Belgian customs sucks!

[pierre67]

Hello everyone,
I'm writing this post to share the frustration I feel right now that makes me rethink whether the satisfaction of building pedals is still worth it. A couple of weeks ago I was tempted by the new Aion projects and decided to order a couple of pcbs. I know well that shipping costs have increased a lot but even so my desire to build pedals after so much time of inactivity was stronger.
The package has been blocked at Belgian customs for a week and today they sent me the invoice to pay for taxes and administrative expenses: 27.12 euros!
It's not really about the money but finally I think that paying a total of 69 euros (42 for the order + 27 taxes) about 70 US dollars for 2 pcbs is excessive and frustrating!
I don't want to be misunderstood, my anger is only with Belgian customs...but I think this was the last time I ordered pcbs or parts from outside Europe. I wanted to order some of Madbean's new projects but...
And I still haven't received the pcbs. A shame...
Apologies for the long post and for complaining.

Pierre

[gordo]

That totally blows.  In this day and age you would think that mobility country to country would be a bit more nimble.

[pierre67]

Crazy and very frustrating!
Since July 2021, the rules for online purchases outside the European community are subject to paying tax regardless of the amount, in the case of Belgium the VAT is 21%. What makes me angry is that they apply that 21% to the total amount of the purchase, shipping costs included, and customs also bills 18.30 euros for administrative costs! It's a theft !

[pierre67]

...but with everything I've said, it seems to me that I haven't been able to resist the temptation of ordering some more pcbs from Aion...

[madbean]

It is incredibly frustrating on all sides. My European orders have dropped significantly over the last 2-3 years, as well.

[gordo]

Sad, it's like the customs office need to gouge just to pay for themselves.  I've been fascinated by the Godin guitar model.  Everything is built in Canada but they also ship the guitar parts in their finished states to be assembled, and set up on the American side.  So technically although it's a Canadian product it gets finished by Americans so the duty thing gets minimized in terms of the final sales price.  And because both sides of the border are Godin trained it's a consistent quality.  I absolutely adore my classical but that's getting us off track.

It's a shame we can't broker a similar deal with small business' on a global scale where small manufacturers can flip their product to localized distribution centers.  The distro's make a few points, the manufacturers pay a few points but shipping costs and customs get a bit more realistic.

[jwin615]

It is incredibly frustrating on all sides. My European orders have dropped significantly over the last 2-3 years, as well.

If you were to have a EU distro and dropshipped from the pcb house, would that help?

[djaaz]

Hello everyone,
I'm writing this post to share the frustration I feel right now that makes me rethink whether the satisfaction of building pedals is still worth it. A couple of weeks ago I was tempted by the new Aion projects and decided to order a couple of pcbs. I know well that shipping costs have increased a lot but even so my desire to build pedals after so much time of inactivity was stronger.
The package has been blocked at Belgian customs for a week and today they sent me the invoice to pay for taxes and administrative expenses: 27.12 euros!
It's not really about the money but finally I think that paying a total of 69 euros (42 for the order + 27 taxes) about 70 US dollars for 2 pcbs is excessive and frustrating!
I don't want to be misunderstood, my anger is only with Belgian customs...but I think this was the last time I ordered pcbs or parts from outside Europe. I wanted to order some of Madbean's new projects but...
And I still haven't received the pcbs. A shame...
Apologies for the long post and for complaining.

Pierre

Same here in France: The shipping companies have now the obligation to collect taxes for every package whatever the declared value.
Which lead to two issues:
1. While it is normal to pay taxes, it kills some deals. Often, small business deals and i don't think it was the point. There was a tolerance for value under 50 euros. It made sense.
Also, if you send a personal package, i don't get how to avoid these taxes. For instance, if i forgot my phone during a business trip and have the hotel sent it back, i might have to paye taxes to get it back.
2. My personal issue is with the flat fee these companies collect. Yesterday i paid 15 euros of taxes, which made sense and 8 euros for "processing fee" which is ridiculous.

All and all, bad news for hobbyist around the world.

Brian, did you ever consider a deal with Musikding? or a more personal setup. Might be an easy thing?

[Tremster]

Not much better here in Germany.

Brian, did you ever consider a deal with Musikding? or a more personal setup. Might be an easy thing?

The problem with Musikding is that they only do kits. The sell the stuff from Aion and PedalPCB and Lectric and so on, but only as kits. That's much more expensive than buying PCBs when you're stocked up on everything else.
And additionally, they don't even have all the parts for the PCBs of which they sell kits (the proper LDRs for PedalPCB's Harmonic Trem come to mind, or 1k trimmers for some of their fuzzes).

[jessenator]

Not much better here in Germany.

The problem with Musikding is that they only do kits. The sell the stuff from Aion and PedalPCB and Lectric and so on, but only as kits. That's much more expensive than buying PCBs when you're stocked up on everything else.
And additionally, they don't even have all the parts for the PCBs of which they sell kits (the proper LDRs for PedalPCB's Harmonic Trem come to mind, or 1k trimmers for some of their fuzzes).

That's frustrating...

It is incredibly frustrating on all sides. My European orders have dropped significantly over the last 2-3 years, as well.

If you were to have a EU distro and dropshipped from the pcb house, would that help?

Comment from the peanut gallery, but it sounds like an opportunity for an enterprising eurobean member—if all parties are in agreement and it works out to be beneficial.

[Tremster]

Fuzzdog from the UK stopped shipping to several European countries after Brexit because of the nitpickers (I had to google that word) from customs. Italy and Germany are still off the map.

It is incredibly frustrating on all sides. My European orders have dropped significantly over the last 2-3 years, as well.

If you were to have a EU distro and dropshipped from the pcb house, would that help?

Comment from the peanut gallery, but it sounds like an opportunity for an enterprising eurobean member—if all parties are in agreement and it works out to be beneficial.

Great idea. A collaboration with Fuzzdog (off the map for me here ...) or Moonn or ... would be fantastic.

[djaaz]

Not much better here in Germany.

Brian, did you ever consider a deal with Musikding? or a more personal setup. Might be an easy thing?

The problem with Musikding is that they only do kits. The sell the stuff from Aion and PedalPCB and Lectric and so on, but only as kits. That's much more expensive than buying PCBs when you're stocked up on everything else.
And additionally, they don't even have all the parts for the PCBs of which they sell kits (the proper LDRs for PedalPCB's Harmonic Trem come to mind, or 1k trimmers for some of their fuzzes).

They do sell pcbs alone. At least, i remember seeing Aion pcbs there. Don't know if they are the same as in the kits.
I imagine that Klaus does not do that for free so there must be some compensation for him, having him selling kit is not the worst thing.
Until very recently i did not mind ordering kit from him regardless of my stock. they are very reasonably priced and you don't have to buy the enclosure or the knobs.
Oh and Brian, should you consider a EU distribution setup, UK might not be the best option except for our brit friends.
Some shipping companies do offer warehousing & handling of stock as a service. I have no idea of the cost but the management of it is pretty sraightforward and online.

[madbean]

A European distributor is definitely in play at this point. My international customers are not coming back, for the most part. And, I don't blame them. I could ship several boards for under $5 in 2010. Now it's up to $20!

[pierre67]

A European distributor is definitely in play at this point. My international customers are not coming back, for the most part. And, I don't blame them. I could ship several boards for under $5 in 2010. Now it's up to $20!

I really think you should consider Musikding in Germany, they are highly recommended and reliable. Maybe another option is Retroamplis in Spain...

[TNblueshawk]

The tax thing is beyond words and just flat out wrong. A complete money grab light years beyond reasonable. Stating the obvious I live in a country that was born out of that excessiveness and I dare say it is just as bad or worse now than 200+ years ago for my European friends. It's hard to see a legitimate work around.