Wednesday, June 20, 2012

We're So Curious

We get quite a few international orders for machine knitting books and videos.  A lot of companies don't ship to certain countries because of the expensive, slow postage or the other problems that arise, but we have had a commitment to international sales from the beginning.  We charge $7.50 overseas shipping no matter how many items someone orders, and we pay the postage over that amount.

My books and videos go to wonderful places, places I dream of going.  As John and I seal a package to New Zealand, Argentina or Switzerland, I imagine getting to visit, too.

We are so curious about what our international customers experience on the other end.  How much Value Added Tax are you getting dinged in your country?  Are you having to pay customs?  Are there other fees?  How long did delivery take (we do one-day shipping, generally; it goes out the next business day)?  Does it come to your home, or do you have to make a trip to a post office or elsewhere?

7 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I got your enchanted edgings here in the UK very quickly and was delighted. If a package is too big to go through a standard letter box in the door, and no one is home, then you can collect it from the parcel office.
    If the value of the item is over $18 then the customs people add that to the value of the postage (yes, really) and then charge VAT on the lot - that is currently 20%. Then they add about £9 extra to collect it.
    Needless to say I go for cheaper items!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the parcel is over 200,- norwegian krone i have to pay 25% moms (vat) at the post office + a fee 120nkr.and pick up the parcel there. If it is under I get it in the postbox. the delivery takes about 4-5 days. I don`t think that is to bad. It is a long way

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,
    I got your enchanted edgings and the ribber scarves. Delivery to Norway was about a week.

    Delivery is much like with Marina. If the value of the item is more than about $30 the parcel must go through customs. The customs handeling fee is $20, and they will charge 25% sales tax.

    Books are an exeption, though, as we don't pay sales tax on books. So making bargains on ebay can be quite expensive if we don't pay close attention to the $30 limit, whereas we can buy books by the truckload over on amazon and often pay much less than we would at the local bookstore.

    As the machine knitting community in Norway is quite small and knitting machine dealers are rare, buying replacement parts, patterns and other knitting machine paraphernalia online is a good, and for many people the only, option.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has had a Wednesday June 21 date stamp since you posted it. Today is Tuesday June 20. Is anyone else seeing this or just me? It's happened before.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Diana,
    I had the same experience as Marina - UK postal service add a massive handling charge to collect the tax which turned out in total more or less as much as the original purchase price.
    Lyn

    ReplyDelete
  6. The date stamp issue is probably related to my attempt to "schedule" these posts. I wrote 4 posts on Saturday and scheduled them for future dates, but they all posted at once, not what I wanted. I knew I'd have another busy week and wanted a post to go up each day. Blogger has been changed and I'm having trouble getting the scheduled posts to work properly.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hello diane, you could come to the tv and demonstrate your wares (dvd and books) in machine knitting. check on idealworld.tv or createandcraft.tv it will be a delight to have you in the uk.

    ReplyDelete