Mega-CD/Sega CD FPGA Optical Disc Emulator

[Pyron]

I'll try to explain what happened to Pyron and why DHL Express is probably the most expensive way to ship stuff to Brazil.

Terra Onion is shipping from Andorra, yeah, Andorra.
So, I assume that Andorra itself doesn't have a mail service which will deliver to countries such as Brazil.

Great! What are your options? Well, since you're in Andorra, probably DHL is your only option.

Great! Now can I use DHL's standard parcel pick-up service then? No, you can't, because you're shipping from Andorra (you can check this trough DHL's website) and from frigging Andorra your only option is DHL Express.
DHL Express is a door-to-door service. Keep this in mind because this will have further implications in the next steps.

Awesome, now let me ship this Mega Drive cartridge from Andorra to Brazil using a door-to-door service that Pyron didn't asked for and see how it plays out with Brazil's customs and tax system.

Arriving in Brazil, DHL Express products to Rio de Janeiro are actually handled in São Paulo (which is also a capital city but of a different state) because DHL Express from Andorra can't be sent directly to Rio de Janeiro, it only has a direct route to São Paulo.

Still in São Paulo, as it's DHL Express, you'll not go through the regular sample-based customs verification which in most cases wouldn't verify your small lightweight package, no; since you're using this expensive door-to-door service your package will have to pay 60% of taxes on arrival.
So, instead of a 10% chance of being taxed on arrival; you were granted 100% chance of taxing on arrival. Nice job!!!
But, hey, not so fast... That 60% customs tax will be calculated over item price + shipment costs. Wow!
Hold on, hold on! But this is using today's USD quotation and not day of purchase quotation; with a little bit of "luck" it fluctuated from around BRL 3.80 to BRL 4.12 per 1 USD since the day of purchase.
So, yeah, have a near 10% extra increase on everything just 'cause you're really lucky.

Cool, now since you're travelling this industrial good from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro through a private door-to-door service instead of standard parcel service which would have been handled by Brazil's national mail service, you'll have to pay additional taxes which are applied to industrial good travelling through states inside Brazil. Yay!!!!
This step, alone, cost Pyron around USD 85.00. And it only happened because it was DHL Express.

After all this, when receiving this nice service at your door you'll also be "gifted" with own DHL administrative taxes, so another USD 15.00.
Super Duper A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Total charges (remember, this is not the item price and also not the shipping cost) paid by Pyron are: BRL 1150.00.
This is enough to buy 80-100 meals in common self-service restaurants in his area to give you an idea of how much this whole DHL Express from Andorra thing cost him.

The only being in the universe who could explain it so well is you Barone.

Thank you for that!

If one day I have depression, I will take this explanation to the doctor to let him know the reason for my illness ...

[Sik]

And this kind of stuff is why I'm looking for multiple publishers for Arkagis Revolution <_>

Huh, it really looks like being in Andorra isn't the best thing when you're going to be taking international orders after all…

[Black_Tiger]

In Canada all of the courier companies auto-charge customs fees on their own and charge a "handling fee" which is usually higher than the charges that customs would never have asked for and likely don't actually receive in the end. The handling/"brokerage" fee is sometimes higher than the value of the item.

When packages arrive from government based services like USPS, very rarely do customs fees get added and when they are, it's usually only a few dollars.

[broken]

To be clear: at checkout it clearly lists DHL Express as the only shipping option.

It’s not like we sprung that on anyone after the fact.

[Barone]

My understanding of Brazil customs is that you pay nearly 100% of the declared value in customs. Import something with a value of $100? You pay $100 in customs which is bonkers.

We use to offer Correos post office shipping to Brazil, but to be honest we have tons of headaches with purchases from Brazil. Slow shipping and lost packages. So we will only ship via DHL from now on to ensure packages actually arrive and because of DHL regulations and tax concerns, we have to declare full value.

To be clear: at checkout it clearly lists DHL Express as the only shipping option.
It’s not like we sprung that on anyone after the fact.

Good to know. If the best you can do is to export the tax burden to your customers and let them pay whatever DHL demands, I can't really support you.
I'll steer clear from anything from you guys from now on.

[Team Andromeda]

Well, that's obvious. People don't want to pay additional €70 for a product which is already quite expensive (not diminishing any engineering work/cost here).
Do you think it's OK to pay these additional costs which you become aware of when the mailman knocks at your door?
I guess Terraonion settled in Andorra in order to diminish its own taxes, but there must be a way to have both the company and its customers satisfied.
Perhaps they should take a look at e-estonia?

You can not blame a corp for looking to lessen its tax burden.

[tokay]

You can not blame a corp for looking to lessen its tax burden.

Did you understand I blame them? I hate taxes myself! I consider it is an organized theft to give it dilluted to random people while I have less money to help people who are closer to me (family, friends, neighbours).

My point is that Terraonion should:
- give a clear warning, perhaps illustrated with examples based on customers feedback that substantial taxes may have to be paid at delivery
- look for alternative to keep their taxes optimized but reduce the risk of making its customers pay high taxes at delivery

Hope this is clear once and for all, as I do not see anything problematic with what I wrote!

[Barone]

They could also learn how to copy/paste a "I'm sorry to hear you had these issues." (or something in those lines) whenever a customer reports such a dreadful experience.

That would at least make you think they give two fucks about their customers regardless where they live.

[Team Andromeda]

- give a clear warning, perhaps illustrated with examples based on customers feedback that substantial taxes may have to be paid at delivery
- look for alternative to keep their taxes optimized but reduce the risk of making its customers pay high taxes at delivery

I guess, but I would look to blame the EU or various countries import duty rates more myself that's the reason you're paying 70 Euro's more

[tokay]

I guess, but I would look to blame the EU or various countries import duty rates more myself that's the reason you're paying 70 Euro's more

Man, I never said the opposite! :-D
All governments worldwide are crooked organized mafias, so we have to deal with it.
People I voted for were never elected, even if I doubt they would have changed anything.

That's the world we live in, and I simply suggest Terraonion to look for every possibility to also support its customers.
No customers, no money, no Terraonion.

@Barone: yeah, you're right but obviously asking for too much :-D

[crazyteknohed]

People I voted for were never elected, even if I doubt they would have changed anything.

The clowns in our cabinet and the blundering buffoon who is “leading” our country into oblivion was elected by little over 0.1% of our population. That’s democracy in action, folks.

[chilled]

0.1% ?? What country is that? India? UK? Anyway taxes are what keep things up & running, crooked governments or not.

Also moving to Andorra just to avoid taxes is a bit lame. At least they should have researched more on how it would go with the biggest countries, particularly the ones which have bad rep on intl shipping (Rusia, Brazil...), and put some kind of warning. Or not sell the product outside the EU (or not shipping to country X or Y), like many other lesser known sellers. Many times I couldn't buy a game because the shop just didn't ship to EU (from USA).

[Mad Moham]

I'm guessing that most of you have never imported anything before. Despite what you may think, the tax office are not picking on you as an individual. They have rules they have to follow and they won't just waive a tax bill because you think you've already paid enough for the product.

[Barone]

Just a few examples, but yeah, surely no experience here. Don't know what I'm talking about, haven't imported anything before, no similar items, nothing.

[chilled]

Were the amounts in the screenshots the final total personal cost for you or did you have additional customs/vat/whatever costs ? I'm really curious about the Brazil import craze scheme