Brexit & Shipping to the EU

[vince14]

First off, this is not a political thread - no need to discuss the merits and detriments of Brexit here. However, because of the current lack of a trade deal between the UK and EU a lot of British companies will be stopping shipments to the EU for the foreseeable future, probably until at least the first week of January (and I guess the same will apply to companies shipping from the EU to the UK).

 

This is from Hannants:

'We will no longer accept orders from EU countries from 27th December. On December 27th our website will stop accepting orders from all EU countries. This is ONLY from EU countries. Please send us your orders as soon as possible! We will re-open the website to EU countries on Monday January 4th. The BIG difference is that all EU countries will then be Export countries so we do not have to charge the 20% VAT/Tax. OUR PRICES WILL BE MUCH LOWER!  We will then be charging Export prices without 20% tax. Possibly you will have to pay tax and duty when your parcel is delivered but we do not know. No information seems to be available. Please be sure you receive our weekly Hot News sheet because this is where the more detailed information will be posted.'

 

And whilst they only deal with car models, not LSP's, Hiroboy and Zero Paints are also stopping EU orders from December 18th until early January. There's also likely to be (possibly significant) delays in delivery of parcels to/from the UK and EU.

 

So if you're in the EU and need something from Hannants/Hiroboy/Zero Paints before the New Year, better order it quick!

Edited December 16, 2020 by vince14

[Kagemusha]

22 minutes ago, MARU5137 said:

brexit  is political.

 

Discussing its consequences isn't in my opinion, and there is no need whatsoever to inflame the thread.

 

I received this in an email from Ultracast earlier this month:

 

To our valued UK customers:

 

As you may know, as of January 1, 2021 the United Kingdom will be requiring all companies outside of the UK to register and collect UK VAT.  We have been attempting to register, however after many hours of repeated attempts, it would appear that the UK government website is not really set up to deal with overseas companies trying to register.

 

At this point, we are just unwilling to proceed any further, wasting time and energy trying to register to do someone else’s work for no pay.  Perhaps, in the future, if the UK government is willing to make an easier process to register, we would re-investigate it at that time.

 

Therefore, as of January 1, 2021, Ultracast will no longer be accepting website orders from the United Kingdom.  The UK government has decided that it would like companies in other nations to do their tax collecting job for them instead of doing it themselves as the parcels arrive at the border.  We are just a “mom & pop” operation and don’t really have the time, energy or resources to become tax collectors for the rest of the world.  By the looks of it, the EU will be next come July 2021.

 

So, if you need to purchase something from our website, you should do so soon. 

 

Many of our products will still be available to UK customers from our ebay store at the following link: https://www.ebay.com/str/ueloyalist?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 or you can find us doing an ebay search for seller name “ueloyalist”.  Apparently, ebay.com will be collecting the UK VAT on all sales, so we will continue to sell to our UK customers from there.

 

If there is something on our website that you would like to purchase which is not listed on our ebay store (such as decals), you can email us and we will set up an ebay listing for that item so that you can purchase it from our ebay store.

 

If any of you know a direct and easy way for an overseas company to register online to collect your taxes, you can contact us at info@ultracast.ca.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, however at this point that’s how things stand.  If at some point we are able to get registered, we will send another email out to let you know that you can purchase again from our website.

 

Thanks for your past support of Ultracast; we hope that many of you will still purchase from us on ebay.

 

Best regards,

 

Kevin & Teresa McLaughlin

Ultracast

[LSP_Mike]

This thread is discussing commerce.

Let's keep it that way.

Yes, that includes you Maru.

[Out2gtcha]

I agree with Andy.

We are in fact all adults here, and the model related consequences of Brexit are I believe within the context of what we do here, concerning the ordering and purchasing of model related parts from shore to shore. 

Of course this like any thread has the ability to get sideways if people posting in it try to discuss the good or bad of it. Lets all just keep to the topic at hand please and there will be no issues.  

[thierry laurent]

I made tons of purchases in UK for the last months for that specific reason. The uncertainty will have an impact on puchases conditions for the next weeks if not months.

 

Since Hannants fully revamped their website years ago I made 121 orders! They are not the cheapest store in UK but have a tremendous aftermarket range and offer a top-quality customer service. Now, alas, I will have to share my purchases from Germany, Netherlands, France and other continental EU countries outfits. I did it occasionally in the past but always went back to the big H as I loved the one-stop shopping solution they offered.

 

By the way, Hannants will remove the VAT for Eu customers BUT they will have to pay VAT as an import fee plus the customs handling administrative fee in their country. So, the final cost will be higher in most cases. Another important aspect will be the time to go through the customs red tape process. I'm only ordering from Spruebrothers, HLJ or Hobbyeasy when I've no other option for that specific reason: lengthy and more expensive.

 

I'm afraid modelling will become more expensive in the UK for the simple reason a huge amount of kits and goodies are made by Eastern Europe companies. The same problem is true for continental modellers willing to purchase other items. For instance, four of my six book sources are located in UK.

 

I frankly hope a practical solution will be found as most of my usual resellers ARE in UK!

 

Conclusion: if you absolutely want something from the other side of the channel:do not wait! Order it right now as whatever is going to be the end of that process the probability this will cost more is VERY high! Alas...

[GrahamF]

I got that Ultracast email, I think they're incorrect there. 

Graham

[ScottsGT]

I also wonder if there will be postal issues with price scheduling now? 

[Adrian]

I've been doing stuff the other way (Europe to UK), namely some decals for my Starfighter project from HaHen and car stuff from Spot.

 

Hopefully normal viewing will resume as soon as possible.

[Out2gtcha]

9 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

Brexit is politics, and this development is due to Brexit and no other reason, so by definition, this development *is* political.  You may not like it, but that doesn't change the facts.  Saying that this is somehow separate from politics is like saying the pigment isn't part of the paint.

 

Thats the point we were/are trying to make......Were not taking about the development itself, we are talking about a change of shipping and recieving of models and model related products.

In this instance the cause may be political, but again we are not talking about the cause, we are talking about a model related topic. 

 

I'd only advise to leave this one alone mate. It's a decision we've made and it's not going to get shut down unless it starts going into the causes of the recent selling and shipping issues.

[Kagemusha]

If you want to take that line Jennings everything on this site is political, development of aircraft, their armaments, even training aircraft. 

 

Pick a thread, and I'll point out the politics in it: your thread on the F-4E drawing, is that not political? Essentially, why was the F-4 developed, politics. 

 

It is about context, and it would be if good if people were allowed to discuss the impact on buying modelling products, without it being dragged into an area in doesn't belong. 

 

 

 

[thierry laurent]

Jennings, from that perspective everything is politics. This is theoretically correct but what is considered here is very different from ideology-driven standpoints and personal opinions regarding the positive or negative analysis of political decisions. As the initial poster wrote it this is different. The topic here is rather focusing on the practical impact on modeller's habits. Easy!

[quang]

11 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

The topic here is rather focusing on the practical impact on modeller's habits. Easy!

Indeed!

Now we’re preparing to see and live the differences between being INSIDE a union -whatever the union- and OUTSIDE.
If that is political, so be it!

[LSP_Mike]

Again-

We are discussing commerce as it relates to our hobby.

Do not take this thread elsewhere.

[Bob MDC]

The only "B" word I would be Bollocks.

I don't know about the amount of spurious brown stuff that is circulating but VAT or Import duty  if you sell in the uk we collect the VAT for the UK government  at 20% this was similar for EU but the it had to be documented differently.

All non EU countries a customs sticker ( sorry declaration) and it's up to the receiving countries postal service to pick up the duty.

As I have been doing this for a few years as far as I am aware Canada was not part of the EU so the same rules apply to them as the US or Japan countries we deal with commercially for many years, when we send out an order we included copies of the invoice so the receiving customs can collect the correct import duty from the goods recipient before delivery.

I have been dealing with Ultracast for many years and I am not sure where the problem is ALL the snags are EU based not the "rest of the world" 

1 take the order

2 send the order out with custom declaration (job done) for the seller

3 Royal Mail collects the import duty

4 "simplies" nothing to get the nickers in a twist about 

 

To the Moderators " can i have a proper rant please " will try not to use to many sweary words 

[Bob MDC]

Sorry Ultracast I can see where you are coming from the UK gov pages are bloody crap and the import pages deal with big stuff,

 

but the magic figure is £135 so checking personal imports  just fill in the customs forms and watch this space 

 

I will have a go a trying to " cut through the bullshit "

 

Bob