Thomann post Brexit?

[kodiakblair]

@Newfoundfreedom

Next folks will be complaining when more European outlets just stop trading with the UK.

[Newfoundfreedom]

52 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

@Newfoundfreedom

Next folks will be complaining when more European outlets just stop trading with the UK.

No that could never happen could it? 

Boris said everything would be fine. 🤔

[Chienmortbb]

On 13/01/2021 at 19:52, Aidan63 said:

UPS are having their own issues, I've been trying to get my invoice from them (and pay it) for the duty on a shipment of parts from America for my business for over a month, usually the invoice is raised before the goods are even on the plane from the US and I give the driver a cheque when he delivers the package. In this case I have the goods and no idea of when I'll get the bill or what I'll have to pay. They have another package for me from the same US supplier that has been sat at Stansted now for a week (hopefully not in bonded storage with daily charges), it should have been delivered on Monday, no idea when it will arrive. Their customer service team have no more information than I have from the online tracking. The last time I actually got an itemised bill  from UPS over 12 months ago the charge for collecting the tax/duty was £17.95, since early last year the bills have just been a total owing with no breakdown of tax, duty and collection charge. I think the US operation has over time done a phased transfer of the work onto the UK team who have become overwhelmed by working from home, illness, staffing issues, probably system changes and now the changes due to Brexit.

The depots and drivers are still doing their best. The visible online tracking now only gives a brief overview/latest status whereas before you could see exactly what was happening, including the customs clearance and raising of paperwork all the way through the system.

In my experience UPS have always been high on proice and low on service. On another matter, the good old Royal Mail only chages £8 for customs clearance. Hands up those who are glad they voted leave (hands down you in NI)

[Suburban guitar]

I just paid a £50 fee for £180 guitar It took over a week to get there and the paperwork was a ball ache. Hours on the phone waiting for UPS et cetera et cetera the driver actually brought the guitar to my door and then said oh you need to pay customs duty did not have the paperwork I had to phone them up it was very complicated and not smoothI had bought a guitar and £135 that sailed through without any problems so whether that slipped under the net or it’s okay at that price I don’t know

[SH73]

I have been eyeing up an instrument at Thomann that would save me £60 or more in comparison to UK prices. BUT looking at this thread, I'd be spending hours on the phone, paying extra for custom clearance and so on. So not really worth the hassle.

[Chienmortbb]

Thomann could ease things. They only have to register for VAT with HMRC and they can put the vat back on and things wouls go smoothly. of course that means they collect tax for HM Gov but I bought so goods for the US that arrived to day, no fuss and easier than it was before. Hands up those whio still think Brexit was a good idea?

[EBS_freak]

2 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Thomann could ease things. They only have to register for VAT with HMRC and they can put the vat back on and things wouls go smoothly. of course that means they collect tax for HM Gov but I bought so goods for the US that arrived to day, no fuss and easier than it was before. Hands up those whio still think Brexit was a good idea?

They could - but it would also set a very dangerous precedence. Thomann arguably have the financial ability to absorb the overhead in running such an operation. What about the small one person independents? What happens if the rest of the world suddenly decides that this method of tax collection is a good idea?

Complete disaster.

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 14, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Chienmortbb]

Just now, EBS_freak said:

They could - but it would also set a very dangerous precedence. Thomann arguably have the financial ability to absorb the overhead in running such an operation. What about the small one person independents? What happens if the rest of the world suddenly decides that this method of tax collection is a good idea?

Complete disaster.

I do agree, it is a complete disaster. Although of course Thomann et al were already doing this with VAT. VAT is companies collecting tax on behalf of the government. Several things have changed including the fact that before Brexit anything under £15 was VAT free, this was also true in the EU. the irony is that the EU have followed this and now there are no exceptions.

Those companies that do not register with HMRC will be forcing their customers to pay the VAT amd customs duty once the goods have arrived. In theory the cost should be the same but the handlers, Royal Mail, Fedex, TNT etc will charge for customs clearance. I will admit that I do not know whether the  EU also require overseas businesses to register too. I think I have found the benefit of Brexit. Royal Mail and the others will make more money.

The old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" springs to mind. Still as they are not spending £300+ million per week on the NHS, perhaps they could give us each a share to compensate.

Still at least the Fishemen are better off..... oh no.

 

 

[Chienmortbb]

5 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

I forgot to update on my last order! Thomann were great, UPS were charging the VAT which I'd already paid when buying the item pre-Brexit, so to keep it simple for me Thomann refunded the difference so I could just pay the UPS bill without losing out, bar the new handling fee. I hope they were able to reclaim that cost from UPS, but I can't argue with how they handled it for me.

I've got some more bits on the way from Thomann now, the timings were thrown off by the Easter weekend, but the fees came through, this time from Parcel Force. £65 VAT and handling on an order of £265, which seems right. I won't sniff at two basses and a gigbag handed to me on my doorstep for £330!

It does make you think however that we might be better off buying from say Andertons etc. I bought something from, them recently and changed my mind, no problem.

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 14, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Happy Jack]

As a long-standing fan of Thomann, I'm depressed to say that it's unlikely I'll buy from them again, especially since this is actually down to their choice of courier!

@Silvia Bluejay and I put in an order for about £200 a couple of weeks ago, our first since Brexit. Instead of the usual snappy and efficient turnaround, we had to chase them for a valid tracking number, then we waited a week for a message saying that our goods were held up at Customs and would be delivered a week later (i.e. today).

Had an update this morning from UPS stating that the goods would be delivered between 8:15 and 12:30 today and that there were fees to pay. Fine, sat there waiting. 

At 2:45 re-checked to find that UPS had "attempted a delivery" at 8:51 (a lie, no UPS van even came down our street) but had been "unable to receive payment" (another lie, they hadn't requested any).

Checked the UPS website and found an option to pay the fees online (with a warning that we'd then need to print the receipt to show the UPS driver, presumably because the system doesn't actually update in real time). You can't pay unless you log in. You can't log in unless you register. It won't let me register, says my user name is already in use. 

Life's too short for this sort of 5h1t. I've emailed them telling Thomann to eirher insist that UPS actually come here and ring my doorbell or just cancel my order and refund in full.

 

[EBS_freak]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

As a long-standing fan of Thomann, I'm depressed to say that it's unlikely I'll buy from them again, especially since this is actually down to their choice of courier!

@Silvia Bluejay and I put in an order for about £200 a couple of weeks ago, our first since Brexit. Instead of the usual snappy and efficient turnaround, we had to chase them for a valid tracking number, then we waited a week for a message saying that our goods were held up at Customs and would be delivered a week later (i.e. today).

Had an update this morning from UPS stating that the goods would be delivered between 8:15 and 12:30 today and that there were fees to pay. Fine, sat there waiting. 

At 2:45 re-checked to find that UPS had "attempted a delivery" at 8:51 (a lie, no UPS van even came down our street) but had been "unable to receive payment" (another lie, they hadn't requested any).

Checked the UPS website and found an option to pay the fees online (with a warning that we'd then need to print the receipt to show the UPS driver, presumably because the system doesn't actually update in real time). You can't pay unless you log in. You can't log in unless you register. It won't let me register, says my user name is already in use. 

Life's too short for this sort of 5h1t. I've emailed them telling Thomann to eirher insist that UPS actually come here and ring my doorbell or just cancel my order and refund in full.

 

Man, I feel for you.

And people still hate on Amazon. You know when they say "we aim to be the Earth's most customer centric company", they certainly got the courier bit sorted. And the buying experience. And the returns experience. In fact, it's going to be difficult for even the likes of Thomann to compete with Amazon when this is the sort of stinky poo show that is going on.

They just need to work on the bit where their workers are involved.

[SH73]

I have seen a UPS driver before outside our and neighbour's house looking confused. The street is clearly marked so are the houses. He had a parcel in his hand ,he then took a picture of the neighbour's house and left. I came out in attempt to ask if he was looking for and address, as I opened the door he's gone. Neither me or my neighbour expected a delivery that day. Royal mail is no different, I waited all morning for a parcel, they put a note through the door without ringing the bell or knocking the door. I phoned their head office as soon as Pat was driving off. They delivered......the following day.

Back to Thomann topic, I bought stuff from them on a couple of occasion and the delivery and service was just like clockwork. Shame as they have now probably lost UK customer base.

 

[Saul Panzer]

I grabbed some bits from Thomanns a few weeks ago, nothing expensive just replacement knobs and such..maybe £70 worth of bits.
Took around 6 days to arrive including the weekend, no nasty surprises..just ordered like normal and it all arrived.

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

As a long-standing fan of Thomann, I'm depressed to say that it's unlikely I'll buy from them again, especially since this is actually down to their choice of courier!

 

Thats what I was expecting (I asked on another thread about it). I was sort of tempted that they had the 4003s/5 rics for £1350 which even with the vat plus charge is quite good, but the hassle my wife has had getting her shipments through with UPS, its just not worth it

[AxelF]

 I've used Thomann 3 or 4 times over the last couple of months, all for bits and bobs that were under the £135 mark each time and they've just arrived as they used to. I appreciate some people are having problems with couriers, especially since they're now collecting VAT and fees on items over that mark, but to be honest most of that seems like the usual general incompetence from the couriers rather than Thomanns fault. 

[TheLowDown]

Well if the couriers were fine before Brexit then it's not the problem of the couriers, but adjusting to the new system.

[Woodinblack]

54 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

Well if the couriers were fine before Brexit then it's not the problem of the couriers, but adjusting to the new system.

They weren't - they used to come by DPD who were great. They now can't come by DPD, they come by UPS, who aren't.

[TheLowDown]

12 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

They weren't - they used to come by DPD who were great. They now can't come by DPD, they come by UPS, who aren't.

When did the change from DPD to UPS happen for you?

[BassAdder60]

How about we support our own U.K. stores and staff and encourage them to be more competitive which they will often do when asked.

Ive used Thomann once last year for a Marshall valve Combo that took ages to arrive and worried me a bit if needing to go back.

Now I will stick with PMT, Andertons, or Ashdown direct etc etc 

Granted we still have the U.K. couriers to contend with but I’ve found DPD to be excellent and accurate with delivery promises etc

Buy from British based stores - you know it makes sense 😉

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 14, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[BassAdder60]

I agree if the U.K. stores claim they cannot compete then Thomann etc have a chance to take the business.

I do think we often don’t give some U.K. outlets a chance to compete with a quick phone call.

Often its stock related and some great deals can be found but as we all know eventually there will be no physical stores to play basses or hear amps for real and we finally end up like the rest of the high street shops .. gone !! 
 

I don’t disagree Thomann are a superb outlet but I think supporting local and U.K. business should be encouraged even more so now 

[Chienmortbb]

31 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

Technically, voting with our wallets and buying from Thomann could be seen as encouraging them to be more competitive.

Starting to buy from dearer UK stores because we haven't been given much choice could hardly be classed as support either. Trust Brexit to mana

ge to be both anti-competitve and anti-collaborative all at once! 😄

To be fair the reason to buy from Thomann was often the range of stock they carry, none of the UK shops could compete especially with Harley Benton. When uK shops had stock you could always get a price match. So what is the alternative to Harley Benton for quality low cost instruments?

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, TheLowDown said:

When did the change from DPD to UPS happen for you?

January the 1st. I tried to book something via DPD on about the 8th of january and found they were no longer able to do deliveries from the EU to the UK.

 

1 hour ago, BassAdder27 said:

How about we support our own U.K. stores and staff and encourage them to be more competitive which they will often do when asked.

Ive used Thomann once last year for a Marshall valve Combo that took ages to arrive and worried me a bit if needing to go back.

Now I will stick with PMT, Andertons, or Ashdown direct etc etc 

Sure. There is a Rickenbacker 4003s/5 in Thoman. https://www.thomann.de/gb/rickenbacker_4003s5_mbl.htm

Hmm, gone up to £1379, it was  £1350, obviously ex-vat but free postage, so with transfer fees the worse case is it will be £1750?

Andertons.. lets see https://www.andertons.co.uk/rickenbacker-4003s5-5-string-bass-in-jetglo

Yep, £3279.

1 hour ago, BassAdder27 said:

Buy from British based stores - you know it makes sense 😉

Yeh. Maybe I just need to win the lottery first!