Gsinill
02-11-2015, 01:10 PM
I recently bought a fancy ratchet/socket set on Amazon.com.
Had some buyer’s remorse, not because I didn’t like it but rather because it is awesome and I should have gotten the one including bits as well.
Finally, I decided to return it and order the upgrad.
Since it’s a German brand, I thought I’ll give it a try on Amazon.de and voilà, with the current exchange rate and the VAT deduction, it turns out to be roughly 40% cheaper.
I already bought stuff on Amazon.de in the past but it was always something I didn’t need immediately, so I had it shipped to friends/family and picked it up during my next visit to Germany.
Shipping to the US always seemed to be a) cost prohibitive and b) way too risky due to UPS or FedEx adding unpredictable custom/brokerage fees - got burnt with insane and miscalculated fees in the past after buying stuff on eBay in the UK.
Being curious, I checked again and was kind of baffled to see an option for 2 day guaranteed delivery to the US via AmazonGlobal Express for €26. Still a lot of money but given that shipping of my mom’s Christmas cookies from Germany was 20 Euro and took almost 3 weeks...
I was still worried about the customs fees but Amazon actually had a line item included in the total, which showed no charge.
Checked their help and in a nutshell it states that calculation for custom fees is guaranteed, even if customs in the receiving country should turn out to be higher, they won’t charge it back to the customer. They will on the other hand reimburse if the fees should turn out to be lower.
Order placed Monday morning, out for delivery today, saving me close to 30% over what I would have paid at Amazon.com with he same 2 day delivery.
Might make sense to check the other Amazon country pages for brands of those countries as well.
Finally before (again) being accused by some smarty-pants:
No, I neither work for Amazon nor am I a shareholder but I find them using their weight to address 2 of the major pain points of international shipping (duration/cost and unpredictable custom fees) ingenious.
Had some buyer’s remorse, not because I didn’t like it but rather because it is awesome and I should have gotten the one including bits as well.
Finally, I decided to return it and order the upgrad.
Since it’s a German brand, I thought I’ll give it a try on Amazon.de and voilà, with the current exchange rate and the VAT deduction, it turns out to be roughly 40% cheaper.
I already bought stuff on Amazon.de in the past but it was always something I didn’t need immediately, so I had it shipped to friends/family and picked it up during my next visit to Germany.
Shipping to the US always seemed to be a) cost prohibitive and b) way too risky due to UPS or FedEx adding unpredictable custom/brokerage fees - got burnt with insane and miscalculated fees in the past after buying stuff on eBay in the UK.
Being curious, I checked again and was kind of baffled to see an option for 2 day guaranteed delivery to the US via AmazonGlobal Express for €26. Still a lot of money but given that shipping of my mom’s Christmas cookies from Germany was 20 Euro and took almost 3 weeks...
I was still worried about the customs fees but Amazon actually had a line item included in the total, which showed no charge.
Checked their help and in a nutshell it states that calculation for custom fees is guaranteed, even if customs in the receiving country should turn out to be higher, they won’t charge it back to the customer. They will on the other hand reimburse if the fees should turn out to be lower.
Order placed Monday morning, out for delivery today, saving me close to 30% over what I would have paid at Amazon.com with he same 2 day delivery.
Might make sense to check the other Amazon country pages for brands of those countries as well.
Finally before (again) being accused by some smarty-pants:
No, I neither work for Amazon nor am I a shareholder but I find them using their weight to address 2 of the major pain points of international shipping (duration/cost and unpredictable custom fees) ingenious.