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Brexit and cousinsuk ?


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As i buy a lot of stuff from Cousinsuk i wonder what will happen to them when we enter Brexit. Will there be tax and custom on the parts we buy if we are outside UK. As it is now it's free as long as it is inside EU. If i have to pay an extra 25% tax i would seek elsewhere. Would get very hard to find spare parts to. Maybe they could open a filial in Germany or Holland for us inside the EU . 

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I think you will have to wait for the answer until the final deal has been negotiated. The media here is so full of what if we do or don’t regarding import, export tax and a whole host of things. At the moment, it’s a minefield.  

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10 hours ago, rogart63 said:

As i buy a lot of stuff from Cousinsuk i wonder what will happen to them when we enter Brexit. Will there be tax and custom on the parts we buy if we are outside UK. As it is now it's free as long as it is inside EU. If i have to pay an extra 25% tax i would seek elsewhere. Would get very hard to find spare parts to. Maybe they could open a filial in Germany or Holland for us inside the EU . 

The problem with buying outside the E.U at the moment is not the tax and duty that is applied to items which in most cases is quite small but the cost of handling charges imposed by the couriers, for collecting the tax and duty on behalf of the exchequer.

I have wondered depending on what happens in Ireland, if there is no hard border and customs checks, companies could open offices up in southern Ireland and channel goods to the rest of the E.U through those a similar thing used to exist with the channel Islands with companies like HMV selling CD's free of tax to the U.K mainland.

Whatever happens I expect a minefield of loop holes to open up from day one, it wont be plain sailing.

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No one can say what will happen for sure, but probably if you buy from Cousins (or other British companies) at the moment as a private individual from an EU country you pay the VAT at the point of purchase and nothing is owed on receipt. In future it might be that you will pay the cost without VAT and therefore owe the VAT in your own country on receipt.

I don't know how it works in Sweden but in the UK that means the carrier will then collect the VAT from you plus charge a handling fee on top if it is above the VAT exempt allowance (£15 in UK). As wls1971 said customs and duty taxes are minimal or non existent on small purchases.

Most UK carriers seem to charge a minimum of £8 handling fee, so it will make all purchases, particularly small ones, more expensive either from UK to EU or EU to UK. Let's hope some sort of deal is made, but I wouldn't count on it.

Stephen

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  • 2 years later...

Hi,

I made a small purchase on February just to see how it works.

Not complaining about Cousinsuk, because they delivered it on time, or at least took the same time until it reached costums. After that, I must admit it is time, money and patience. A delivery that took 1 week before is now taking around 3 weeks and paper work. Definitly, I wish to have something similar as cousinsuk in EU.

How about you guys? 

Regards

Henrique

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  • 2 months later...

My most recent experience is that VAT is no longer being charged at-source, but is applied by  customs when entering the EU. The postal service here in Germany collects the tax on delivery, plus 6 Euro handling charge. The worst thing is, what used to take 7 to 10 days from order to delivery now takes 1 month.

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I think that is quite typical how it is done nowadays, we had that system for a while but it has not improved a bit. This is the path my new tool post for one of my lathes took; it began it’s journey the 28:th of Mars and finally it is on it’s way again the 11:th May. It wasn’t just stopped in the customs once but twice, just had to pay tax once though. Hopefully I get it next week but one never knows.
Now I try to find everything in Germany instead.
SwedishCustoms.png.df8bf9fbd4352d8788d25cb9121999c8.png

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55 minutes ago, Klassiker said:

@rogart63 Apologies If I didn't express myself clearly enough. What is confusing you?

That it takes a month now . Wasn't a good alternative with the emoijis. Maybe sad would have been better. What i mean that we have the same problem in Sweden . Takes 4-5 weeks. That is confusing that it should take that long . 

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It's certainly sad and I can't explain the delay either, but I guess the EU customs are reluctant to  increase capacity unless absolutely necessary. I'm also sure that no-one in the EU is going out of their way to reduce the impact of trade restrictions with the UK. The rules will be strictly applied with no urgency, and I don't expect things to speed up in the near future.

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6 hours ago, VWatchie said:

I still do my shopping from CousinsUK.com. In my opinion one of the very best sources for tools and parts. However, I've learnt to select the UPS shipping option which is usually around £22.

Unless there is no other choice, I never use couriers to receive from Cousins or any other extra-EU supplier. Their customs handling fees (which are charged at both source and destination) are much higher than Post, which in my country is close to what Klassiker mentioned above. Due to some misunderstanding, the first package of this year sat in their warehouse for weeks, to have it released I had to pay the price of a weekend out of town.

Under £25 one has the choice to ship with untracked Royal Mail, which has never failed me in the past. With that, the delivery time has grown by a couple of days, but is never charged anything - although I understand that some countries do charge all packages.

Outcome is that now anyone in my country can make small orders VAT exempt from a meticulously organized website, huge inventory, with no minimum order, prompt and courteous service - much unlike our domestic material houses. If that rewards Cousins UK in any way, they deserve it.

 

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53 minutes ago, jdm said:

Under £25 one has the choice to ship with untracked Royal Mail, which has never failed me in the past.

I agree and that was always my choice before Brexit. It was excellent, but as of now everything shipped by Royal Mail gets stuck in Swedish customs. My guess is that "they" intentionally leave it for weeks, sometimes months, to punish me and the British for Brexit. One of my Royal Mail orders from Cousins was shipped April 8th and arrived in Sweden April 14. I still haven't received this package, and when I track this package today, more than a month later, all I get is the below...

image.png.d1b16352570be25edd366d144833be39.png

When I call Postnord (Swedish Royal Mail) a rather arrogant person informs me that "The shipment item is in customs clearance and there is no estimated delivery time yet". The tone, as well, is very much like I'm a criminal and that I've done something wrong.

So, from now on I will only use courier when shopping from Cousins. IMO, time is money and I just hate waiting.

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38 minutes ago, jdm said:

Their customs handling fees (which are charged at both source and destination)are much higher than Post, which in my country is close to what Klassiker mentioned above.

 

42 minutes ago, jdm said:

Under £25 one has the choice to ship with untracked Royal Mail, which has never failed me in the past. With that, the delivery time has grown by a couple of days, but is never charged anything

This is interesting, because the package I was describing was sent untracked Royal Mail. Maybe I was just unlucky this time. It was the 1 month delivery time which bothered me more than the 6 Euro handling fee.

 

2 hours ago, VWatchie said:

I've learnt to select the UPS shipping option which is usually around £22. The shipping time (so far) has always been approx. four days

I will try a courier next, which I hope will be faster even if stopped by customs.  I want some chemicals, and they have to go by UPS anyway.

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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 for an eyeglass and an eyeglass holder (which will hopefully work well when replacing balance staffs and jewels) for a total order value of £16.24 including the "International Non Tracked EU, Royal Mail - £2.98" shipping. So, now we'll see what happens and I'll report back to the thread. My prediction is that I can begin using my new eyeglass sometime July (this year) if I'm lucky.

Oh BTW, did I mention that I don't care much for a United States of Europe?

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1 hour ago, jdm said:

"Hopefully with the carriers getting on top of their situation (---) delivery timeframes will return to what they were."

I really share their hope, and thanks for sharing Sam Cousins message!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here (Sweden) local value-added tax is added 25 %, plus import fees, plus handling fees, plus a completely unreasonable waiting time. My £211 Cousins order placed April 7 was finally delivered by Postnord (Swedish Royal Post) May 27 and it costed me £285 in total. That is, add approx. 35 % to Cousins' Invoice value (which is tax-free!) and seven weeks of waiting. Thank you Postnord!

Or, use the UPS shipping alternative and add approx. 40 % to Cousins' Invoice value and wait for four to five days.

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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. I was informed delivery by first week of May this then moved to end of May. I canceled and purchased from another supplier. 

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Being in Australia, whenever I order from Cousins I end up using "Royal Mail (International Signed ROW)" which depending on size/weight usually ends up around £15 to £20. It's the only non-courier option available to me (and it's the cheapest).

The last order I placed was on 10th May, and the package was in my hands on the 24th May - 14 days later which is pretty typical I find.

Would you consider switching to the next price option up or would that make Cousins uneconomical for you? It's lucky that you have other options in the EU for getting supplies - it's pretty limited in Australia (as a hobbyist).

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/15/2021 at 1:27 PM, Klassiker said:

I will try a courier next, which I hope will be faster even if stopped by customs.  I want some chemicals, and they have to go by UPS anyway.

So, I got round to placing this order, which was dispatched on 9th. June. Normal UPS delivery to Germany is given as 2 to 3 days. UPS have a message on their website, saying they need an extra day due to longer customs processing, now that the UK is ex-EU. Counting Saturday as a working day, that would have meant delivery on Monday and indeed the first indicated delivery date was the 14th. This was then pushed back twice, and the package was delivered yesterday, Wednesday 16th. Not bad, but it seems there are still some longer than expected delays at the border. Whether this will continue, and why the standard post is affected so much more than a courier service I don't know, but for the time being it seems we have to allow for it.

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

"International Non Tracked EU, Royal Mail - £2.98"

Just a quick update. So, it's been over a month now since I placed my order (May 15), and still not a word. My conclusion then is that the only acceptable way to get anything from Cousins within a reasonable time, if you live in Sweden, is to use the UPS Courier option. That is, if for example I needed a watch crystal that is £2, it would cost me close to £25. I guess EU wins, my order will go to an eBay seller in Europe instead.

Like so many other things in Sweden, the postal services seem to have collapsed as well. There's even a suggestion now that our general postal service will no longer deliver post to our houses at all, but to central collection points instead, and only once a week. In the 1980s, if a post was delayed for a day between two major cities, it would be in the news.

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3 hours ago, Klassiker said:

Whether this will continue, and why the standard post is affected so much more than a courier service I don't know, but for the time being it seems we have to allow for it.

How much more is the standard post affected? In Sweden I would characterize it as a disaster. The courier service seems to be working the same in Sweden, that is, delayed a day (or possibly two) but that's no biggie for me at all.

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9 hours ago, Klassiker said:

On a sample-size of one, the delay to untracked Royal Mail parcels to Germany is around 3 weeks (7 to 10 days pre-Brexit, now 1 month). So yes, a disaster.

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!

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