Shipping from europe

I see that many backers are from Europe. Is it possible to ship from europe or from china/hong kong for better possibilities avoiding to pay 2 times the price of limesdr? Thanks.

Iā€™m afraid that at this point all fulfilment will be from the US.

Oh, this is unfortunate :frowning: It means that every European customer will pay about 20% more (tax) plus customs handling fee. I thought that Lime Microsystems is based in UK, isnā€™t it possible to ship from UK to EU customers?

@mikos You would have to pay the 20% tax in either case, unless it would be manufactured 100% inside EU, in which case it would probably be 10x more expensive.

Thatā€™s right ā€” thereā€™s no avoiding taxes :slight_smile: And while itā€™s easy to imagine that fulfilment is a simple task, the reality is very different and itā€™s better to have someone who specialises in this handle it.

Hi,
Do you know the productā€™s classification which will be used to export the limesdr in Europe.
I would estimate customs fees (0, 12, 30%ā€¦)
Thank you and i wish you to reach the goal.

VAT is a great difficulty, for sure. Perhaps a USA person can order some extra SDRs and sell them as ā€˜usedā€™ equipment to people who live in high-VAT areas.

This is really misleading, it is not just about taxes, there are actually three things the EU / UK buyers get stung with:

  • the taxes (which would apply anyway)

  • Crowd Supply punishes non-US buyers with an extra $35 fee, that is way more than the cost of postage from an EU-based warehouse to an EU customer

  • in most EU countries, the postal service and private companies like Fedex add extra fees, for example, 10% of the declared value with some minimum like EUR 30

Example:

  1. LimeSDR $299 = EUR 255
  2. Crowd Supply non-US buyer penalty = $35 = EUR 29
  3. Customs processing fee = EUR 20
  4. Customs duties (e.g. 3%) = EUR 8
  5. Taxes (20% VAT) = EUR 51

Some important things to note:

  • the cost of (2) + (3) = EUR 49 = an extra 19%
  • the customs duty (point (4)) would be lower if a bulk shipment was brought into an EU warehouse as it is only charged on the wholesale price in that case
  • if the product is defective, all those costs (29 + 20 + 8 + 51 = EUR 108) are either non-refundable or require more paperwork to get a refund and there might be another tax to pay when a replacement is received. For hobbyists in particular, after waiting to receive their product all that paperwork or double-taxes adds insult to injury, they would be better off spending their time and money on things they enjoy.

This is true, but there are also many logistics companies in the EU who do all the same things far more efficiently for the 500 million people who live in the EU single market. The EU single market is actually bigger than the US market (and it will still be bigger even if the UK really Brexits and becomes a US colony like Puerto Rico). So if Crowd Supply is not willing to operate an EU-based warehouse without that $35 penalty charge, why canā€™t another company be appointed to service all the EU customers in a friendly way?

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Unfortunately I have found this topic only after ordering the LimeSDR Mini. If I had read it first then maybe I had changed my mind.
What I really donā€™t understand is that the product arrives at Europe and will be send to US, I have to pay for shipping but for US customers shipping is free. I take this one like this: Iā€™m charged with extra shipping costs that the US customers donā€™t have to pay it too (discrimination?).
Sure that Iā€™m frustrated and is in my opinion really unfair considering that the many supporters are from Europe.
What I donā€™t understand (again) for being delivered to Europe (stage 1) the product must be a ā€œsubjectā€ for customs that means the customs have to be paid once, then we have again customs for US and then again for Europe as the product enters the EU second time?

Thank you

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Transit is after some bureaucratic works custom free. So the same as with taxes apply that what ever you do you should pay them exactly once. (Not without but also not twice)

I bought mine in Germany from ā€œAmazon.deā€ for about 450ā‚¬ (around 525 USD) !

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I also find this information late ā€¦ I bought two limesdr-mini, and the shipping price is twice of a single limesdr (30 euro X 2 == 60 euros)!! I naively thought this must have included the import taxes, until I received a separate bill from Fedex for a total of 76 additional euros for customs/tax fees for importing to Germany. This makes each Limesdr-mini costing around 159 + 30 + 38 == 227 euros!

So for anyone in EU who want to buy LimeSDR ā€¦ it is another 68 to 100 euros more expensive than US buyers! Very disappointed and I think crowdsupply is a bit mis-leading me to believe tax was included. All my other purchases from anyone else (newegg, amazon US, etc.) they all charges tax when I pay the items. And crowdsupply FAQ is saying that they are legally not allowed to do this ā€¦

Note that you can also buy from Mouser:

https://www.mouser.co.uk/Search/Refine?Keyword=limesdr+mini