Hello everyone,

 

 

At times I consider you US Transfans the luckiest guys in the world.

 

You can walk into a store and most Transformers will be available. And if they are not then you can easily order them trough internet.

 

The stores do stock Transformers but the stores here are badly stocked and the toys often arrive late. Cybertron is an exception but even in that line we get shafted as the Ultra's are not available here.

 

So all I can do to get them is to import them. Which can cost a great deal of money,  especially with most of the store seriously overcharging people. eBay can be like that, though I got a few good deals there.

 

Fortunately I found JRStoyworld which had good prices so I started shopping there which went great. Untill a package was delayed.  The tracking info said that it was being held at the customs.

 

Several weeks later they still had it. :tfmad And not even a %#%$% note or call to let me know they had my stuff. Come on people, you know someone is waiting for that stuff, how about lettting him know that you have it. For all you know it could be some kid's birthday gift which he is not getting now.

 

But those *^%$ do not care. And when they finally do send me my stuff I have to pay a Blotload of money on importfees.

 

That REALLY pisses me off! Every Transformers fan knows what it feels like to miss out on something and how much you want something. The only option is to import stuff as some of the stuff I want (or as a Transfan needs) is not sold here.

 

And then those people deny me my stuff and therefor one of my pleasures in life. How is that fair?

 

I bought a lot of the Cybertron figures in local stores because I am willing to do so if they stock them. But what they cannot sell me I import. I think it is only fair.

 

Lousy customs, bollocksing up people's lives. My government at work trying to steal more money away from people.  :tdown  And please do not say that this is done to protect local merchants.

 

Again, I only buy stuff I cannot get in the US or if it is a lot cheaper. So it is the fault of the local merchants for overpricing their stuff or not having something.

 

Which means that the importfees are only hurting local merchants because what I spend on custom fees (or as I call it randsom money) I cannot spend here.

 

Sorry for the long rant but I had to get it off my chest. I am just having a rotten time lately and it does not seem to be getting any better soon. Not just the Transformers though, everything is going badly right now.

Customs is like that.  Be glad that the only thing you are waiting on is a toy.  I've had shipments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars held up in customs for weeks.  Sometimes those goods have a very narrow selling window and if I don't get them on time my stores lose money, and we aren't talking about pennies either.  So the next time you have a shipment held up, just remember that you are only waiting on a toy and there are others that have their businesses and livelyhood effected by it.

 

That being said, it is part of life.  We have to deal with it on the business side and you on the consumer.  Customs isn't perfect, but it is pretty efficient when you consider just how much this country imports on any given day.  Be happy you can import as easily as you can.  This country is miles ahead of anybody else in that respect.

in defence of customs ive had it ok the only pain in the ass is paying extra to get it if you ask the seller to mark it as a gift i dont think they charge you in the uk

True, very true.

 

I knew there was a reason why I started this topic other than to rant.

 

I would not know how effective customs is in other countries but government installations can be pretty slow and annoying over here. I would be a whole less annoyed if they could bother to send me a note or something.

 

Last time I think I waited for 4 weeks which is really long when you are waiting on stuff, be it for business or personal.  :tfmad

 

But it could be a whole lot worse and at times I forgot that. It is just that very little is going right for me. (Or so it seems.) It is way too hot for me right now (I am a winter lover) and I got an infection on my tongue. 

 

Not bad so do not worry, it will go away especially since I am treating it with medication but that can literally drive me crazy. 

 

And just this morning I spent half an hour looking for my glasses. Add all those together and my mood is less than stellar. At these times it really looks like it everone is "against" me.

 

Still, there are people who have it FAR worse so I am not that bad off. The trick is to remember that.

in defence of customs ive had it ok the only pain in the ass is paying extra to get it if you ask the seller to mark it as a gift i dont think they charge you in the uk

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Having everything marked as gift works well but I had the packages from JRStoyworld shipped EMS and somehow the customs realised it was not a gift.

 

Strangely enough they only get those as I can receive all other packages fine. Received Supreme Starscream a few weeks ago and no problem there.

 

So I had the last two parcels from JRStoyworld send to a friend in the US and he forwarded them to me. Apparantly that failed too.

 

There is a amount for which you can import. Recently ordered 2 DVD's from CDuniverse (seperate orders) and the value is below 20 Euro which means that I do not have to pay any importfees.

 

But sadly even marking it as gift is not fool proof so it would seem.  :tfsad

 

For people living in the UK it must even be worse as Cybertron is not even released there. And people wonder why we shop abroad.

 

I think that customs charges should be dropped on items that are not locally available. That way people can buy stuff they need but local merchants are still protected.

I think that customs charges should be dropped on items that are not locally available. That way people can buy stuff they need but local merchants are still protected.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's moronic to be charged import tax on an item that ins't available locally in the first place.

 

Try www.archonia.com, they're reasonbly up to date on stock, and they're in Belgium so no import tax :-)

Its weird to say the least in the UK most sellers are pretty good at gifting the items but sometimes you really get stung on something.  I had a huge box of GF come through with no problems.  Generally speaking UPS stuff always gets taxed, DHL doesnt so much

If I had to import that much, I'd quit collecting.  It sounds like a big hassle.

 

It sounds like your life is really sucking right now, bigds9fan, and I hope things get better for you soon :thumb

I think customs all around sucks.  I just heard a customs horror story from a friend who has their own store here in the states. They imported 100 Brave Maximus which came on two pallets.  This was during the Christmas seasson.  Customs decided to keep 3 or 4 as "samples" and there was jack he could do about it.

Hello everyone,

 

 

At times I consider you US Transfans the luckiest guys in the world.

 

You can walk into a store and most Transformers will be available. And if they are not then you can easily order them trough internet.

 

The stores do stock Transformers but the stores here are badly stocked and the toys often arrive late. Cybertron is an exception but even in that line we get shafted as the Ultra's are not available here.

 

So all I can do to get them is to import them. Which can cost a great deal of money,  especially with most of the store seriously overcharging people. eBay can be like that, though I got a few good deals there.

 

Fortunately I found JRStoyworld which had good prices so I started shopping there which went great. Untill a package was delayed.  The tracking info said that it was being held at the customs.

 

Several weeks later they still had it. :tfmad And not even a %#%$% note or call to let me know they had my stuff. Come on people, you know someone is waiting for that stuff, how about lettting him know that you have it. For all you know it could be some kid's birthday gift which he is not getting now.

 

But those *^%$ do not care. And when they finally do send me my stuff I have to pay a Blotload of money on importfees.

 

That REALLY pisses me off! Every Transformers fan knows what it feels like to miss out on something and how much you want something. The only option is to import stuff as some of the stuff I want (or as a Transfan needs) is not sold here.

 

And then those people deny me my stuff and therefor one of my pleasures in life. How is that fair?

 

I bought a lot of the Cybertron figures in local stores because I am willing to do so if they stock them. But what they cannot sell me I import. I think it is only fair.

 

Lousy customs, bollocksing up people's lives. My government at work trying to steal more money away from people.  :tdown  And please do not say that this is done to protect local merchants.

 

Again, I only buy stuff I cannot get in the US or if it is a lot cheaper. So it is the fault of the local merchants for overpricing their stuff or not having something.

 

Which means that the importfees are only hurting local merchants because what I spend on custom fees (or as I call it randsom money) I cannot spend here.

 

Sorry for the long rant but I had to get it off my chest. I am just having a rotten time lately and it does not seem to be getting any better soon. Not just the Transformers though, everything is going badly right now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Just out of curiosity - Netherland's government is socialist, right? Most socialist government adopts commercially conservative/protectionist policies, such as high tariffs and intricate customs protocols. I could be wrong.

 

And isn't Europe really conservative when it comes to importing goods from anywhere? I know living in Canada, the European farmers are pissed off at cheaper imports, and recently, Belgium was trying to block imports from China or something.

 

Yeah, customs suck.