Yeah, USPS would have been the only decent solution for me.
Once again ,it's not even a question of price but rather all the administrative bull???? we'll have to go through now. I'm seriously disappointed.
As much as I can understand that Sideshow had to do it in order to survive the crisis, I really hope they're going to lose most of their European customers...
Anyway, this is less of a problem now that it would have been a few years back when Sideshow really mattered. Now that they have almost stopped 1/6, they've lost what most of us wanted to buy from them anyway.
Still, it really tells a lot about the lack of consideration these guys give us.
I've bought from them from the very start, bought a lot and never even received a
gift card or anything. And now this?
Well... I guess we won't forget...
We have explored the USPS option and they unfortunately cannot offer the level of service and competitive shipping prices that FedEx can. Many people think using USPS will save the VAT and custom fees however that usually is only if you doctor the customs paperwork by claiming a gift or lesser SRP, which we cannot do. Perhaps smaller vendors or Ebayers can do that and that is why people assume that Sideshow will be able to do the same.
Sideshow has made great efforts to make our product affordable to the EU community. The EU facility was not owned or directly controlled by Sideshow, which in itself caused numerous problems that our staff has struggled with at great expense, an expense that was not passed on the the EU clients. We absorbed all of the loading costs and import charges assessed just for stocking the EU warehouse that should have been passed onto the EU clients as well but were not.
The comments such as the ones above about the 'lack of consideration' Sideshow gives to our EU clients, highlights the misconception many EU collectors have. The other ridiculous, sniping comments won't be addressed but we are embarrassed for those posters.
The escalating internal warehouse issues, unreliable local carriers losing and damaging packages, and their sporadic delivery schedules and practices caused customer complaints, frustration and skyrocketing product and administration costs. These costs would have been passed onto the EU customer in 2010. After sheltering most of the costs that should have been paid by our EU customers, literally since we began using that facility, the increases would have been a shock. Thus, we opted to bring EU shipments back within the control of our own warehouse and use the volume to negotiate special rates not just for the EU but for our other International clients as well.
This decision brings with it many advantages:
1) Faster delivery
2) Safer shipments and easier product exchanges
3) Better tracking
4) Competitive rates
5) Focused customer service. Our reps can now spend the time on assisting customers with their accounts and product questions rather than trying to locate missing pallets and shipments and tracing bad tracking information provided by those EU carriers.
6) Promotion opportunities for everyone! Our EU clients can now participate in our domestic promotions including Gift Card distribution, free product giveaways, etc. We were hindered from doing these things with the 3rd party facility without the client paying a charge for it.
7) Increasing Freebies! Reducing unnecessary costs allows us to increase the outstanding promotions and product giveaways to our customers.
8) Expanded programs: By eliminating unnecessary admin tasks we can shift our personnel to focus on expanding our flex pay program to more 12 inch figure products and customized payment plans for those many clients who have contacted us with special needs. It also allows us to expand our rewards program, such as with double rewards bonuses as suggested within this thread.
We understand that costs may go up for some clients in the EU and to be realistic the costs were going to increase for all EU clients anyway if we continued with the EU facility. However, we believe that the negotiated rates will make the costs competitive, meaning close or in many instances better for both EU and international clients.
We have provided a page that hopefully will assist all our international customers with calculating their customs and VAT fees on their orders. If you missed my previous posts then here is the link again:
https://www.sideshowtoy.com/helpdesk/?p=95. This link has the equations to calculate duty and customs as well as a table of the duty and vat rates per country. If you do not see your country listed then please contact
[email protected] and we will add it to the table. You are also encouraged to contact your local customs offices for more information.
If any of our clients like
ecekat are experiencing additional delivery charges for delivery services that should have been included in the initial shipping costs, then please contact us ASAP and provide us with a JPG of their FedEx charges (block out your cc info!). We will need this documentation to present it to the carrier and possibly negotiate a Fed Ex credit back for you for any additional shipping expense.
In January of 2010 our Estimated Arrival E-mails for international pre-orders (14 - 21 days prior to item processing) should contain firm ship costs for your item. Keep in mind these will not include VAT/Customs. This information should allow you to decide about the status of your order in plenty of time prior to it processing. If you require an earlier quote, we will estimate your cost on a similar product in size and weight but it will be an estimate only and will be subject to change once the final dimensions are established. Request a quote here:
https://www.sideshowtoy.com/helpdesk/?p=134.
Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions. EU clients can e-mail
[email protected] directly or
[email protected].
Best,
Chicky
I've heard nothing but good things about Toys2 customer service.
