We have ordered one or two things from the UK since Brexit - with varied rates of success. Basically if things come from the family (thanks Anne), then they are in a jiffy bag with a customs declaration sticker stating that it is of zero value (ok, maybe a tenner). That seems to get through without any hassle.
Unfortunately, online shopping is something else and it seems to be pretty random.
G bought 2 pairs of shoes at £60 each - and she was hit with a 20€ customs charge at the Post Office (Correos) whence goes our regular mail.
I bought some bar towels (don´t ask) and they slipped through the net as the far-sighted vendor had listed them as "commercial samples" (the options on the CN22 docket being gift / document / sale of goods(?) / commercial sample / returned goods / other).
We picked them up as I had received a text from the Correos to tell me there was something waiting for me (the lazy b*****s sometimes do this rather than actually delivering it to me to the house address) and alongside the packet of bar towels were two letters - which later appeared to be what the text was actually about.
The duplicated letters (duplicates in all but registration number) were letters in spanish telling me that they (seemingly Correos) had some spectacles I had ordered for G and which they had impounded awaiting payment of customs duty. I translated the whole letter and it gave me websites to visit and a threat of "destruction of goods" were I not to progress the issue.
Accordingly I went online to the website - having to register first (always p´s me off) only to find that the 24 digit barcode led me to a chart which showed me the letters had been delivered to me! Sod all about the specs, just these stupid letters. Brilliant. Just a black hole.
Well, I checked with the vendors (Glasses2You) and they told me they just put the value on a CN22 and sent them, but "different european countries applied different customs import taxes at the border".
Thanks for that - no mention of it on their website.
There seems to be a 150€ value threshold mentioned by correos, but G´s shoes which she had to pay for were less than that (as are the specs), which implies the import tax is about 15%, so maybe that is an upper threshold (beyond which you probably pay shedloads) and below which you just pay.
So now I am in a quandary. Do I wait for the tossers to send me a text telling me the specs are in the office - and go and pay up and look pleasant, or do I go in and tell them what a useless bunch of a****s they are?
Note that the website implies that you can tell correos to deliver the item and agree to pay the duty, but seeing as I don´t have a delivery number for the package (just the bloody letters, remember), it is all a bit of a nonsense.
...and the website is all in Catalan spanish, or Portuguese, or (wait for it) bloody Chinese.
You really couldn´t make it up.
..... but then, this is the nationalised rubbish heap from which the delivery driver (begrudgingly bring me a packet) told me that the road name was "wrong now" as the Correos were using something different as there were too many similar ones and it was confusing them). This is the road name actually "owned" by the Junta de Andalucia and accompanied by its Axxx number and kilometre marker - what´s difficult about that?
Remember how bad it was when the GPO ran mail and telephones in the UK?. Well, we are sixty years behind here in many things (and getting rid of the Movistar / Telefonica communications accounts was the best move I ever made) - guess I should only buy stuff from UK companies that use decent couriers in future.
+ Well - I went into the post office and asked (faux naively) whether they had the parcel relating to this letter they had sent me.
New girl scans barcode and tells me it is not a parcel, it is a letter.
Patiently I explain that she is holding the letter and where is the parcel it mentions.
Desultory search of cupboard.
Nothing. Another search of page. "It only mentions a letter".
"No, it is about a parcel as it says at the top".
Call for more experience old dragon. Perfunctory look in cupboard. There is no parcel.
"Why do I have this letter then?".
Don´t know.
"But it was sent by you".
"Maybe it is in the post".
Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the wee donkey.
++ But then two(!) more letters, but this time with a reference number.
I go online with the system to which I had registered and it throws me into a nightmare of forms and options. Eventually I print a form which appears to be the one required to get the goods, then pin to that a copy of my NIE, TIE and the receipt for payment. I then take all this into the Post Office and ask what they can do now.
Nothing.
But the bloody form is yours - look "Correos" at the head.
Nothing.
Luckily I know these tossers of old, so have a an envelope with me and thus post the whole shebang off to ---- Correos.
The website claims to be in English (it isn´t) and claims you can attach the papers (God knows how). It is my idea of a nightmare - questionable forms and foreign language couched in terms even the spaniards would struggle with.
It is called buggeration I think.
Anyway, I sent an email to the vendor giving him the status and will now await the goods - or not. If they don´t materialise next week, I will just get back to him claim lack of delivery and let them sort it out (he did tell me that he wasn´t experiencing any major problems, but he will be soon I think)
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