Allpcb - global free shipping!

[soubitos]

Our (Greek) government is so desperate to find money that they started checking EVERYTHING no matter how small, valuable, urgent etc.... since this past summer they created mountains of packages and envelopes from all over the world which they didnt think would take extra personel to process in a timely manner... because they simply dont care.... all they want is money.... DHL on the other hand asks for 60-80 euro fee to handle customs for you so its a big no-no anyway.... the aftermath is that you place an order today, chinese ship out in a few days most of the time, it takes 6-15 days from China to Greece and then..... you wait a month or two to get an envelope with 1-2$ worth of spare parts you desperately need to finish a project or repair a device etc.... in my case, last month when i received my first pcb order from easyeda which was shipped together with parts for the pcbs also from LCSC, total worth was 90-92 euros, the chinese made the big mistake to use EMS instead of registered airmail (to have the order deliver fast because of a small delay after i placed my order) and i end paying i think 46 euros tax (they decided the box was worth 128 euros! as they obviously know the price of 1000 smd resistors and TP5100 IC's better than the manufacturers LOL)....

I am expecting my first (and probably last if prices are much higher than easyeda/jlcpcb) via HK post..... i ordered the same pcb also from jlcpcb to compare them but in my case the pcbs are non-critical and as soon as they work and have no quality problems i can always go for the cheaper offer.....

[L1L1]

Our (Greek) government is so desperate to find money that they started checking EVERYTHING no matter how small, valuable, urgent etc.... since this past summer they created mountains of packages and envelopes from all over the world which they didnt think would take extra personel to process in a timely manner... because they simply dont care.... all they want is money.... DHL on the other hand asks for 60-80 euro fee to handle customs for you so its a big no-no anyway.... the aftermath is that you place an order today, chinese ship out in a few days most of the time, it takes 6-15 days from China to Greece and then..... you wait a month or two to get an envelope with 1-2$ worth of spare parts you desperately need to finish a project or repair a device etc.... in my case, last month when i received my first pcb order from easyeda which was shipped together with parts for the pcbs also from LCSC, total worth was 90-92 euros, the chinese made the big mistake to use EMS instead of registered airmail (to have the order deliver fast because of a small delay after i placed my order) and i end paying i think 46 euros tax (they decided the box was worth 128 euros! as they obviously know the price of 1000 smd resistors and TP5100 IC's better than the manufacturers LOL)....

I am expecting my first (and probably last if prices are much higher than easyeda/jlcpcb) via HK post..... i ordered the same pcb also from jlcpcb to compare them but in my case the pcbs are non-critical and as soon as they work and have no quality problems i can always go for the cheaper offer.....

I've been living in Athens for the past 5 years. I have no problem paying a fair amount of taxes, such as VAT, as long as the procedure is simple and clear. Unfortunately, in Greece rules are complex and arbitrary. Here's a few tips I can share:

• First, there is a threshold under which the customs don't charge anything: it's 22 euros I think, including the shipping. I took advantage of the ALLPCB $5 offer discussed in this thread and I had my PCBs delivered by DHL in a few days to my door with no issue.
• Second, as far as I have seen, nothing sent by airmail is subject to any check. So oshpark in the US and anything sent by ordinary mail from China is safe. This means a long wait however.
• Third, for parts, use Mouser: they take care of all custom clearance for you, order placed on Monday is typically delivered on Thursday to my door. Farnell in the UK is also a good option. As I learned painfully, this means that you need to avoid Digikey and Arrow for anything above the threshold I mentioned in my first point.
• Fourth, for PCBs there are solution in the EU, avoiding customs issues altogether.

On a side note, I've been told by a customs officer that you can avoid paying the 60 euros brokerage fees by clearing the packages yourself on the greek tax website (you will still pay for VAT). Unfortunately, I have found nobody to explain me the procedure (my greek is not so good). If any greek reading this forum knows how to do this, I'd love to hear from you. I'd be willing to pay for a lesson, in cash or in beer :-)

[SeanB]

Here in south Africa the Post Office simply started to charge a "handling fee" on all incoming small packets and parcels, and then if the value was above threshold value they then did the duty thing as well. With this though there is a small silver lining, in that often they just put the handling fee on and ignore the customs side because of the sheer volume of incoming stuff. That it takes 6 weeks for a parcel to appear from the black hole known as SAPO Track and Lose is not really any change. Still takes 6 weeks for a letter to travel via post to the same post office area, which is why I went to electronic billing, got tired of having the bill arrive 2 weeks after the due date.

[jeremy]

FYI ALLPCB have just increased their prices. Complicated boards (3mil, etc) appear to be up by 30%, and the $5 deal only applies to 5pcs of 50x50mm (it used to be 10pcs of 100x100mm).

[soubitos]

I placed my order on Order Time:2017/12/19 7:39:32
It was ready and packaged by 2017-12-20T06:42:43.023
It was marked as shipped on Ship Time:2017/12/22 17:35:14
As others stated above, i avoided DHL for customs reasons and opted for registered airmail.
I do not need delivery in 5 days or 10 days, ordering from China over the years teaches you to expect delivery in over a month really LOL.
That been said though, i expect the people i buy from to respect my business and make sure they at least do their part of the work in a timely manner... what is the point to bust your @ss to manufacture a product on order in 24hrs then ship out 2 days later is my first thought.. Then i check the tracking number to only find out the package was in fact delivered to the postal service on 28/12/2017, 14:14:00!!!!! and it was not shipped out before today 2/1/2018, 15:39:00

Why make something in 24hrs to have it shipped out 13 days later?
I ordered the exact same pcb from jlcpcb too.... there i have other issues to post but i keep it till the moment i have them both in my hands so i can possibly make a video on youtube about the whole experience etc

[Mr. Scram]

FYI ALLPCB have just increased their prices. Complicated boards (3mil, etc) appear to be up by 30%, and the $5 deal only applies to 5pcs of 50x50mm (it used to be 10pcs of 100x100mm).

That's almost an order of magnitude more expensive with an 800% price hike.

Their timing isn't great either. I'll need a series of prototype boards the coming month, which will now cost me considerably more to make 

[pulsar123]

Offering free shipping is never EVER free... I placed and order which i am expecting to receive via registered mail. DHL is not a viable option for me. Registered mail is cheaper though.....

DHL doesn't work for me neither.

What's the issue? DHL shipping from allpcb worked really well for me (34 hours shipping time).

Too bad they increased their prices - I only paid 5.50$ US for 5x100x100mm boards.  Now it is 15$.

[tszaboo]

Offering free shipping is never EVER free... I placed and order which i am expecting to receive via registered mail. DHL is not a viable option for me. Registered mail is cheaper though.....

DHL doesn't work for me neither.

What's the issue? DHL shipping from allpcb worked really well for me (34 hours shipping time).

Too bad they increased their prices - I only paid 5.50$ US for 5x100x100mm boards.  Now it is 15$.

DHL tend to take care of VAT and import duty, no matter what. And charge you for it. And the yellow truck only delivers during working hours, and they dont have an office where you can pick it up, unlike regular post.

[NorthGuy]

What's the issue? DHL shipping from allpcb worked really well for me (34 hours shipping time).

I'm in rural area. What I usually get from DHL is this: "Hi, we have a parcel for you. Give me an address of a friend in Edmonton (150 km from me) where we can deliver it to".

[Mr. Scram]

I'm in rural area. What I usually get from DHL is this: "Hi, we have a parcel for you. Give me an address of a friend in Edmonton (150 km from me) where we can deliver it to".

Or the ol' ring and run, where they claim to have attempted delivery, sometimes twice in an hour. I've never seen a delivery man return after the first attempt, even though I'm home. Of course they kindly deliver it to some collection point conveniently located in a place I never go to, except when I'm picking up packages.

At this point, it starts becoming more convenient to just go to regular shops again. I get my stuff now, rather than in a few days, and I have to go into town in both cases, though regular town is more conveniently located than the collection point is.

[mrpackethead]

Heres teh last board i ordered, on christmas eve.    Just got back to work and it was sitting there waiting for me.    Solder mask was really nice, and everything was precise.   These are panelised with toolign strips so they can go into the PNP machine easy.

The little notches ont eh corners make life much easier when stenciling, as they provide a 'key' for the pins to lock into.    I do like their new solder masks, they are much more transparent than the more opque ones they used to use.

REgistration on this is good.     You'll note that i dont' put designators on the compoents any longer.   Its pretty pointless theres often not a lot of space.

[soubitos]

Quote from: NANDBlog on Today at 10:28:17 PM

DHL tend to take care of VAT and import duty, no matter what. And charge you for it. And the yellow truck only delivers during working hours, and they dont have an office where you can pick it up, unlike regular post.

DHL charges a minimum customs clearance fee of around 80 euros last time i had to use them couple years ago maybe.... not gonna risk it unless its a really HUGE pcb order really even then, POST is charging 1/5 of that and if you are going to pass a couple thousand euros worth of anything through customs, its best to take over the customs clearance and use a certified customs agent who will charge maybe 50 euro but then knows the "tricks" and has YOU on his interest than the taxes hungry state.
Many years ago i was asked 120 euros for customs clearance i think by Fedex or DHL, can't recall, and on top of that you pay VAT and any other taxes applicable....  i said no, hired a customs agent who got me 2-3000 worth of brand new computer memory (DDR400 back then i think) for only 50 euro ... tax free as "scrap electronics" LOL

[pulsar123]

Was I very lucky then? My last two orders using DHL from China went very smoothly  - the first one was a 3D printer - 9kg; I only got charged ~25$ at the door; the second order was 10x10cmx10cm PCBs order from allpcb - 34 hours shipping time, no charge at the door. I heard if the declared value is <100$ DHL doesn't charge anything on top? And of course it does help living in a densely populated area (Hamilton ON).

A somewhat unrelated question - can one sell (say, on ebay) extra copies of a PCB, if the PCB design is declared as Open Source hardware, with the GNU license? Specifically, I just ordered 5pcs of Open.Theremin V3 PCB on allpcb, will likely receive 7, but I only need one. Before, when the cost was 5.50$, I wouldn't care, but now it's 15.80$, so ideally I'd like to recover the cost for the copies I won't need.

[soubitos]

i dont see any reason not to be able to sell them...

[asmi]

 I live in Kitchener, Ontario, and used DHL for many (50+) orders. So far my experience is that they only charge extra for shipments over 100 CAD in declared value (in commercial invoice). They have been fairly reliable, even though they mess up delivery every so often and as result I receive shipments a day or two later than I should have.

[oilburner]

Wow, cool board!, does it work?

Greg

[oilburner]

I just got an order from AllPCB (my fourth as it happens).  Placed this order on Thursday afternoon (Dec 14) and received the completed boards this afternoon (Dec 18).  10 of them for the grand sum of $5.49 with the free DHL shipping.

And lest someone accuse me of shilling for AllPCB I won't even be drawing their attention to this post.  Here's the board.

What is it?  It's an AM receiver.  There's an Arduino Nano V3 board controlling an si5351 synthesizer for the LO,  an SA602 input mixer and a two stage IF driving another SA602 synchronous demodulator.  The sync carrier is derived from the IF via a single stage transistor overdriving an LM311 comparator.

Yep, I could probably find all of that on a single chip somewhere but the challenge is to make it all work!

oops, did not quote which board...

Hey cool board! does it work?

Greg

[rob.manderson]

oops, did not quote which board...

Hey cool board! does it work?

Greg

Yep - works a treat.  Of course, that's with 30 microvolts of RF input, so it's picking up local AM broadcast radio just fine but since that's not what I'm interested in hearing I still have to work on an RF frontend.  Simple stuff to many here on EEVBlog but it's a series of mysteries to me to be worked out 

[8bitgasm]

New user here - just wanted to chime in for other Canadians.  I've used allpcb about 8 times now, I finally was charged "customs" from DHL for the first time on this last order.  $26CAD declared value, which they charged GST for $1.30, but no actual customs levy ($0); so no big deal.  But then there was a $16 processing fee added to collect the $1.30, for a amount due of $17.30.  Obviously bit of a piss of on a $26 order.

I read into it more, there is a border security website on the Government of Canada page that states orders of declared value over $20CAD are subject to GST.  So lesson is, keep orders under $20CAD.  With free shipping it's almost best to just break up the orders to avoid the extra charges.  Regardless, even with the extra charge, there is no better deal or turn around time out there right now.

[pulsar123]

Interesting - thanks for sharing. I didn't check how much allpcb puts as a declared value - is it the amount you pay for the boards? If that excludes the Paypal fee (0.85 for a 15$ order), then we are good for up to 15$ orders. If it includes the paypal fee, then we are at the mercy of the Custom's exchange rate (right now 15.85 US = 19.81 CAD).

[8bitgasm]

I did the math, and customs used the declared value by allpcb (the packing slip, in USD) which is the check-out cart price w/o PayPal fees, multiplied by the exchange rate on xe.com with a couple extra %points.  You're probably right though to just keep orders under $15 USD as a buffer, while shipping is free; unless of course you have a high volume order.  I could see allpcb being a little annoyed if you spread a 100 qty order across many orders of 10 qty!  I can't imagine they are making any money as others have pointed out.

[GreggD]

Free shipping is gone

[ataradov]

Still there for me, but now 5cm x 5cm x 5pcs is $14.00 and 10cm x 10cm x 10pcs is $29. Which is basically the same prices as everywhere else, except no ability to save on shipping ordering multiple boards.

[mrpackethead]

Def got free shipping still. The chinse governmetn are still paying subsidys.  DHL must be loving it.

[Yansi]

I placed my order on Order Time:2017/12/19 7:39:32
It was ready and packaged by 2017-12-20T06:42:43.023
It was marked as shipped on Ship Time:2017/12/22 17:35:14
As others stated above, i avoided DHL for customs reasons and opted for registered airmail.
I do not need delivery in 5 days or 10 days, ordering from China over the years teaches you to expect delivery in over a month really LOL.
That been said though, i expect the people i buy from to respect my business and make sure they at least do their part of the work in a timely manner... what is the point to bust your @ss to manufacture a product on order in 24hrs then ship out 2 days later is my first thought.. Then i check the tracking number to only find out the package was in fact delivered to the postal service on 28/12/2017, 14:14:00!!!!! and it was not shipped out before today 2/1/2018, 15:39:00

Why make something in 24hrs to have it shipped out 13 days later?
I ordered the exact same pcb from jlcpcb too.... there i have other issues to post but i keep it till the moment i have them both in my hands so i can possibly make a video on youtube about the whole experience etc

I decided to give them a try too. So far it looks like this: