Brexit and the EU

[aac58]

No chastisement for leaving EU I'm afraid, it's how customs work for all non-EU countries, inbound goods have to be checked and taxes and other costs must be collected, and that means longer delivery times and more expensive products to the end consumer.

[Colditz]

On 10/10/2018 at 2:42 AM, JerseyMo said:

I happened to have been on business trip to our London office during what I think was the final voting on to Brexit or not.

What I found interesting were the parallels to US, yet the British media would go on and on and on about Trump said this and Trump said that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....  so it is okay for the UK but not the US to try and kept jobs and build the economy?

Interesting No?

Here is a clip from the BBC- and how it seems similar

• Freedom to make better and stronger trade deals with other nations.
• ""equalize trade deficit between the US and countries we export to"?
• Freedom to use UK resources in the UK to the advantage of the nation’s citizens.
• "bring jobs back to the US from overseas"?
• Freedom to control the country’s national borders.
• "Is the UK going to build a wall"?
• Freedom to restore UK’s special legal system.
• Not up on what this one is but I say go for it!
• Freedom to deregulate the European Unions' costly mass of laws.
• "US foots the bulk of cost for most of NATO"!
• To make major savings for British consumers.
• Lower taxes
• To improve the British economy and generate more jobs for the citizens.
• "Make the UK Great Again"
• In order to regenerate Britain’s fisheries.
• Bring jobs back!
• Freedom to restore British customs, culture and traditions.
• Yep - you guest it MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

I'm late on this topic but I do have an opinion. The EU was supposed to make life easy for the citizens of various countries within the EU, it has not. It has made life easy for big corporations to increase profits and move labour where it is the cheapest. 

[JerseyMo]

11 hours ago, Colditz said:

I'm late on this topic but I do have an opinion. The EU was supposed to make life easy for the citizens of various countries within the EU, it has not. It has made life easy for big corporations to increase profits and move labour where it is the cheapest. 

chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage  - of course when we get there - bend over for  the tax man!

[JerseyMo]

On 5/25/2021 at 4:05 PM, JerseyMo said:

chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage  - of course when we get there - bend over for  the tax man!

mean they will promise you everything your want and then make you pay for it.

[VWatchie]

I hope this post won't be deemed off-topic as it's somewhat difficult to stay exactly on-topic.

So, the problem with delayed delivers (and significantly increased costs) when ordering from CousinsUK to EU is of course related to Brexit and EU rather than Brexit and CousinsUK in particular.

Through eBay I bought two used jewels sets like the one in the picture above from the US May 17. Yesterday I paid all fees and taxes and the package is marked as out for delivery. I'd be surprised if I haven't got it in my hands within a few working days.

Four days earlier, May 13, I bought a similar set, again from eBay, from Great Britain, and the only information about this consignment is...

I'm not very conspiratorial, but I do get the impression that consignments from Great Britain ends up in a special room at Postnord (Swedish Royal Post) with a sign "Only when and if we have the time". This would indeed send a clear signal to the people of other member states that leaving the EU is a bad idea.

[VWatchie]

1 hour ago, clockboy said:

There do seem some delays happening but not sure if it is a result of Brexit. I ordered from Cousins a Rolex die for my Horotec case opener and it was out of stock.

Not in my case, unfortunately. Everything was in stock and promptly delivered to Sweden where it was stopped for almost six weeks. It really sucks!

[VWatchie]

On 5/15/2021 at 2:41 PM, VWatchie said:

I'm not sure I've actually ordered anything using "International Non Tracked EU, Royal Mail - £2.98" since Brexit. I stated that "everything shipped by Royal Mail gets stuck in Swedish customs", but truth be told I don't know for sure. So, as an experiment I just placed an order

June 7th today, 23 days of waiting, and not a word... Before Brexit, this used to work like a clock. CousinsUK handles it perfectly, but Swedish Postnord works so badly that I'd exchange it for the postal services people enjoy in any poor country in Africa any day.

To make sure, I've placed another Royal Mail - £2.98 order with Cousins. If the same thing repeats itself I guess that's it, and I'll try to source small orders from within the EU instead. Thank you EU!

[rogart63]

3 hours ago, VWatchie said:

June 7th today, 23 days of waiting, and not a word... Before Brexit, this used to work like a clock. CousinsUK handles it perfectly, but Swedish Postnord works so badly that I'd exchange it for the postal services people enjoy in any poor country in Africa any day.

To make sure, I've placed another Royal Mail - £2.98 order with Cousins. If the same thing repeats itself I guess that's it, and I'll try to source small orders from within the EU instead. Thank you EU!

It's a PITA . I blame Postnord for this. Takes way to long get parts home from outside EU this days. Postnord need to make it easier and faster if they would like to have this packages . 

[HSL]

2 hours ago, rogart63 said:

I blame Postnord for this.

I have to agree, Brexit has nothing to do with the current situation in Sweden. Lately there been packages bouncing around from not only UK but also from India and China. The cause which they report every time is wrong information has been applied on the CN22 customs declaration.
Since the suppliers I ordered from are just large companies sending packages around the world without problem all days long and around the year I actually believe PostNord only has a non-literate staff. 

[aac58]

On 6/7/2021 at 10:31 AM, VWatchie said:

Thank you EU!

Maybe it's not EU. I've placed a few small orders from Cousins since brexit using non-tracked mail, and or course the delivery takes a bit longer than before as it has to clear customs, but now it just takes about 10-15 days to arrive home. Before brexit it was around 5-7 days IIRC.

[VWatchie]

10 minutes ago, aac58 said:

Maybe it's not EU.

I'm afraid there's no one else to blame. Sure, main stream media blame the Brits but it's nothing but propaganda. Cousins is doing an amazing job, and I don't mind paying and waiting a bit extra, but the months of waiting and uncertainty in Sweden is just killing me. Before Brexit Postnord (Swedish Royal Mail) did a decent job. No more! Congrats to your Spanish post handling Brexit so well.

[aac58]

6 hours ago, VWatchie said:

Congrats to your Spanish post handling Brexit so well

I think that delays, be they long or short, does not happen at the currier facilities, but at customs, so probably it is not our Spanish post (Correos) to be congratulated.

I agree that Cousins is doing an amazing job, and I hope I can keep buying from them once the new regulation on VAT collection comes into force in a few weeks, if I'm not mistaken the seller will have to collect the VAT and deposit it in the destination country's tax authorities. This is the same procedure UK have with their VAT, and I know of USA sellers that has stopped selling to UK for that reason, due to the increased complexity of the business (i.e. see the note in the top of https://kleinvintagewatch.com/)

[Klassiker]

1 hour ago, aac58 said:

I think that delays, be they long or short, does not happen at the currier facilities, but at customs

This is my experience in Germany too. Maybe it is different in Sweden?

[VWatchie]

3 hours ago, aac58 said:

I think that delays, be they long or short, does not happen at the currier facilities, but at customs, so probably it is not our Spanish post (Correos) to be congratulated.

Regardless, it appears to me that most(?) other EU countries have managed Brexit reasonably well. Sweden, being a member state, has become a disaster in this respect, and in so many other ways (now also holding the top position in deadly gun violence in the entire of Europe). Per usual, there's been zero preparedness to handle the situation (same with covid, criminality, immigration/integration, etc., etc., etc). It's really sad as this used to be a well working and safe country. Anyway, the rules that impair the trade between UK and EU are imposed by the EU, not the UK. Listening to state media in Sweden (SR/SVT) you easily get the impression it's the other way around, and I guess that's my main point.

Edited June 9, 2021 by VWatchie

[VWatchie]

On 6/7/2021 at 4:55 PM, HSL said:

Brexit has nothing to do with the current situation in Sweden

I see your point, completely, but as the problems started Saturday, February 1st, I don't think it's too far fetched to at least suspect a causation. But sure, I could be wrong (honestly), and now that you mention it, all of my recent eBay China orders are also heavily delayed or even lost. Perhaps Postnord has just turned into another integration project ("non-literate staff"), like the geriatric care which contributed to the insane high number of deaths in Covid-19 among the elderly in Sweden. Even the Swedish trade union "Kommunal" has long pointed out the problems with the lack of knowledge in Swedish. Being half Finnish, if I was younger, I'd probably move to Finland.

[aac58]

1 hour ago, VWatchie said:

the rules that impair the trade between UK and EU are imposed by the EU, not the UK

I thought there was a bilateral negotitation to establish those rules, and I'm not convinced that the EU were more demanding than the UK

[VWatchie]

30 minutes ago, aac58 said:

I thought there was a bilateral negotitation to establish those rules, and I'm not convinced that the EU were more demanding than the UK

Indeed, but Goliath wasn't all that keen on letting David get away with it. After all, it could lead to insurrection in other EU states.

[watchweasol]

Politics the bane of all our lives without these beaurocratic institutions our lives would be so much simpler.

[VWatchie]

22 hours ago, Klassiker said:

the delay to untracked Royal Mail parcels to Germany is around 3 weeks

That's sort of acceptable when compared to the approx 5-7 weeks in Sweden. Wish I was German!

[VWatchie]

13 hours ago, Darthkram said:

That's a crazy length of time. I have ordered both tracked and untracked Royal Mail from Cousins for delivery to New Zealand and it seems to be around 2 weeks on average and we're on the other side of the world!

That's just insane! Do you let Swedes migrate to New Zealand? I'm too old but I'll tip my kids  Call me conspiratorial, but I can't shake the feeling that ultimately these delays are economically and politically motivated, that it's meant to "teach us" to shop from within the US of Europe.

[VWatchie]

5 hours ago, Klassiker said:

For sure it's not been the easiest change to manage so far.

What's difficult to understand is that our countries had four long years (or at least an 11-month transition phase) to prepare for this "new" situation which they knew were coming for sure!

Edited June 18, 2021 by VWatchie

[clockboy]

Unfortunately I think part of the issue is some governments in Europe are just politics. In the long term it will get better. 

[Klassiker]

19 hours ago, VWatchie said:

Wish I was German!

You don't need to be. You are free to live and work where you wish within the EU. I had to apply for citizenship.

[VWatchie]

7 hours ago, Klassiker said:

You are free to live and work where you wish within the EU

That's sounds just amazing, doesn't it!? However, in reality, beyond the political phrases, I'm afraid that could possibly be a bit of of a practical problem. The problem being that I don't speak any of the 24 official languages within the various EU states, except Swedish and English. Of course, I could follow the example of the many thousands of other EU citizens who live in Sweden, and don't speak a word of Swedish and do not work but still somehow make a living here. I guess those people have a deeper and better understanding of the political phrases.

[VWatchie]

On 6/18/2021 at 5:00 PM, clockboy said:

In the long term it will get better.

I keep my finger crossed!