anyone know how import taxes from the EU are at the moment, or is it still a bit of a lottery.

looking at getting a turbo trainer from bikediscount.de and it looks like earlier in the year people werent getting charged.

If i do get charged is it vat 20% + import duty (? how do you find that out?!), any other charges?

trainer is 495 inc shipping on bike discount, 663 in uk, not sure whether to just go for the uk price or risk the import!

Lottery

Not so up to date, but my a friend’s wheels from Italy were tax and duty free about 10 weeks ago.

Found same item in bikeinn, more than bikediscount but still 90 cheaper than UK. Their site says price on web is finalm rice and no vat / import duty to UK will be charged so will probably order from them

And what if it breaks in the first year?

You’ll save vat on the cost of the item if over £135 – hence the advertised price will be significantly cheaper than the UK.

You should expect to pay uk vat at 20% on the combined item and postage costs, duty at around 5% on the item and admin charges of around £10-£15

If the above works out significantly cheaper than a UK price then it’s worth it on most items imo. Something like a turbo which has I high likelihood of braking/warranty I’m not so sure.

Bare in mind turbos are heavy and sending one back to Germany for a warranty claim could cost at least £100….

I’ve found the German places have become a nightmare to deal with since the big B. shops in Netherlands, Spain and France seem to play a little more fast and loose so stuff arrives pronto with no hassles.

YMMV!

I ordered from bikediscount about a month ago for some DTSwiss parts that were hard to find in UK and even for those that were they were cheaper with fees from abroad and I could get all the bits in one order.

Total order 212.36 EUR (£182.03), ParcelForce fees were £53.50, which is apparently £12 handling so ~23% duty.

After waiting a week I never got the “fees to pay” postcard so a 2 minute phonecall they look up the code from your tracking number and tell you the different (!?) code to enter in the fee paying form. Delivered next day.

It’s a pity that we don’t know of the Japanese equivalent of chainreaction for the smaller stuff. I’ve been ordering model train stuff direct from Japan as it’s much cheaper than the uk (even with postage which is reasonable for the size of package). All the orders have been under £135 and after 10 orders I’ve not paid any duties or fees. The longest delivery was 10 days but mostly a week. So saying I’ve no doubt queered my luck.

Recently ordered some Sram AXS parts from Bikeinn (cheaper+ no stock in UK).
All arrived within a week with no extra/hidden charges.

I’m not sure it is a lottery now, the charges are quite easy to calculate, only part that may be a lottery is whether you get charged or not – anything over £135 you should be counting on being charged and if you don’t it has saved you some cash.

Recently ordered some Sram AXS parts from Bikeinn

Bikeinn is a bit different to a direct sale from a German/French/Spanish etc shop.  They are a group that has ‘wearhouses’ across Europe and the UK. So they are importing items on your behalf and selling it to you through their UK shop – for an example an item could be located in Spain, so they ship it to their UK distribution facility and then on to the customer through royal mail.

I got charged £41 for a £187 cassette from deportvillage. Pretty gutting but it was the only place that had stock. there is a calculator you can use which is pretty accurate. But roughly speaking £40 per £200 . Wonder if the brexit voters are still as happy.

Bikeinn is a bit different to a direct sale from a German/French/Spanish etc shop. They are a group that has ‘wearhouses’ across Europe and the UK.

Didn’t know that, so BikeInn should be “safe” in terms of shipping and duty then?

Edit, sorry no, not another thread on brexit.

I ordered Zebs a while back
Where £505 from Hermann and paid £125 in parcel force fee plus vat
Some of the fee’s I’m reading here are way hefty

Bikeinn is a bit different to a direct sale from a German/French/Spanish etc shop. They are a group that has ‘wearhouses’ across Europe and the UK. So they are importing items on your behalf and selling it to you through their UK shop – for an example an item could be located in Spain, so they ship it to their UK distribution facility and then on to the customer through royal mail.

Interesting; I didn’t know that either. Should make any potential warranty issues a bit more straightforward. However, my parcel(s) definitely came direct from Spain. Order value was about £300.
On the back of this success, I ordered some additional parts from them (£115). They just arrived too. Again, not available in the UK at present.

I’m not sure it is a lottery now, the charges are quite easy to calculate, only part that may be a lottery is whether you get charged or not – anything over £135 you should be counting on being charged and if you don’t it has saved you some cash.

I’d kind of assumed that was what the OP meant in his original post…

my parcel(s) definitely came direct from Spain. Order value was about £300.

Yeah, I’ve had some stuff from them come direct from Spain (they are a Spanish company), but most comes via international post and then is transferred to royal mail postage, with royal mail stickers, i assumed through their UK wearhouse or distribution network. Tradeinn the larger company is massive though, out of 7 or so orders since January I’ve not had to pay any duties or taxes. The German sites I’ve had to pay every time this year.

My only issue with Bikeinn is the delivery times – some stuff has taken 6+ weeks to arrive, others less than a week. So if it’s a good price and it’s not urgent it’s usually worth a punt.

Last few bike discount orders all had duties to sort, seems to be the norm now since they changed couriers.

Are the prices lower because they aren’t adding local VAT (but then you get charged VAT as the goods come into the UK?)

Yes, but also the Euro to Pound means the bits are lower priced once converted…

Should make any potential warranty issues a bit more straightforward.

You’d think so wouldn’t you but experience suggests otherwise.

Anyone tried to buy any Shimano gear from Bikeinn
Noticed they display a message saying Shimano won’t allow them to distribute to UK

book marking for later

Bit of a side track from the OP’s original topic, but I bought a rotor cassette from bike-discount back in July. Unfortunately it either wasn’t compatible with my free hub or was very poorly machined so I sent it back, in July…..

Just had it sent back to me from Germany today as bike discount didn’t sign for it / collect it from the  post office…. I sent it tracked and signed so that I could insure it.

Obviously I’m now pissed off, I’ve a warranty claim / return item the shop in Germany won’t accept. months on from original purchase and I’ll be stuck with an unusable very expensive but of useless machined steel.

Ive messaged bike discount to see how they want to handle it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/appoint-someone-to-deal-with-customs-on-your-behalf

For anyone that’s interested, bikester.co.uk although seemingly based abroad send you stuff for the cost stated on the website.