Message from UPS to our European Super Deluxe Customers

woutermahu

I just can't believe this...
Being a paying(!) member of the fanclub, using the pre-sale announced by 10C (while later appeared that pre-sale wasn't necassary at all since it's not a limited edition), you'd expect at least ONE advantage...

but no:

- the boxset is laying in the shops for a while, and the package from 10C hasn't even arrived yet (just like with the "Imagine in Corniche" DVD)
- the price of the boxset in the retailstores is lower (!!??!!) then I've paid as a fanclubmember
- and now I had to pay over 42 euros for customs?????????

This sucks, this really sucks. I feel really robbed; why would I ever use this kind of presale ever again??

Tenclub, please make up for this, it's outrageous. I know it's probably not entirely your fault (although why UPS??) but please regain our faith as members...

CloudDog23

UPS Man just delivered.

£19:13 for "Import VAT Duties"
£11:00 for "Brokerage Surcharges"

What was the $40 P&P for?

dimitrispearljam

i dont know if i have to put tears or start laugh with what my ears can hear,,
,ups just give me a call asking if accept or refuse the shipment,,
and the money extra i have to pay is:
70 euros (means 95$) for vat,custom.dont exactly understand
+65 euros (means 88$) for ups employee for do the work of custom clearance..
total 135 euros (183 $)
and i order 2 boxes so its 270 euros (means 366$)
i think all u can undersyand that ups in greece is the best of all ups in europe!!!!!!!

jmk

dimitrispearljam wrote:

i dont know if i have to put tears or start laugh with what my ears can hear,,
,ups just give me a call asking if accept or refuse the shipment,,
and the money extra i have to pay is:
70 euros (means 95$) for vat,custom.dont exactly understand
+65 euros (means 88$) for ups employee for do the work of custom clearance..
total 135 euros (183 $)
and i order 2 boxes so its 270 euros (means 366$)
i think all u can undersyand that ups in greece is the best of all ups in europe!!!!!!!

So did you accept or refuse?

Pegasus

bnewman19 wrote:

With the postage and duty/VAT it cost a UK member 65pounds more for the tenclub version (165pounds, i.e. 133pounds Tenclub cost including postage + 32 UK Duty.) than the HMV, amazon etc(99.99pounds). Almost double the price, not very fair, i'd say. I have also seen retailers offering prizes for pre ordering it. Why didn't it state clearly that it would be available everywhere?

It did state it'd be available in shops. Nowhere did it say it was a 10c exclusive.
What's more, you obviously know how to come to the forums, if you looked at the time of the announcement, many people still asked if it was exclusive and the answer was clearly no.

What's unfair about a a local retailer being cheaper than importing from another continent?
who said that 10c had to be cheaper? (they're not even cheaper in the US, or for tickets in Europe for example, which I found far more questionable since THEY are the supplier)
NOBODY forced you to buy from 10c, it was £30 cheaper locally even before customs. I pointed out the Customs risks many times and everyone kept saying they wanted to try for the signature (which if you'd thought about it for 10 seconds it was obvious they wouldn't be signing 100s!)

UK people, you'd have saved £3 had they shipped it through the usual Swedish Post! (Post office charge £8 fee on top of the VAT, and a package that size would have been very likely spotted for customs even by the idiots at Royal Mail ..and once again, the books are 0% VAT in the UK, so wouldn't get taxed, I even called C&E at the time to double check there wasn't a different rule for Art books).
And the shipping wouldn't have been cheaper ($50 might seem a lot, but go and check your local post office rates!), would have taken much longer and would have been uninsured with all the risks of fraud and damage (which is why the Ames books were not sent regular mail by Ames)

You lot impulse bought something and ended up paying far more than you could have.
Take responsibility for it, don't blame the retailer!

If I had made the mistake (and I have in the past with imports), I'd be kicking MYSELF for it, and learn the lesson: compare before you buy.

Dimitris though, take a very deep breath and call UPS and ask in details what your charge mean, because it looks like a) they charge you twice for the same thing, b) it still doesn't tally: http://www.ups.com/content/gr/el/shippi ... toms#Taxes

dimitrispearljam

jmk wrote:

dimitrispearljam wrote:

i dont know if i have to put tears or start laugh with what my ears can hear,,
,ups just give me a call asking if accept or refuse the shipment,,
and the money extra i have to pay is:
70 euros (means 95$) for vat,custom.dont exactly understand
+65 euros (means 88$) for ups employee for do the work of custom clearance..
total 135 euros (183 $)
and i order 2 boxes so its 270 euros (means 366$)
i think all u can undersyand that ups in greece is the best of all ups in europe!!!!!!!

So did you accept or refuse?

what to accept?im greek but not onasis,,i just send mail to 10club and ask them what happen after ups ask this money,,,10c will find a way to solve it without extra cost or refund my money back to my credit card and cancel the order,

dimitrispearljam

Pegasus wrote:

bnewman19 wrote:

With the postage and duty/VAT it cost a UK member 65pounds more for the tenclub version (165pounds, i.e. 133pounds Tenclub cost including postage + 32 UK Duty.) than the HMV, amazon etc(99.99pounds). Almost double the price, not very fair, i'd say. I have also seen retailers offering prizes for pre ordering it. Why didn't it state clearly that it would be available everywhere?

It did state it'd be available in shops. Nowhere did it say it was a 10c exclusive.
What's more, you obviously know how to come to the forums, if you looked at the time of the announcement, many people still asked if it was exclusive and the answer was clearly no.

What's unfair about a a local retailer being cheaper than importing from another continent?
who said that 10c had to be cheaper? (they're not even cheaper in the US, or for tickets in Europe for example, which I found far more questionable since THEY are the supplier)
NOBODY forced you to buy from 10c, it was £30 cheaper locally even before customs. I pointed out the Customs risks many times and everyone kept saying they wanted to try for the signature (which if you'd thought about it for 10 seconds it was obvious they wouldn't be signing 100s!)

UK people, you'd have saved £3 had they shipped it through the usual Swedish Post! (Post office charge £8 fee on top of the VAT, and a package that size would have been very likely spotted for customs even by the idiots at Royal Mail ..and once again, the books are 0% VAT in the UK, so wouldn't get taxed, I even called C&E at the time to double check there wasn't a different rule for Art books).
And the shipping wouldn't have been cheaper ($50 might seem a lot, but go and check your local post office rates!), would have taken much longer and would have been uninsured with all the risks of fraud and damage (which is why the Ames books were not sent regular mail by Ames)

You lot impulse bought something and ended up paying far more than you could have.
Take responsibility for it, don't blame the retailer!

If I had made the mistake (and I have in the past with imports), I'd be kicking MYSELF for it, and learn the lesson: compare before you buy.

Dimitris though, take a very deep breath and call UPS and ask in details what your charge mean, because it looks like a) they charge you twice for the same thing, b) it still doesn't tally: http://www.ups.com/content/gr/el/shippi ... toms#Taxes

ill do it tomorrow,,the offices are close ,,i just take a phone and the answer machine was there,,thanks anyway,,,according with what the link say must pay 30 euros only

Sludge Factory

Ricsard wrote:

Well, personally I also thought this is a 10 Club exclusive package but this is not the point...For the fans in the States shipping is free which is cool imho so I guess the cost of this is built in the total price...

I keep seeing this and it is wrong. Shipping was not free in the States.

Pegasus

Sludge Factory wrote:

Ricsard wrote:

Well, personally I also thought this is a 10 Club exclusive package but this is not the point...For the fans in the States shipping is free which is cool imho so I guess the cost of this is built in the total price...

I keep seeing this and it is wrong. Shipping was not free in the States.

I was for orders placed before March 1st.

pdalowsky

shipping was definitely free in the states.

PearlyOceans

I accepted the package today. I really didn't want to wait any longer.
So I was looking at the slip that came with it. It says I had to pay € 9,50 VAT and € 10 provision.
I get the VAT, but what's the deal with the provision?
This sucks big time. If I had waited just a little longer I could have saved € 40 by buying the set on Play.com.
Oh well, I've learned my lesson.



Did you know I still need all the Christmas singles except for 2008? It would be nice to receive those singles as an apology

talkshowhost

dimitrispearljam wrote:

i dont know if i have to put tears or start laugh with what my ears can hear,,
,ups just give me a call asking if accept or refuse the shipment,,
and the money extra i have to pay is:
70 euros (means 95$) for vat,custom.dont exactly understand
+65 euros (means 88$) for ups employee for do the work of custom clearance..
total 135 euros (183 $)
and i order 2 boxes so its 270 euros (means 366$)
i think all u can undersyand that ups in greece is the best of all ups in europe!!!!!!!

70€ VAT seems too much, usually the VAT in EU-countries is about 20% (in Germany and the Netherlands it's 19%, in France it's 19,6%, in Belgium 21%, in Sweden and Denmark 25% - those are the countries I know for sure) and in most countires there's a reduced VAT for selected goods such as food and books (it's 7% here in Germany, 5,5 (for books) in France and obviously zero (for books) in the UK. It's based on the total amount of your order, so in this case it should about 30€ plus the UPS-charge of 11€ (which sucks, the German Postal Service doesn't charge anything except the actual VAT, so obviously this is handled differently in every country (-> Royal Mail)).

Based on the purchase of one box-set you wouldn't have to pay any duties except the VAT. The limit for duties is an item value of 150€, you won't be charged for anything you import of lesser value (with the exception of alcohol, tabacco anbd perfumes). The 150€ limit is an EU-standard, so it's definitely valid in Greece as well as here in Germany. So there could lie you problem as you've ordered two boxes. If they come in one shipment the item value is 280$ (it doesn't matter how many items are contained, it's the item value per shipment) and thus more than 150€. In this case the customs can collect duties (and, again, those are not based only on the item value but on the total value of the shipment including p&p, in this case on 380$) and duties are really expensive (I don't know any amounts but I'm sure the greek customs have a website). If you received only one tracking number from UPS that's most likely the case and I think there won't be anything the 10c could to for you (except accepting the return of the items and refunding you at least the money for the items).

As for the people complaining "why 50$ for the shipping and now this" - you should (as it has been said before, I think) check UPS or any postal service on the rates for shipping something that big from the US to Europe, 50$ is not a bad deal...

Edited for clarification...

pdalowsky

No Sorry, $50 is not reasonable whichever way you look at it....I buy a lot of stuff from the states and have never paid that much....plus they must have sent 1000's of these out, do you really think they didnt get a discount on the service?

the parcel didnt even bear the shipping cost on it....I wonder why

Sludge Factory

Pegasus wrote:

Sludge Factory wrote:

Ricsard wrote:

Well, personally I also thought this is a 10 Club exclusive package but this is not the point...For the fans in the States shipping is free which is cool imho so I guess the cost of this is built in the total price...

I keep seeing this and it is wrong. Shipping was not free in the States.

I was for orders placed before March 1st.

D'oh!!

solace23

has anyone in the UK, particularly London received theirs yet?? Or got any of the emails saying it's on it's way??? Thanks!

talkshowhost

pdalowsky wrote:

No Sorry, $50 is not reasonable whichever way you look at it....I buy a lot of stuff from the states and have never paid that much....plus they must have sent 1000's of these out, do you really think they didnt get a discount on the service?

the parcel didnt even bear the shipping cost on it....I wonder why

Oh, I order a lot of stuff form the US as well, but usually it's CDs or DVDs, this is an 8lb-package. And I think they've got a discount, pretty sure (I think most buisnesses do), but you can go to their site and check the rates. I did that and for a parcel weighing 8lb and a three day service (which pretty much matches the time it took my box to get here) the result of their calculator was 271$ (no joke). DHL would charge 34€ for a regular parcel (would take a few weeks to arrive, not necessarily insured) or 95,90€ for an express parcel (including insurance up to 500€). And the package and (more important) the handling isn't even included. So, yes, I think 50$ is not a bargain, but it's not unreasonable either.

I'm not sure, but wasn't the shipping for the book that much cheaper? I think I remember 40$ for something smaller than the box, but maybe I'm mixing up something here.

And if you order that much from the US you probably know that the VAT is never included and everything is subject to customs inspection.

I think paying that much more than in stores here sucks, too, but there's only one person to blame - me. I took the risk of paying more for the slight chance of getting an autographed item. Didn't happen, lost the lottery, will (probably) buy the next one on amazon.

pdalowsky

talkshowhost wrote:

pdalowsky wrote:

No Sorry, $50 is not reasonable whichever way you look at it....I buy a lot of stuff from the states and have never paid that much....plus they must have sent 1000's of these out, do you really think they didnt get a discount on the service?

the parcel didnt even bear the shipping cost on it....I wonder why

Oh, I order a lot of stuff form the US as well, but usually it's CDs or DVDs, this is an 8lb-package. And I think they've got a discount, pretty sure (I think most buisnesses do), but you can go to their site and check the rates. I did that and for a parcel weighing 8lb and a three day service (which pretty much matches the time it took my box to get here) the result of their calculator was 271$ (no joke). DHL would charge 34€ for a regular parcel (would take a few weeks to arrive, not necessarily insured) or 95,90€ for an express parcel (including insurance up to 500€). And the package and (more important) the handling isn't even included. So, yes, I think 50$ is not a bargain, but it's not unreasonable either.

I'm not sure, but wasn't the shipping for the book that much cheaper? I think I remember 40$ for something smaller than the box, but maybe I'm mixing up something here.

And if you order that much from the US you probably know that the VAT is never included and everything is subject to customs inspection.

I think paying that much more than in stores here sucks, too, but there's only one person to blame - me. I took the risk of paying more for the slight chance of getting an autographed item. Didn't happen, lost the lottery, will (probably) buy the next one on amazon.

Yes, you are right on one thing, play.com, or hmv.co.uk next time, unless they say 'random orders will be signed' and then I'll probably crack and be really weak and order it again, ah well....we all have our vices

talkshowhost

pdalowsky wrote:

Yes, you are right on one thing, play.com, or hmv.co.uk next time, unless they say 'random orders will be signed' and then I'll probably crack and be really weak and order it again, ah well....we all have our vices

I honestly think we won't see the 'random orders will be signed' again after all the reactions caused by that. But if they do it again, I won't fall for it again (well, at least that's what I hope :? ).

Pegasus

talkshowhost wrote:

Based on the purchase of one box-set you wouldn't have to pay any duties except the VAT. The limit for duties is an item value of 150€, you won't be charged for anything you import of lesser value (with the exception of alcohol, tabacco anbd perfumes). The 150€ limit is an EU-standard, so it's definitely valid in Greece as well as here in Germany. So there could lie you problem as you've ordered two boxes. If they come in one shipment the item value is 280$ (it doesn't matter how many items are contained, it's the item value per shipment) and thus more than 150€. In this case the customs can collect duties (and, again, those are not based only on the item value but on the total value of the shipment including p&p, in this case on 380$) and duties are really expensive (I don't know any amounts but I'm sure the greek customs have a website). If you received only one tracking number from UPS that's most likely the case and I think there won't be anything the 10c could to for you (except accepting the return of the items and refunding you at least the money for the items).

actually Duty is not bad for regular stuff (I believe it's for most things 2.5% in the UK), it's excise duty (Alcohol and tabacco) that is really expensive and those do not fall into the €150 waiver anyway.
So the fact he got 2 at once should actually not make it more expensive because he'd trade the 2.5% duty against only 1 UPS handling fee.
The numbers he's getting are very strange and he's one of the few that I believe has grounds for appeal (the Portugueses too)

Stophy

It did come as a shock and I certainly won't be ordering anything again.