Hello everyone,
The entry today is to comment on the current situation with the shipments to the USA, and I have to say, things are not looking good.
Our national courier has opened (not without errors and other issues of the sort) a way to ship to the USA, and after reading the requirements and the steps that are required I am feeling sad, frustrated, upset… While I am going to stay away from political discussions, the new demands regarding the shipments to the USA are causing a lot of trouble to a lot of people, not only national couriers had to change their systems and ways to handle the paperwork, but I am also being forced to change the shipping methods (to the USA) because it is no longer accepted to ship goods in the “certified letter” type of shipment I have been using for years, which naturally, will already increase the shipping costs (not by a lot but still…) and lead me to again, modify the shipping methods within my shop.
I have been reading the Internet for quite a while now, and as example, a 150 Euros of total value and 300g of weight has a shipping cost of 22,30 Euros, to that you need to add 3,80 for customs fees, and then of course, the 15% tax which is 22,50 Euros more, so the total for this shipping would be 48,60 Euros.
There are instances that I read where, the person in the USA had to pay 85 Euros for custom fees, if the customer rejects the shipment and does not pay, it’s the obligation of the seller to pay for that.
While I understand, or can try to understand why some decisions were taken, I don’t think this is the way to handle things, as this is putting sellers worldwide in a lot of difficulties and in the end both the customer and the seller will be affected negatively, with one not being able to buy, or having to pay extra costs, and the seller not being able to sell.
The USA is quite the big market for me, and this obviously shakes the grounds of my business as it does to many others.
I do not want to stop shipping there, but I need to understand how things are now handled as I have lost trust shipping there, without being sure if the orders will be delivered or returned, if there are going to be extra chargers for either me or the customer upon arrival, how are going to be now the delivery times knowing that those packages marked as “gift” are going to take longer due more careful checks which in turn, may make the whole customs management to be slower than usual.
Time is needed at the moment, to have a clearer view, to understand and also, to hope that the way this is handled will eventually change.
If someone from the USA has relatives in another country that he or she is going to visit, that’s a way to “bypass” these problems, other than that, at the moment I can’t still ship to the USA I’m afraid, and it’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because it’s too early after that big of a change and I need to learn how to handle this again.
Best wishes,
Guillem