EU customers orders from North Star

[nicknorthstar]

Nick from North Star here.

It looks like, 18 days into leaving the EU, our orders to EU customers are arriving safe and sound. It seems to be around 6 days after we send them to delivery, with no charges (VAT or otherwise) to be paid.

I might be speaking too soon  , but it's looking okay.

If you're a customer of North Star, and you've received an order this year, let me know.

[Fanis]

It seems to be around 6 days after we send them to delivery, with no charges (VAT or otherwise) to be paid.

As a long-time customer of North Star and currently worried that post-Brexit ordering from the UK will be more problematic might I trouble you to expound upon that statement please Nick?

To your credit you were very early in removing VAT from orders going out to the EU (I recall you had in fact announced it even before the end of the year on FB if I am not too much mistaken) and I notice that this is the case when going to the site and placing some items on the cart/clicking checkout etc.

So that takes care of VAT on the UK side of things i.e EU customers are not called upon to pay VAT on the UK end. However for orders over 22 surely there is VAT waiting to be charged on the other end i.e. upon arrival to whatever EU country it goes out to? Plus a handling charge of course (plus having to go down to the posties to pay the VAT+handling charge before being allowed to collect the package as opposed to having it delivered to ones house).

Unless you mean no charges (VAT or otherwise) on the UK end which then yes I understand and is of course 100% right. Or perhaps you mean that in practice authorities in all these EU countries are not yet applying the aforementioned VAT etc. charges to packages from the UK i.e. stuff sent thus far has been getting through without them being incurred?

Thank you for clarifying. Would love to hear I have understood all this wrong and that ordering from North Star is still as hassle free as it always was.

All the best,
Fanis

[nicknorthstar]

Hi Fanis

Sorry if my original post was unclear.

So far, the orders that have been delivered to EU customers, all over €22, have not incurred any charges; VAT, Handling etc. They have just been delivered by the local post service to the customer.

I can't say that will continue, perhaps because it's early days the local post services are not geared up to collect all the monies due, but for now things have arrived without charges.

Long may it continue! (At least until July anyway, when the rules change again)

[Fanis]

I'll second the Long may it continue sentiment! And thank you for clarifying Nick; much appreciated! :-)

[Andrew66]

I think maybe the truth is since the deal that was made was last minute everybody is playing catch-up , I doubt any government in the eu is going to miss taking in revenue , if a number of parcels which are over the 22€ limit have slipped through then happy days for the recipient, but I personally don’t think this will be a long term thing , in Ireland the media is full of stories of individuals being hit with customs charges already after buying items on uk websites, I think it will prove to be an expensive hobby for EU Hobbyists in the future

[Coenus Scaldingus]

I think maybe the truth is since the deal that was made was last minute everybody is playing catch-up , I doubt any government in the eu is going to miss taking in revenue , if a number of parcels which are over the 22€ limit have slipped through then happy days for the recipient, but I personally don’t think this will be a long term thing , in Ireland the media is full of stories of individuals being hit with customs charges already after buying items on uk websites, I think it will prove to be an expensive hobby for EU Hobbyists in the future

Yeah, I'm expecting it's partially that, and partially that some countries don't check much anyway.
At least in the Netherlands, it used to be that smaller non-EU packages were picked out randomly. It was always a good idea to assume you'd get hit, but the few times I ordered something from North America from a webstore or ebay (above the threshold value), I never had to pay extra.
Now living in Finland, where controls appear to be much tighter - package arrives in the country, you get a notification in the post, pay the costs online and then the package is delivered. Based on my experiences thus far at least. If anyone in the UK wants to send me something valuable to test it out, go ahead. 

[nicknorthstar]

but I personally don’t think this will be a long term thing

It won't be, because in July we're going to have to start charging VAT again on European orders. With tax then paid here in the UK, there should be no hold ups at the border.

But so far we haven't had any customer come back to us reporting a charge. All our orders are over €22. & it's not just some, we've sent a couple of hundred orders to the EU this year.

I agree, that isn't what is 'supposed to be happening', I'm just reporting what is happening. It might not last, equally it might last.

[Mammoth miniatures]

One wonders whether staff on both sides are just not bothering since it's too much hassle for the time being.
certainly it will eventually change, but I wouldn't be surprised if a general attitude of "I don't get paid enough to bother with this" is keeping things moving. 

[Daeothar]

Nick,

I received my order earlier this week without a hickup or extra charge.

If anything, it looked as if the transit time was actually shorter than before too, but that could be a lucky coincidence of course...

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Maybe I should think about putting an order before is too late.

[nicknorthstar]

Hi Daeothar

It's not luck, it's the same story from all of our customers. Orders taking 6 days to arrive (from despatch, not placing unfortunately) and no charges on receipt.

I know the doom & gloomers are saying 'oh, it'll never last', but I'm inclined to disagree. I think it will, & in July the new system will kick in where it'll be my responsibility to collect those Euro taxes from you all and pay them to each country.

[Andrew66]

Hi Nick I put a small order in , hopefully all we be ok , I will let you know

[nicknorthstar]

Oh No, this is where the whole postal system will conspire to prove me wrong!! 

Seriously, yes, please let me know what happens when it arrives.

Did you get a confirmation that the order was placed?

Nick

[Andrew66]

Just from PayPal

[nicknorthstar]

You should have got one from us. when you've a mo have a look see if it got moved to your Spam folder.