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I do wonder if Brexit and customs to be paid for all of the EU has anything to do with this decision. Book Depsitory is based in the UK. I have inadvertently o
by gregdoesit 3y ago
I do wonder if Brexit and customs to be paid for all of the EU has anything to do with this decision.
Book Depsitory is based in the UK. I have inadvertently ordered from them, to the Netherlands, as they had a “Bookdepository NL” store, which made it seem like they are an EU entity.
However, when the book arrived, I was hit by unexpected customs charges that were half the price of the book. Looking at recent reviews, there was a surge of these complaints from all customers in the Netherlands [1]
Perhaps the timing on these customs surges are accidental, of course. But I can’t imagine that Brexit helped with their EU sales.
[1] https://twitter.com/gergelyorosz/status/1638824647390003206 https://twitter.com/gergelyorosz/status/1638824647390003206
- Hamuko 3y agoI've never ever had to pay VAT at the customs for Book Depository orders in Finland. My most recent order came in March and I had a pre-order for June.
- thomond 3y agoAre books VAT free in Finland? They are in the UK and Ireland so I have never had customs either (in Ireland). Perhaps they are not VAT free in NL.
- Hamuko 3y agoBooks are in the lowered VAT category of 10%. There's very few things in Finland that are actually VAT free. Ebooks used to be in the general VAT category of 24% but I think they've fixed that now.
- Broken_Hippo 3y agoI haven't in Norway either, but books are exempt from VAT.
- thomond 3y agoAre books VAT free in NL? If not that's probably why.
- gregdoesit 3y agoBooks are not VAT free. On a €15 book I ended up getting charged €9 for customs: €1 for the reduced VAT for books €6.50 for the customs handling fee €1.50 for VAT on the customs handling fee So it’s the customs handling fee being added that’s contributed to the price increase. Seems like the Netherlands started to enforce it for even small value orders from the UK.
- protocolture 3y agoLeave a negative review for your government thats a ridiculous amount of charges for an import.
- clnq 3y agoHa! It would be interesting to see Trustpilot for governments. Im sure not many would have a very positive rating.
- poloniculmov 3y agoIt might be a UPS issue, i've bought books from BD and didn't have to deal with customs or pay anything extra.
- Symbiote 3y agoI think books should be exempt from import taxes into the EU -- at least, the ones I ordered from the UK a while ago had a yellow sticker saying that, and Denmark didn't charge me any fees. However, if even 1% or 0.1% of orders gets incorrectly taxed that could lead to negative reviews and put people off.