r2bike.de and shipping

Sorry, am sure this will have been done before but couldn’t find it.

As usual in my search for increasingly obscure components (a posh discontinued Fizik saddle) it only seems to be German sites that have them.

r2bike’s policy on shipping appears to be shipping + various handling fees of €22 OR just round the whole order up to €160, whichever is least. So in my case rounding up a €130 saddle to €160 means shipping fees = €30.

I can live with that as still cheaper than it might have been available anywhere else, and ultimately it’s the only place available anyway. They suggest VAT is included but ALSO suggest there might be ‘customs handling charges’ 🙄

Basically trying to figure out if I might get stung for loads more duty when it comes in to Britain. €160 seems suspiciously close to £135 but that must fluctuate all the time?

Anyone ordered from them recently?

Ta

You’ll be charged import, but not vat…plus a handling fee by the courier (which tends to be parcelforce).

Not entirely clear tbh, even though it does itemise so many details about the shipping. To me it seems that everything is paid, so long as you get it past €160. Even the fee that the courier charges to clear customs.

Actually did use r2 for the first time the other day. Some good prices (even after more expensive shipping) and good service too, but I live in Germany, so no import faff for me.  Ordered on Saturday night, and was shipped almost exactly 12 hours later on Sunday. Very un-German.

Import duties only apply to shipments over the £135 limit, which is why the IOSS scheme for VAT also stops there.

It all depends on whether r2bike use IOSS at all really, maybe contact them to be certain, but if they do it should mean:

<£135/€160 = no VAT, duties or import fees. UK VAT will be included in the price paid to r2bike.

>£135/€160 = VAT (etc etc) will be charged on import. The price paid to r2bike will not include VAT.

Thanks folks, sorry forum downtime prevented reply.

I seem to remember getting stung by ‘handling fees’ before and they would wipe out any savings over the new model Antares which isn’t actually so different and comes with carbon rails also (Sunday best bike…)

what ossify said is correct.

I’ve just ordered another load of Sram XLPR stuff from R2 and last time there was customs/import/handling fee on top of the R2 price. Still cheaper/better than any UK sellers.

<£135/€160 = no VAT, duties or import fees. UK VAT will be included in the price paid to r2bike.

Thanks for the detailed breakdown!

It’s the ‘handling fees’ I’m wary of, would you still be liable for customs handling fees and potentially the delivery company’s handling fees?

I got the impression they were fairly discretionary and nothing to do with the £135 threshold, or are they waived under £135?

Ta

Personally I now always add a contingency charge of 20/25% when looking at r2. If I can find it in the UK for the r2 price +20% I buy it here. If it’s something unavailable here, I budget for an extra 20% on top of the r2 price. That way I’m not shocked when the parcel force letter arrives demanding fees.

Personally I now always add a contingency charge of 20/25% when looking at r2

Seems sensible, I think mentally I’m making a similar adjustment and having now realised that the saddle I’m looking at is not really as ‘discontinued’ as I thought and retails here for r2 price + 25% it’s probably not worth it, I can buy at my leisure in the UK.

Free gift @ r2 for order over €100 or something (although not as good as the Rose breakfast bowls).
Not sure how the free gift (ok only a bottle or something worth a few €) sways the import tax if close to the threshold.
Oh and free Haribo too from r2 🙂

tbf I used to use CRC/Wiggle quite a bit, but then it got to the stage where it had to be >25% saving over Bike24 / bike-components / bike-discount / amazon to make it even worth thinking about shipping to DE. Even then I’d pay a couple of € more for faff reduction. r2 was my choice of store to replace CRC wiggle and for free Haribo.

I’ve had great service from r2 bikes over the years…although I think when I order stuff it.is all over the threshold, so from memory I pay r2 for the bits and the shipping and I then get an alert from parcelforce to say I’ve a feeling to pay that includes a handling charge. Always works out much cheaper than buying in UK, but I only tend to buy when it is big things and I can’t get them readily in the UK i.e. all out of stock. however, I don’t do big purchases often so it isn’t a frequent thing for me.