EU Wharehouse closing?

[Alice Adrenochrome]

Thank you for the information fat hobitss!!
So far, two success stories, and they are both from Spain. Sincere congratulations! You guys are safe when it comes to PF & statues. Good to see that some collectors are spared the armageddon.

Of course it is difficult to say, but based on the chart provided by SSC on their site, I think that most Europeans would have payed at least $50 more. But if we are all part of the European Community, all these trade agreements should be the same for all Europeans. I don't understand why it is not so?

Not to mess with you fathobitts (we're all in this together) but $310 roughly 200 €? Roughly, indeed! It's closer to 216€. You certainly agree that 16€ ($23) can buy some nice things in todays economical situation. But that aside.

...Keep in mind that if the total cost of the order is less than 150 euros we do not pay any import VAT or FED EX administrative charges.
...

Is that a 'we' as in 'us Spanish', or 'us Europeans'? Have you got a (documented) source for this? I'm trying to figure out if this also counts for the entire EU zone, but the only information I found on this was:

No tax on goods imported from outside the EU with a commercial value up to 22€.
No tax on goods imported from outside the EU with a non commercial value up to 45 € (GIFTS).


And this
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do...,mt,nl,pl,pt,ro,sk,sl,sv,&val=467491:cs&page=

Some extracts:
"(3) The value limit of ECU 22 set out in Article 27 of Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 has not been increased since 1991, whereas at the same time customs duties have been significantly reduced or even abolished. Accordingly, it is appropriate to increase the value limit for consignments of negligible value."

and

"3. in Article 27 the value of ECU 22 shall be replaced by EUR 150;"

But there's no indication if these regulations are for shipments/commercial transactions. And since I've always have been taxed on goods with a lesser value than 150€, I don't think they are.

Indeed! Sideshow clearly specifies in the customs declaration attached to the parcel "statues" and that implies only 8% VAT

Again thanks Sideshow for caring!

Good that the tax rate for statue's in Spain is only 8%. Can't speak for other countries, but here in Belgium it is 21%, just like all the other collectibles. There's no difference.

The only deviation I've noticed so far is for the DUTY. On one of my invoices/import papers I noticed the following.
Duty on Statues here in Belgium (according to the harmonized codes - Taric) is 6.5% (highest rate btw!). Sideshow has clearly and correctly stated this on the invoice (Statuettes, plastic, …). Yet on the import documents, FedEx changed that harmonized code to "imitation jewelry with parts of glass". Duty rate for those items is 4%!
So, it looks as if FedEx made a mistake in my favor. But, since I payed more than the announced 2% as FedEx advancement fee, they 'rectified' it somehow.

 

[fat hobbitss]

Alice,


That 150 euros figure is a bit confusing. It seems that it applies for all european countries in the Schengen treaty. BUT it seems that you are not taxes if your total over the year is not more that 150. Menaing that, the first 150 are free of taxes.

Now... how do you apply this rule? Who's going to take account of very parcel that goes to you? if you get 5 parcels valued 30 euros they will tax you after that? It should be like that I guess, but here it seems that the Tax people don't keep a file of every parcel that goes to a individual coming from outside the EU. So if the parcel value is less than 150 euros it goes through Custom and is not taxed at all (at least this is the situation at the time being).

FE: I bougth 3 times from the same shop last december. Shipping was carried by UPS so they won't mess with customs in my favour. 1 parcel was valued 230 euros, I payed duties, taxes and UPS service fare, another was valued 80 euros I paid nothing, the last one was valued 130 euros, I paid nothing again. UPS has customs agents working for them and I'm sure they are pretty serious in doing their job, they won't risk UPS reputation by tricking any Custom declaration.

It is Odd yes, every country in the EU has different taxation regulations and different VAT. I guess that has to be with the economical politics of every country or government. In Portugal you have 15% VAT and in Denmark 25%, and both are under the Schengen area. Some countries tax "art pieces" others not.

The funny thing is, you can have packages sent to a Spanish address, pay our countries fares, and then move the statue inside the EU without having to pay any import duties.


PS: No offense taken Youre right about the exchange rate. THe same day I was charged VISA held 220 euros from my account, but 4 days after I got the actual charge in my account... just 203 euros just don't tell them!

 

[Bullseye]

Import duties and Vat should be the same for all EU countries.

 

[Alice Adrenochrome]

I've been struggling with that 150 euro rule for some time now. I received quite some parcels from HK, and, even though the value was declared lower than 150€, I still had to pay a handling fee of 10€ every time to the Belgian post. Problem is, a handling fee is only due when the item has to be presented to customs. All items below €150 shouldn't be presented, so there's no handling fee... You see the problem, there's indeed room for interpretation as you illustrate. It's all very confusing.

....
The funny thing is, you can have packages sent to a Spanish address, pay our countries fares, and then move the statue inside the EU without having to pay any import duties.
...

I thought about this also: time to find a buddy in Spain! But the shipping fee from Spain to the final destination country would get in the way.

 

[DinoLast]

Ive accepted its gonna cost alot more and sideshow dont owe us anything probably should have realised that from the start but the way sideshow went about things didnt really help. I know sideshow are a stand up company and do more for there customers then any buisness ive known and probably dont deserve the flack they've gotten, again things could have been handled better if they hadnt gone with the "better for us" tone. Apologies to dusty and chicky for the flack that has been directed there way undeservedly by taking the brunt of the angry european mob .

I'm not blaming any one individual, I'm blaming the company as a whole.
Sideshow should have just put out this comment.

Due to rising costs we are unable to keep the EU warehouse open, and we will now ship from the USA.
We will try to endeavor by keeping costs down, but shipping and extra costs may be higher.

No need for all this we are doing you a favour nonsense.

 

[-jay-]

Import duties and Vat should be the same for all EU countries.

Agreed

I'm not blaming any one individual, I'm blaming the company as a whole.
Sideshow should have just put out this comment.

Due to rising costs we are unable to keep the EU warehouse open, and we will now ship from the USA.
We will try to endeavor by keeping costs down, but shipping and extra costs may be higher.

No need for all this we are doing you a favour nonsense.

Agreed

 

[Trilogy]

Import duties and Vat should be the same for all EU countries.

Due to each countries economy being very different, such a thing will never happen.

 

[ecekat]

Import duties and Vat should be the same for all EU countries.

why????is it a european law or something???

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

I have UPS and the guy that delivers my stuff,knows when I'm home and always comes before I leave,so I won't miss it.Just gave him a late $20.00 for Xmas.:naughty

That's a good idea. I'll have to do the same for my guy.

BTW, that is indeed good news for the Spain collectors.

 

[gam]

I've been struggling with that 150 euro rule for some time now. I received quite some parcels from HK, and, even though the value was declared lower than 150€, I still had to pay a handling fee of 10€ every time to the Belgian post. Problem is, a handling fee is only due when the item has to be presented to customs. All items below €150 shouldn't be presented, so there's no handling fee... You see the problem, there's indeed room for interpretation as you illustrate. It's all very confusing.

if its any help I'm pretty sure the 150 euro was for the duty limit, vat/sales tax limit didn't change

It was explained to me similar to this at the time and seemed to make since when I queried a bill but this quote from an Austrian website explains it a bit better than I could.....

More generous regulations have been introduced for small shipments like Internet shopping from non-EU countries. The duty and import tax exemption limit for goods sent from non-EU countries (with the exception of alcohol, tobacco and perfume) used to be 22 euros. On 1 December 2008 the duty-free limit was raised to 150 euros, although the sales tax limit remains at 22 euros. For recipients in Austria this means that shipments worth between 22 and 150 euros are now cheaper but are not completely exempt from import duty. For private gifts the duty-free limit remains at 45 euros

 

[Bullseye]

Due to each countries economy being very different, such a thing will never happen.

I'm referring purely to imports from outside the EU. We are suppose to be a single Market.

 

[Chicky]

My apologies to everyone as it seems the $7.79 UK direct shipment quote in the Blackbeard example on our site was indeed an error. It should have been in the $25 - $28 range.

As a courtesy to those UK customers posting here about their SAM figure ship costs, we will extend to you the one time offer of the $7.79 ship rate rather the the actual ship rate you were given. Please PM me your order number. Please note that the ship rate you were given is accurate for the item's shipping dimensions. The new shipping rates will give the greatest shipping discounts to the larger, higher priced items, which should help lessen the impact of duty and customs fees. Thus why you may see pricing differences between the 12 inch figure and the Premium format cost examples on our site.

Thanks to Fat Hobitss for posting that his experience was not all doom and gloom. Please keep in mind that there are a vast majority of our EU collectors (+ international as well) that have given us positive feedback like that of Fat Hobitss and seem to be pleased with the direct shipment changes. We will keep an eye on this thread for more feedback on customs experiences and suggestions, that we may be able to implement for our collectors.

Also we appreciate the suggestion about adding a check box to the order process for international customers to accept and add promo items to their order. We will look into this.

Best,
Chicky

 

[akamonrg]

Thanks for check box.
With this we could have freebies before promo ending.

 

[Chicky]

Thanks for check box.
With this we could have freebies before promo ending.

We will see what we can do! Keep in mind we do process in stock orders generally in the order they download and during promotions we check for correspondences from International customers to make sure we include their items. So in many cases if the item wasn't included as per your request we may have run out of the items before they got to processing your order!

Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

 

[Trilogy]

My apologies to everyone as it seems the $7.79 UK direct shipment quote in the Blackbeard example on our site was indeed an error. It should have been in the $25 - $28 range.

As a courtesy to those UK customers posting here about their SAM figure ship costs, we will extend to you the one time offer of the $7.79 ship rate rather the the actual ship rate you were given. Please PM me your order number. Please note that the ship rate you were given is accurate for the item's shipping dimensions. The new shipping rates will give the greatest shipping discounts to the larger, higher priced items, which should help lessen the impact of duty and customs fees. Thus why you may see pricing differences between the 12 inch figure and the Premium format cost examples on our site.

Thanks to Fat Hobitss for posting that his experience was not all doom and gloom. Please keep in mind that there are a vast majority of our EU collectors (+ international as well) that have given us positive feedback like that of Fat Hobitss and seem to be pleased with the direct shipment changes. We will keep an eye on this thread for more feedback on customs experiences and suggestions, that we may be able to implement for our collectors.

Also we appreciate the suggestion about adding a check box to the order process for international customers to accept and add promo items to their order. We will look into this.

Best,
Chicky

Despite being harangued by some for my comments, I suspected this from the outset. Thank you for taking the time to investigate further and confirm the shipping rate example was in fact an error. Now collectors have a realistic sum for reference.

Offering the $7.79 on the Sam is a nice gesture which will be appreciated by those whom have placed an order for the figure.

 

[IronFingaz]

I asked SS last week for a shipping quote on the Admiral Ackbar 1:1 Bust because i've been thinking about getting it and this is what it would cost me in shipping, $92.28
It would have cost me $70-75 before. I don't know if it's a set price or if it would be lower (or higher) when i placed the order and it was getting ready to ship.

 

[ecekat]

guys,the fedex additional fee ,which i said was 100 euros,is only for countries with low treshhold.

 

[Bullseye]

What's low threshhold?

 

[ecekat]

What's low threshhold?

a price,in greece is 22 euros,that if the item is higher it needs the old way to clear the customs.in the old way you will need an agent,whos agency costs 100 euros..hope you understand ,cause i dont think that those sentences are correct

 

[robomorph]

From Sideshow's perspective I can understand them wanting to dispense with local carriers like Parcelforce to deliver their items in the UK. When Parcelforce's service works as it should (as it regularly does, in fairness) then it's a good enough option for delivery. However, the problems arise in cases of loss or damage because Parcelforce's lengthy claims procedure and list of compensation exclusions (which currently includes "statues, sculptures, collector's items, collectables, ceramics or composites wholly or partially made of china and/or porcelain" i.e. polystone) are notorious. As someone who has seen the claims process pursued from various different points of view, I wouldn't envy Sideshow's (or their UK warehouse's) task in trying to recoup monies lost through misplaced or damaged Parcelforce shipments - even as a preferential account customer. I think Fedex could only be an improvement in that respect.

That said, what does concern me is this: I believe products distributed into Europe previously had the benefit of being shipped in pallets, affording each package greater protection. Now, each one will be handled individually, subjecting each to a higher risk of transit damage at the international hub/sorting/customs clearance stage. My worry is that Sideshow will try and keep shipping costs down (they're calculated volumetrically) by skimping on the protective packaging required to get these items to us in undamaged condition e.g. oversize boxes, foam corner protectors, etc. If anything, extra protection is now warranted to withstand the rigours of International shipping, and it would be nice to have some reassurance from Sideshow that their efforts will be focused not only on getting their product to us at a decent shipping rate but also in using/developing packaging that gives adequate protection -- not only to the statues but also the inner display/presentation boxes.