Are there other members in Germany, Switzerland and France?

[chstickl]

Hi there,

driving these beauties in Europe means every once in a while to get spare parts and material from the US. While ordering, shipping etc. works pretty well with most US suppliers, shipment cost often are higher than order value (definitely with UPS, sometimes even with USPS). Both combined have to be taxed (19% VAT) and pay import duty. So I frequently end up paying more than twice the original order value.

This was already leading to funny situations at the airport when I checked in a ww tire or a complete exhaust system on one of my flights back from the US to save all that overhead money.

Is there anybody who knows a better way to solve this?

Would there be interest to eventually bundle shipments and reduce cost?

 

Cheerio,

 

Christian

 

[pepcak]

While I am not in Germany, Switzerland or France, I face the same issues.... Ask you american counterparts to provide invoices for low value, so you can reduce or completely avoid that @#$^%$#@! VAT thing; when the custom guys see pieces of junk metal, they usually do not investigate much (the private sellers are usually helpful, "official stores" not that much); photoshopping invoices also helped few times...;-) Other than that, carrying stuff as a "personal belonging" with your or somebody elses flight helps as you mentioned - why it should be funny? Friend of mine brought me a complete exhaust system and except fact it was held by security for two weeks and investigated for suspicion of being part of weapon system it worked well. I also know there are agencies in US consolidating small parcels into SEA freight containers if you are not in hurry and can allow 6-8 weeks for SEA freight shipping.

Edited September 6, 2015 by pepcak (see edit history)