Hi all, seen a good deal on a pair of boots at c.£300 but it’s on a German site that has an English link (backpacking United).
has anyone ordered from here since Brexit and if so what were the customs fees??? DHL are the couriers so not sure if anyone has had stuff from them either?
Have you asked the shop if they are UK vat registered? (Or scoured the website) Shops that are it's like before Brexit, those that aren't you pay the vat to the courier along with some extra fees. If it's really expensive item and a great deal may still be worth it as duty is usually only a couple of percent and the courier fee is in the tens of euros, but for something that costs £300 that may be significant!
A while ago I ordered an expensive (€900) Samaya tent from Alpinstore in France. Before it arrived I was notified of a c£200 customs charge, so with regret I took the option of returning it and (eventually) got a refund.
In reply to Stuart the postie: Cheers Stuart, yeah it was phantom techs at £312…. Oh so wonder if they already add on the £53 as with exchange rate rounding that seems about right adding on from £262.
rather than pontificate here I could of course just ask them……..
(a bit of background - it's still cheaper for me to buy bike parts from Germany rather than a well-known supplier in the south of England that charges £15 for delivery to the Scottish Highlands)
> I bought bike parts from Germany recently. There are no additional fees to pay if the value of the order is less than £135.
No extra charges that you pay on delivery, there sure are at the sellers end! For smaller traders it's not worth the hassle to sell to the UK ( I apply a £135 minimum order value and am considering an admin surcharge for issuing the customs papers, my courier already charges extra for processing them).
I bought a half metric size pair of boots from Backpacking United recently - (I was confident they would fit). The price (which I paid) was quoted excluding 20% German VAT. I then paid 20% UK Vat + a handling fee to Fedex and the boots were delivered. The all in cost to me was the equivalent of the UK list price (~£200). The down side is that if you need to return the goods the shop will refund the price but you would need to recover the UK VAT separately which i believe is complicated / not easy (and pay return postage). Backpacking United service were very helpful and I would use them again.
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