SHIPPING
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Yea, this is definitely not cool.
Why not just ship the product to Germany and let the customer take care of the import fee, just like you do with every other non-EU country?
And what's to stop German customers from sending things to friends in neighbouring countries with free shipping and customs paid by IHUK, and then paying their friend 20 Euros to ship it to them in Germany?
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Why not just ship the product to Germany and let the customer take care of the import fee
If people contact us to request this, it is absolutely something we can do. We needed to draw a line somewhere and set a policy that was easy to enforce. In our experience of paying these taxes, duty/tax/other fees on a pair of jeans shipped to Germany adds up to a total of more than €75.
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Further to this, the cost to us if we ship something DAP, then the customer refuses delivery once they receive a bill from UPS creates a huge problem both logistically and financially for us.
We have had situations when shipping retailer orders to the EU where a typo was made on the commercial invoice, and the retailer in question was asked for thousands in duty and taxes rather than hundreds. He refused the delivery and it took us about 6 weeks of back and forth to get the goods back to us without us having to pay the discharged duty, even though the package was not delivered
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This is really sad news. Understandable from your side, but not a satisfactory solution from customer perspective.
Despite the 'great network of german retailers' (and them having really cool shops), they are far from offering the full range of IH product, some are not even present with an online shop.
As it seems to be as you say @Alex , it is still hard to understand why this only applies to one of so many EU countries and that no other solution was available.
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@endo we really do understand your point of view. I am so sorry that we have had to do this.
Since January 2020 we have had ebbs and flows of thoughts on what we should do. At one point, Giles & Paula wanted to stop servicing the EU altogether due to the additional costs we shouldered.
We tried shipping via the Netherlands to avoid the taxes for EU customers, we have tried a lot, and we have been utterly transparent throughout the process.
I am afraid that the German customs department have a different set of charges to the other and we are doing what we can to still service this market in one sense. We will constantly review the shipping charges, and adjust them as needed.
Germany is our largest European market, this has not been an easy decision for us in the slightest
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@thomas01:
I it as a bitter pill. But I think it’s fair.
If you ever been in a German Tax office it is better to pay 75€ for shipping etc .
And you could use the stacking option to minimize costs a bit.Thanks, @thomas01 and exactly that on shipping
Again, I want to point out that we will constantly review the shipping charge. We are not using this as some way to over inflate our margins
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I know you're doing what you can and this must have been a very hard decision for IHUK. Still, mainly sad. I very much hope this will prompt german retailers to ordering more products from you, so we can get them from them. Frankly speaking, ordering a shirt for 250-300€ plus 75€ for shipping seems inadequate even if it's Ironheart.
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Frankly speaking, ordering a shirt for 250-300€ plus 75€ for shipping seems inadequate even if it's Ironheart.
We do understand this entirely, and very much hope that the shift is demand from us to German shops will help..
prompt german retailers to ordering more products from you
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Sad news
This will mean that I will only order very well selected items. So far I've pulled the trigger more often. -
Not cool. (especially without an announcement before …)
No german retailer offers the full range.
Not to forget. No one offers the outstanding hemming service with a Union Special.
Extra costs of 40€ minimum for a pair plus shipping costs when ordering from in Germany (e.g. IH Store Hamburg).And the remaining loyalty voucher is blown in the wind ...
Bummer.
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Austria's not affected so far? Thought we do have the worst custom guys…
I've had the German customs guys look up used Visvim sneakers on the internet to see how much they cost.
Amazingly, the Swiss let everything through. I guess that's the sign of a truly rich country
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I think we can all agree that it's just sad these measures have to be taken. I to 100% believe IHUK have thought this through more than once. From my understanding, the thing us all (me included) care about most, is having access to the full lineup, especially releases that are not stocked by any EU/German resellers. UHR, shirts, wallets, jackets and what not.
Also, from what I understand, the cost driving factor for IHUK is per shipping and not per item / per value (correct me, if I'm wrong). So, theoretically, if we could bundle up all German orders, that would make the cost/item negligibly low. Certainly lower than 75€ (or 90€ in the worst case).
I'm 99% sure IHUK have taken all options into account, but still, here's an idea from the naive customer I am:
IH Germany* offers the full lineup through their web shop
IH Germany* collects orders (from German customers only) over a certain time period (e.g. 1 month)
IHUK sends that collected order in one shipping to IH Germany
IH Germany* ships to customers (and, if necessary, charges a reasonable shipping fee of e.g. 10€ for it)This is basically stacking, but as a group.
If IH Germany does not want to do this, any other German reseller may be willing to? It certainly seems attractive!
If no reseller will do it, we could even arrange it ourselves? I've heard of the World Tours. So I have no worries we can organize a bundled order. After only 1,5 years in this forum, I trust you fellow forum members more than my bank consultant. So I'd 100% prepay someone to collectively order for me.
This is just two cents from a rather new, but very happy IH customer, who just cried his heart out about the news,
but figured it'd make much more sense to try and find solutions.Cheers from Munich
Emil
