France in Focus

Just received part of an order from M&S delivered by La Poste. I ordered on the .fr site. The delivery note says it came from Leicester and was sent via East Midlands Airport, Derby and that these commodities were exported from the United Kingdom in accordance with the local export regualtions. Yet I haven't had to pay any extra!

Larger companies are well aware of the legislation and register as appropriate. Intermediaries like Amazon and Banggood have done so as well - sending payments due to the French authorities directly. Hassle-free shopping is likely to increase their trade, after all (an argument Chancer/LD made on a now defunct forum).

I am ordering something from the US where they give me the option to prepay the taxes - I will see how that works - hopefully it will remove the surcharges the carriers impose to collect the import dues.

Yes as J says big companies will have at least one EU registration and have no problems then paying the necessary import VAT - and occasionally duties where applicable. The costs are built into the price you see when you place an order.

For eBay and Amazon however beware.
Amazon - items sold from Amazon warehouse (whichever country it is located in) will include the charges. Items sold through independent sellers using the Amazon platform won't have these costs included. You could get charged. You might be lucky.
eBay - similar. Sellers using the (previously expensive) global shipping program will have no extra costs to pay once you get to the payment page. Sellers making their own shipping arrangements will likely not have these VAT elements included and you could come to find extra costs on delivery.


On a related note; I have just received an email from the British corner shop that they now have M&S Christmas foods on stock.
https://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/
All import costs/VAT are taken care of in the prices shown.

Thanks for that Exile - I shall take a look at BCS as I really do have a craving for a Frey Bentos Steak Pie amongst other things - wonder if they do Battenberg cake

[mention]exile[/mention]

Amazon - items sold from Amazon warehouse (whichever country it is located in) will include the charges. Items sold through independent sellers using the Amazon platform won't have these costs included. You could get charged. You might be lucky.

I notice that Amazon UK seem to increase the delivery charges from what they used to be on a couple of items that I researched yesterday. Not to buy from UK of course, just to read about stuff that I wanted to buy on fr.

Also, on a recent contretemps with a Seller on Amazon FR, they offered to send me another item but it took 2 questions from me before I accepted, because I wasn't sure it would come from within the EU. It did, and I accepted, the parcel arrived from Germany.

If at all possible, I always buy only items sold by and expedited by Amazon.

[mention]Sparkle[/mention] I've just bought some things from BCS, was very pleased with the speed of delivery and no extra charges

Looking at BCS prices they are frightening. A lot of the products are available in French supermarkets at much lower prices. Not for me!

Wilbro wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 5:02 pm Looking at BCS prices they are frightening. A lot of the products are available in French supermarkets at much lower prices. Not for me!

Nor us either, as ever it's a case of shopping round

Everyone to their own.

I guess it's a case of being sure it is the same product, and that the time and mileage involved in finding that French source are considered worthwhile.
We recently took delivery of a box of goodies from "Bacon in a box" (from Ireland). It included a small steak. My gosh wasn't it tasty, and didn't have to be beaten to death with a tenderizer or eaten raw to make it edible.

I posted a few days ago to say I’d received goods from M&S and Lakeland both arrived very quickly with no extra charges.
I’ve also ordered from BCS and Bacon by the Box this year, both with quick service and no extra costs.
I did try an English shop in Eymet when I took Raffi back to his breeder to be groomed but their costs were considerably higher than BCS.