Hi,
I want to share this information in case anyone living in Germany is thinking about buying a pedal…
I paid just 94€ importtax for the Sparks and if I add the 50€ shipping costs, I am not sure, if I would buy it again, even I am sure, it´s a great pedal…
I’m sorry you were surprised by the customs and VAT fees. Just to clarify one detail: our international shipping charge is $45 USD, which is around 38 €. As for import taxes, there’s not much we can do, and we state on our website that we don’t cover these.
People often ask us to declare a lower value, and we’ve experimented with this a couple times in the past (basically just the cost of the raw goods). Many countries are strict about customs though, and this has caused problems. Sometimes customers are asked for an invoice directly (despite there being paperwork taped to the box), and if the values don’t match, the package gets flagged and delayed. Then the correct customs amount, plus extra fees for incorrect/flagged paperwork has to be paid.
Many European customers encouraged us to sell through a dealer, so we sometimes sell batches to The Pedal Zone in Denmark. It looks like they charge DKK 3,349.00, which is about 448 € (or $531 USD). We sell to them at a 30% loss, and they charge above retail to recoup the import fees they pay and to make a small profit. So unfortunately, depending on where you live and what the import taxes are, it doesn’t seem to be a significant cost savings for the customer. It’s often only about a 20 € difference between ordering direct and from The Pedal Zone. This varies by country in the EU - for example in France, shipping from TPZ is 20 € so the price ends up being about the same as our direct price after customs + VAT.
As a small family owned business manufacturing products in the US, there just isn’t a way to avoid these customs and VAT fees.
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Thank you for your reply.
I am completely aware of your situation! And I don´t blame you at all !!
I knew, there was some additional tax coming (not that much though), so I am still happy to recieve my Sparks - hopefully tomorrow. I just wanted other people to know about that…
All the Best and thank you for your inspirational work!
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This is true for the entire EU, the import VAT is basically the same as the “normal” VAT you pay for any good you buy within the EU (in Germany 19%, in Austria 20%).