Has anyone suffered the new european import fees?

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Hi, im on the verge of ordering a near 100$ packet from one of the US labels… and the new import taxes could be prohibitive if applied. 
 

has anyone made orders recently and have to pay the fees (specially if you are in spain?)

[Arpy 4,145]

I live in Australia, all international purchases are prohibitive. Shipping costs the same as the price of a CD and more meaning a single CD from Varese Sarabande could cost me well over $70 for a $17 title. For this reason, it's always difficult to justify buying one cd from LLL or Intrada or Varese. It's gross and unfair why I have to pay double or triple what my US or UK comrades do, and now that fate is worsened for Europeans and non-EU customers. When something is a limited edition, you take the risk of purchasing it with a chunk of your paycheck or holding out for a time when it's more convenient to buy at which time it's gone out of stock. 

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

I'm from France and I have to pay 10€ when receving my package of four CD so I'm guessing you'll have too

[MaxTheHouseelf 324]

Bought Images and A.I. from Music Box Records (France) recently (I'm from Germany), went super smoothly (shipped with DHL Express), didn't have to pay shipping costs (13€) twice and no bothering with customs. It even saved me a few bucks and I will definitely buy from them again and not order directly from US or UK labels because of the import fees.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Try and order through a local retailer. Unless the international villains take care of VAT and all the other bullshit for you. 

[crocodile 8,000]

The rules changed here in January and so far not a single charge. And I also didn't pay anything when I ordered stuff from the EU. 

 

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

5 hours ago, Luke Skywalker said:

has anyone made orders recently and have to pay the fees

 

Naturally. The whole point seems to be that too many sellers have been avoiding the correct fees by putting incorrect values on the declaration, so they removed the minimum amount, obviously with the intent to remove (almost) any chance of the customs operators simply waving packets through. Presumably they've often been doing that simply out of laziness (because they either didn't bother to check if the declared value is plausible, and often not even to check the value at all - I used to get many packages tax free that should have been taxed based on what the label said), so now they don't have that option anymore and simply have to tax everything. So small chance of anything slipping through.

 

Music Box will probably become my go to store for most Label releases.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

I hope this will mess up exports really properly.

[Incanus 5,714]

Two orders that I received after the beginning of July when the new EU regulations came into force ended up in the customs and I had to pay VAT and a new additional postal handling fee so that the package is delivered to me after I have declared it (2,90 € for each package). And everything coming outside EU has to be declared so all those packages are held up at the customs until you pay the VAT and the new postal fee so it can take a good while before you receive the parcel, especially if the system is overloaded with a huge amount of packages or if the package by mistake ends up going back and forth inside the post office's sorting system like a few of mine orders have done (basically they were in a sorting limbo for 2 weeks before I got a message I had to declare them).

 

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Music Box will probably become my go to store for most Label releases.

Same here. It is just becoming prohibitively expensive to order directly from the US labels anymore. While the postage is a bit high with the Music Box Records it is a very fast delivery service and I still save money by ordering from them in France rather than outside EU. No hassle with the VAT or customs, fast and easy.

 

 

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Thanks. So music box for me too then. i was reading about it and i could pay here vat customs and delivery like about 20-30€ more

[crumbs 14,306]

My last order was from MBR to Australia and I was impressed by the shipping. Reached Australia from France about 8 days after ordering, which is faster than any order I've had with Intrada or LLL. I think the last LLL order I placed took about 4 weeks to arrive (and MBR's shipping costs are about the same, if not less when you bundle together enough albums to make it worthwhile).

 

I'll probably continue ordering from them in the future. I can't justify buying one or two CDs from each label to ensure they get the biggest slice of the profits anymore, the shipping costs are just daylight robbery for international buyers now (and for the cost we're forking out, it's not exactly fast delivery).

 

So that's my two cents. Two thumbs up for MBR. 

[bollemanneke 3,342]

I wonder, would MBR send me replacement cases for stuff I've ordered directly from LLL if I gave them the order numbers?

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Uh, wait a second, MBR just claims they don't charge VAT in their newsletter! What does this mean for EU customers? If they don't charge VAT, that'll mean having to pay a clearance fee too, right?

[MaxTheHouseelf 324]

29 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Uh, wait a second, MBR just claims they don't charge VAT in their newsletter! What does this mean for EU customers? If they don't charge VAT, that'll mean having to pay a clearance fee too, right?

It says Information for our Foreign Customers out of European Economic Community so if you order from the US I guess you have to pay VAT and customs but it is irrelevant for people in the EU.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Oh, right.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

I exclusively buy from soundtrackcorner which is clearly more expensive than what American customers have to pay (around 10 to 15 dollars more per release), however, I don't have to pay shipping fees if I order my CDs in large bundles and there is no chance that you get burdened with additional fees or whatever. Additionally, pre-orders aside your order is there after three days. Just let these secondary dealers handle that shipping fee shit.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,514]

Since I don't live in Europe, anymore ( smug mode), and since I don't buy from outside the UK, then..."no" ( smug mode).