Got a pair of wheels giving me problems – luckily Hayes EU (Germany) will help after the UK distributer won’t!!

Anyone done a warranty return and which courier did you use and how complex was the commercial invoice?

Can’t figure out whether might be duty to pay on a warranty either ? Looks likely.

Any experiences?

Thanks.

I warrantied a Sram brake lever via Holland. Customs forms need filling in on the return and I was not charged duty on the replacement item.

@b33k34

Thanks. Which courier?

I had to return to Topeak EU via Spain.

Filled out the customs form.

DHL were the courier.

Presumably Topeak paid the duty and taxes, but I paid the costs for DHL (£30ish).

But a huge faff and has made me wary of buying anything European now 😠

Brexit really is shit. And to put the boot in, we do have a reciprocal customs agreement with Australia now, and my Ayup lights need a new battery (they’re Australian). BUT the couriers won’t transport Lithium ion batteries to the UK FFS.

Yeah. Thanks.

I’ve done commercial invoices for stuff to the USA before so it’s similar but I can’t get my head around paying duty for a warranty / repair replacement!

Hotlines I guess?

Had problems with a manitou fork that they wouldn’t help with. Germany sorted it for me but it was pre brexit.

@rone
I think it was UPS. The retailer sent me the customs forms

Effectively it was an invoice for my “sale” of the item to the retailer.
Terms of sale = DDP (no idea)
Reason for export = return
Value = £0

Hotlines I guess?

Had problems with a manitou fork that they wouldn’t help with. Germany sorted it for me but it was pre brexit.

No. It was upgrade bikes they just point blank refused.

Yep it’s my problem as I imported from the USA – but I’m sure they could make the warranty claim from Hayes EU. Who are happy to help me.

It is what it is.

I tried repeatedly to warranty return a cassette to Germany and every time I posted it German customs sent it back – even though the forms were filled in correctly. I posted it three times at £15 each and eventually gave up. This was at the start of this year though, hopefully things have got better.

Effectively it was an invoice for my “sale” of the item to the retailer.
Terms of sale = DDP (no idea)
Reason for export = return
Value = £0

Hmmm, doing the same, and might have got that bit wrong and put the value of the thing (powermeter) in. Damn. But reason was ‘repair’. It’s been a few days, so lets see what happens.

It’s gone wrong at customs in the Netherlands and it’s coming back…in up to 21 working days.
Rubbish.

So OP – don’t bother. Look at monkeyboyjc’s experience as well.

hopefully things have got better

Don’t bet on it.

Oh I fell off my chair with the optimism in this thread. I’ve given up shipping big deliveries to Europe. all the OE clients we make stuff for in Europe I insist they collect so the problem happens in their country otherwise it gets lost half the time even with the correct paperwork and not trying to dodge taxes.

What an utter shit show Boris. 98% drop in consumer sales from Europe for me, I’m glad I’m busy doing other work or I’d be really mad…

Neil SuperstarComponents

DDP = Delivered Duty Paid.

There shouldn’t be any duties or taxes to pay on returned items going back and forth, whether replacements or repaired items, any due will have been paid when the original item entered the country.
However the couriers are all completely useless and can’t even get that right most of the time, UPS and DPD seem to be the worst, FedEx the least bad and DHL somewhere in between.