on customs and other annoying stuff

[petercooman]

Hey all!

Been a long while since i posted here!

Been a couple of long years, with a job change (and an extra sidejob too),and my mother gettng sick followed by my wife's mother being hit with the big'c'.

Safe to say, hobby took a bit of a backseat, but i'm finding myself trickling back in with painting and playing.

I had a couple games with my ancients a bit ago (punic wars), and fresh from a vacation in Rhodes, have been looking at the greek range.

Now here is my problem, last big orders i did pick ups from crisis in antwerp, but i don't think that will be coming back, and last two very small orders from the UK burned me bad on customs (not orders from Leon and the gang, just other stuff)

Our customs department takes an almost 18 € fee just for handling any parcels (i have an outstanding bill for 24€ for a 7 € parcel

So it struck me as no surprise when i saw Leons post that orders from the EU significantly dropped in volume.

Now my question is, has anybody found a way to minimise the burden? Be it a shop on EU grounds that holds any pendraken stuff or somewhere where it can be delivered? I know it's a logshot, but just thought i'd ask! I miss my boxes full of metal from Leon and the gang!

Cheers
Peter

[Leon]

Currently the best two options seem to be:

- Get together with some friends and buy together in bulk, so that the fees are diluted a bit amongst everyone.

- Contact Worean Shop in Germany and they can order items in for you.  There would be a little delay (6-8 weeks I think) as they only place an order with us once they have enough customer orders.

[petercooman]

Currently the best two options seem to be:

- Get together with some friends and buy together in bulk, so that the fees are diluted a bit amongst everyone.

- Contact Worean Shop in Germany and they can order items in for you.  There would be a little delay (6-8 weeks I think) as they only place an order with us once they have enough customer orders.

Didn't know about worean, i'll check them out!! thanks!

[Leman]

Depends on which EU country you live in Peter. I live in the Netherlands and the customs fee varies with the value of the import; the less it costs the smaller the fee. As an example, I recently bought something valued at 64 pounds. The custom fee was 16 euros. I believe it is something to do with the EU countries all having national sovereignty.

[petercooman]

Depends on which EU country you live in Peter. I live in the Netherlands and the customs fee varies with the value of the import; the less it costs the smaller the fee. As an example, I recently bought something valued at 64 pounds. The custom fee was 16 euros. I believe it is something to do with the EU countries all having national sovereignty.

I'm in Belgium, and annoyingly we have a set handling cost of about 17-18 € before they even calculate tax, so even the smallest thing is stupidly expensive. Idid an order of 2 packs of perry miniatures , a pack of generals and an gatling gun, and was hit with about 24 € custom fee, and i ordered a little thing last month for my wife, cost about 7€ and again got hit with the exact amount customs fee of about 24 €. (annoyingly it was a 'duties paid' order at that so shouldn't even be held back)

Looks like they just slam 24 on it whatever it is, if that is the case i should do a big ass order and hope it's 24 again     

[Leman]

Bad luck on that. There seems to be a standard handling charge of 6E here, then the duty dependant on value. My last Pendraken order of bases and figures was 21E in total.

[steve_holmes_11]

There are probably three approaches here:

1. Legal - Organise big orders (either by bundling your own orders, or having several friends collaborate).

2. Dubious - Direct deliveries to a friend in the supplier's country. Friend re-packages the order and delivers as a "gift". The cost of parcels and packaging means this won't yield the savings you might imagine.

3. Attempt to find a "third party seller" within your customs area.