 EUR to them, provide even bigger pile of papers, waste a few days in total in this process and you will get the package.

--- End quote ---

Oh yeah - that is a sure fire way to ensure I am not going to order from such company. DHL/UPS in Europe is an enormous PITA. Apart from all the paperwork and the outrageous processing fees they charge for handling the customs and tax formalities, they are a huge problem when it comes to delivery to non-business premises.

Basically, if you are at work and the package is addressed to your home, the DHL/UPS/Fedex guy shows up and rings at your door at some random time between about 9AM to 5PM and then leaves. Without leaving a note (unlike normal mailman), they won't call you (a DHL man once told me that the driver has a phone but that they are explicitly forbidden to call clients!) and good luck chasing the package up when you don't even know that there was a delivery attempt. And after 3 delivery attempts (that you have no clue about if you don't have a tracking number) the package is returned back to the sender. Yay ... (had that happen).

I had also one (quite valuable) package being left with a neighbor without telling anyone or leaving a note, I had a package "delivered" to a depot 30km away, when asked WTF is that supposed to be, I was told I can just go and pick it up ... etc. 

Here in France they also outsource to subcontractors (who outsource to their subcontractors, etc.) - if a package goes missing or is misdelivered, good luck finding it in that chain. Had this happen with DHL (or UPS?) once and never more - they were extremely unhelpful, to put it politely. Basically, in their system the package was indicated as delivered and they were washing their hands over it - it wasn't their problem anymore. An overnight shipping took almost two weeks of phone calls to various delivery companies to track down, prying various internal tracking numbers from one in order to give to the next one in the chain. The best part was when one of them told me that they don't work with the original shipper, because it is their competitor (!) - despite handling their packages through a middleman ...

If you must ship by these companies, at least do say so explicitly - then I will have the package sent to my workplace, if possible. Using these companies to deliver to private residences is just a nightmare.

Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod