JulesRules
400 Club - QQ All-Star
Got this e-mail about the German customs situation - fwiw nothing has changed for me in two weeks, it's still showing as "being prepared" in Niederaula.
You may be experiencing some delays in receiving this blu-ray and I wanted to explain exactly what is going on and why this may have not arrived through your letterbox, just yet.
All pre-orders were shipped on or around 10 April, two days before the release date of 12 April. That's in line with normal shipping procedures here at the SDE shop.
We are IOSS registered (this stands for International One Stop Shop) which means that despite Brexit, goods should enter the EU without any extra import VAT due or delays with customs. Our 'IOSS' number is sent electronically to customs, in Germany in your case, and it is registered as valid and the goods move across the border with no issues. The shipping label also has IOSS symbol on it.
Our IOSS registration is controlled in Ireland by the Irish Tax Authority and they work with the EU via our IOSS provider to make sure everything runs smoothly. There have been no problems with this, since we registered six months ago, until now...
Unfortunately, only a couple of days after shipping Mark Knopfler, we were informed of a technical issue in the Irish Tax Authority that was causing various EU customs offices to incorrectly think that the SDE shop was not IOSS registered or at least to register our IOSS number as non-compliant (or 'expired').
What this means is that our customers, like your good self, in the EU are being asked to pay import VAT, which they should not have to do. People are being contacted by customs and asked to pay import VAT before their goods are forwarded. If this occurs we are advising you pay and contact us and we can refund the VAT collected when you pre-ordered.
HOWEVER in Germany, at least in some instances, customs seem to be defaulting to returning your order to us. They are not contacting customers and informing them they need to pay extra, they are effectively 'rejecting' the goods outright (due presumably to the IOSS issue) and sending back to the UK.
We are obviously deeply frustrated with this situation because we do not expect our loyal customers to have to wait weeks to receive their orders.
What should you do?
1. Order not received, but I have an email or card through the door telling me to pay VAT on the import in order to receive the goods
In this instance, please pay import duty and email proof of payment (pdf receipt if possible) to [email protected]. We will refund any VAT collected.
2. Order not received and I have no idea where it is!
Don't panic! Your order is almost certainly not 'lost'. It has probably been rejected by German customs and is on its way back to us in the UK. This may take some time. Once we receive it we will be in touch to organise getting it back to you. No action required. You will not miss out on Mark Knopfler!
We are extremely sorry for this situation but I can assure you that it is being fixed and we are expecting normal service to resume very shortly. We have suspended further EU shipping until then.
Also, please bear in mind that we are dealing with much a higher volume of customer emails than normal at the moment, due to this situation, so it may take a little bit longer than normal to get back to you, should you have a query.
THANK YOU for your interest in SDE and our exclusive blu-ray products but mostly thanks for your patience in this unfortunate situation.
