The amount of custom fees we have to pay in some cases are equal a new clockwork pi.
Sorry to hear about your experiences with Customs. Clockworkpi changed to DHL/Fedex due to their experience with PostNL on the Kickstarter/Indiegogo shipments. The parcels shipped then, were held by PostNL due to misunderstandings on the packaging of the battery, causing massive delays and removal of the battery from the package besides packages being lost. Although unfortunate, customs duties can be an issue based on the country you live in and treaties with China; there usually is a “tax-free” limit on the amount in your local currency you can freely import. Marking a box as a gift, for something you paid for, can be considered fraud and depending on local legislation a fine or destruction of the package. Again, I feel for you, but this is not a fault of Clockwork.
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Man, this has nothing to do with DHL. It would be the same thing with FedEx or any other courier.
They are collecting the customs fee as a courtesy to you to save you the inconvenience, time and effort to collect your package from the customs office.
The money is passed on to the state to you know pay for your school and stuff.
Whenever you bought things in a store you have paid this tax.
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DHL charged 15€ in addition to the 40€ customs for handling the customs though. Would have been great if DHL warned me and offered me to just take care of the customs myself.
Yeah that sucks. Used to be a free service.
I received mine today and had to pay ~50 € in customs. Not cool, but since I got the early discount by more or less the same it balances out. I think the main problem was that it was declared as “Console”. I think they should declare it as electronics or something like that, which is not a lie after all.
I’m extremely happy with the GameShell. I love it! I can’t wait to start developing something in it. Thank you for making this.
you can declare it as electronic parts instead of Console. They are parts after all. An alternative would be to sell the parts in cheaper and smaller bundles so as to avoid custom fees. I’m sure that most of us will pay the extra shipping costs so as to avoid the extremely overpriced custom fees. The tax free limit in my country is 150e …it’s very near the clockwork pi price including shipping. I’d be paying 0 fees if I’d received 2 packages instead of one. I’m sure there are solutions you just need to think and make them happen.
i’m currently sitting on a 320$ clockwork pi… i hope it becomes collectible at some point (NOT)
I am pretty happy about FedEx for the delivery, I got charged for ÂŁ35 for custom duty, but that is charged by the government, not FedEx, neither clockwork.
From what I understand FedEx/DHL was only following rules or regulations of your own country, if you think the rules or regulations are unreasonable then blame it to the one who made those regulations, not to somebody who is doing honest business and following the countries regulations. It is unfair to honest business and its people.
There are shipping services who take cover for you items, but I believe that is at the cost of reliability and trustworthy.
Yeah Clockwork are not to blame in any case, but with the kind of product they’re shipping maybe they could declare them as something else like “electronic components”, which would be a perfectly legitimate way to maybe avoid some customs for some people.
DHL sent the package to the wrong address btw. You gave them or they put the wrong postal code. Obviously it’s not your fault again.
Old topic but always relevant!
We can have the option to make the administrative part ourself and indicate to fedex we don’t want their scam… service!
I think I didn’t buy another things from clockworkpi just because of the crazy fees from dhl/fedex…
isn’t fedex just comply with local laws and provide proper invoice for tax declaration?
Yes, but the problem comes from the fact that as customers, we don’t have a choice of delivery service, and consequently if it’s rubbish, we simply don’t buy it.
Let’s just say that even though I’m aware of the costs, I’m always surprised by additional items and “surprises.” It really pissed me off as we pay in average twice the price displayed on store.
($25 “shipping” + ~$45 of VAT and fee… Almost the $75 of the picocalc!)
wouldn’t you pay the same VAT with any other delivery service if they provide proper invoice for declaration?
VAT doesn’t bother me in this case; my concern is FedEx’s questionable practices, which rely as much on legality as on extortion (questionable and, above all, hidden processing fees).
At least DHL or UPS are kind enough to say, “Here it is, it costs so much” + VAT + customs, etc. This is something FedEx doesn’t do, and it opens the door to “you should have anticipated this, sir.”
FedEx have their faults, but as for ClockworkPi, I’m sorry, but I don’t see any mention that the delivery person is FedEx in the ordering process or the FAQ.
And that, for me, is a problem. Because as a customer, it’s a “surprise,” especially if you no longer want to be served by FedEx for the reasons I mentioned.
To be honest, I prefer to be delivered by UPS or at least by DHL, but no more FedEx…
My question is more about why DHL or UPS have not been added to the options since?
If me, as a customer, can’t choose my delivery service, why should I pay for their bonus fees?
And if ClockworkPi want to choose, they pay the extra fees (and me the VAT and customs as normally). It seems much cleaner and more honest to me.
I’m certainly “moaning,” but it’s more of a comment about what could be improved in the future. I really like the quality of the products, but the logistics are “horrible” for the customers.