I was looking to order about £45 worth of stuff from Taiwan.
Shipping is £30.
That makes it rather less attractive...
Discussion
Replies:
8
@neil The solution is to order £90 worth of stuff instead ;)
@neil you could go and collect it. Slightly more expensive, but it's an amazing place to visit ;-)
It's the same when importing anything from outside the EU.
Shipping costs are often a significant fraction of the total order price. Especially from the US and Canada 😟
@neil
Compared with the situation in the Highlands where we often get charged in the order of £45 shipping to get £3 worth of stuff from England, that is rather more reasonable than we're used to.
(Apparently many businesses in England are unable to use Royal Mail for deliveries, because reasons)
Yet, at the same time, £30 to get something delivered to my door from half way around the world is really rather impressive.
(Whether or not there would be additional customs fees, VAT, etc., I'm not sure. But still.)
@neil I’m still astounded (one way or the other) that Aliexpress can ship something from China to the UK for less than a UK company charges to send something 20 miles down the road…
@psfshr Oh, for sure!
And, often, it is the same stuff too...
I believe they’re abusing the international rules for small parcels, with the parcel services of the destination country picking up most of the bill.
They’re also avoiding customs fees and VAT by staying under certain values.
Local companies can’t avoid those when they import in bulk and have to pay full rates to local shipping companies.
