Shopping from www.strawberrynet.com

quazzy

Hi All,

Need to get some smelly stuff from Crimbo pressies but I just need to know a few things

1) Has anyone used this site before? Would you recommend?

2) Is the shipping from the USA, and if it is has anyone been caught for Customs / Import duty etc?

Hope you all can help?

Regards
Quazzy

MF2HD

afaik they ship from hongkong. I've ordered a few times from them with no problems at all. All items arrive gift wrapped which is handy too! Have never been caught for customs, touch wood.

MF2HD

aoifesquife wrote:

Ive used them but recently started using www.perfumeireland.com after seeing a link here. Ive compared prices and perfumeireland are cheaper that strawberrynet on most items. I have never been caught for customs with either company..:D

I think you'll find its the exact opposite. Strawberry net are cheaper on most items.

quazzy

Thanks for everyones input

I'll give both sites a shot and report back when I get the orders.


Cheers,

Quazzy

kmick

Used it loads of times I think if it is less than EUR45 customs dont bother you. Free postage takes 7-10 days or more but always arrives giftwrapped. This site rocks.

quazzy

aoifesquife wrote:

No i dont think so - there was a thread here last week about it. perfumeireland.com apparently cut their prices to match or be lower than strawberrynet..Checked a few items out and seems to be true

Just ordered 2 bottles off the perfumeireland website.

I'll keep you all informed

Quazzy

MF2HD

Do you work there aoife??:rolleyes:

Oral Slang

It looks like she does - Perfume Ireland's all she's ever posted about up to now!

ShiverinEskimo

It seems to use paypal meaning I guess I cant use Laser card?

I really should get off my ass and order a Visa card some day..

MF2HD

In case you're stuck for pressies for the girlfriend

http://www.strawberrynet.com/gift.aspx

quazzy

ordered 2 bottles of perfume on 27th Nov and still waiting for delivery. I'll keep you all posted.

quazzy

TheWaterboy wrote:

Quazzy - Sorry bout the delay but An Post are a bit slower with deliveries at the moment. If u havent received them by Monday send me an email and ill get the reshipped so u should have them in about 3 days

Update:

Hey Waterboy,

Just got a letter delivery to the house saying that because the delivery came from outside of the EU I have to send them receipts of the good etc... etc...

Whats this all about?

Am I getting screwed from Customs / Excise Duty or is there some way around this?

holly_johnson

Note the blurb on the site about shipping...

Perfumeireland currently ship to all European countries. We have distribution centers in Ireland, USA and Hong Kong. About 90% of our orders will be shipped directly from our USA or Hong Kong centers and the remainder shipped from Ireland. The majority of countries, particularly U.S.A., Australia, Japan, Korea, do not charge customs duty on small packages dispatched by air post. Most European countries are moving towards free trade and thus will not charge duty on packages dispatched by air mail. However some European countries may charge you duty on your package.
As the world is moving towards free trade we will try to assist in covering the cost of this duty should you be charged - however this is a goodwill gesture by perfumeireland.com and is not on an obligation basis. if you require any further information on this please email us on info@perfumeireland.com


This reads almost identically to Strawberrynet (which I have used without any issues). Sounds to me like this is a bit of a swizz, and not an Irish site at all. Looks more like a subdivision of a Hong Kong site like Strawberrynet. I reckon that's why you got stung by customs, because it was shipped from the USA. Strawberrynet is shipped from Hong Kong no bother. The USA is always watched more closely I think.
I wonder will they honour the refund of the duty costs????

quazzy

TheWaterboy wrote:

Quazzy - dunno what that letter is about. First time Ive ever heard of customers getting something like that. It might be a letter to say that you need to sign for the parcel at your local post office.

All our orders are shipped from either Hong Kong or Ireland.

If you are charged customs I will refund you. Can you let me know how you get on.

OK, I'll double check the letter when I get home later today.

I'll post back then.

Regards
Quazzy

cgarvey

Most European countries are moving towards free trade and thus will not charge duty on packages dispatched by air mail.

That, to me, sounds like a whole load of unsubstantiated steaming poo. However, it doesn't matter if they honour the "goodwill gesture" of refunding the amount of custom/import duty applied.. which is, indeed, a nice gesture; long may it last.

.cg

quazzy

cgarvey wrote:

That, to me, sounds like a whole load of unsubstantiated steaming poo. However, it doesn't matter if they honour the "goodwill gesture" of refunding the amount of custom/import duty applied.. which is, indeed, a nice gesture; long may it last.

.cg

Sounds interesting alright.

I'll be back home in about 90 minutes so, i'll scan the letter I received and let everyone know what the story is?

I have my fingers crossed that it will all work out.



Failing that I think I could hide under a pile of coats and pray for a miricle of sorts

Quazzy

quazzy

Hi all,

Just got home and here is the letter as promised. Let's hope the attachment thingy works.

To any ppl reading this please note the following:

I ordered 2 bottles of perfume from www.perfumeireland.com

but the letter from the customs ppl says the delivery is from www.strawberrynet.com in Hong Kong.

I called the customs ppl but there is no answer... typical.

So, TheWaterboy (or whoever else is working for the company) , What is the story here?
Is strawberry and perfumeIreland one in the same company?
What is my next step?

Any help would be much appreciated?

Quazzy.

quazzy

TheWaterboy wrote:

Quazzy - No perfumeireland and strawberrynet arent the same company. perfumeireland is an independent trading company. However I do source some of my items from them when my suppliers are out of stock. Obviously one of your items was out of stock and to speed things up I ordered from them and got them dropshipped to you - I hope u can understand that im trying to keep my customers happy and speed up deliveries especially before Xmas. I will foward you an email later containing the order invoice. Can you get in touch with me at info@perfumeireland.com if ure charged and I will refund you the difference.

I have made over 500 sales this year and this is the first customs charge. I am currently in correspondance with the Excise guys to try and have this duty paid directly to them and hence avoid embarrasing situations like this but I seem to be going around in circles with them.

The Waterboy,

I have sent an email to info@perfumeireland.com with my order number etc....
Hope you can help?

Quazzy.

---

kmick

Tell the customs guys to go take a jump in the faulty gene pool and then initiate a chrageback on your A/C.

cgarvey

TheWaterboy wrote:

I have made over 500 sales this year and this is the first customs charge. I am currently in correspondance with the Excise guys to try and have this duty paid directly to them and hence avoid embarrasing situations like this but I seem to be going around in circles with them.

May I respectfully suggest that you seek some advice from an accountant on this, as you seem to have a lack of knowledge in this area which has to end up costing you on the long term.

.cg

quazzy

kmick wrote:

Tell the customs guys to go take a jump in the faulty gene pool and then initiate a chrageback on your A/C.

Well... I'll call that plan B for the moment .

I got the invoice from TheWaterboy (perfumeIreland.com) and will contact AN Póst and see what the story is?

TheWaterboy has kindly offered to refund any charges if they occur (see earlier posts). I will post back as soon as I know more information - will probably be later today or Monday.

Quazzy

rsynnott

http://www.strawberrynet.com/affiliate.aspx#03 tbh....

Tsk, tsk.

Lemming

aoifesquife & thewaterboy are being looked at for being a dual-account & being traders

The ip address check doesn't look good for "either" of you, so I'd start praying round about now

MF2HD

I reckon they are actually a seperate company, but order the majority of their stuff from strawberry. Thereby getting all the discounts when ordering over 3 items and getting the discounts from strawberrys loyalty programme. They then get strawberry to deliver directly to the perfume ireland customer,(ie using the deliver to another address option), and take the difference as a nice little earner for themselves.


IMO

quazzy

Hi All,

I did have to cough up 21% VAT and 5euro handling fee to An Post but as promised The Waterboy (info@perfumeireland.com) refunded me the whole amount.

I am now as happy as pig in sh1te

Thanks for everyone's help,advice and input.

Regards and greetings to all,

Quazzy.

holly_johnson

Quazzy,

Just as a matter of interest, did you compare the prices on Strawberrynet> was there any difference?
Just curious as I shop a bit from Strawberrynet.

quazzy

holly_johnson wrote:

Quazzy,

Just as a matter of interest, did you compare the prices on Strawberrynet> was there any difference?
Just curious as I shop a bit from Strawberrynet.

Holly,

Yeah, I did compare but I didn't find a huge variation maybe a euro or 2 at the most. Depending if you buy in dollars, sterling or euros.

I think the strawberry site is a bit "LOUD" . Its just a personal preference. I suppose I choose perfumeireland because it said Ireland in the name - may seem stupid but it worked out well.

Lemme know which way you decide to go?

Quazzy

rsynnott

Please note that the owner of perfumeireland.com seems to be, er, a bit of a scammer. Some of the people talking about how wonderful it is are actually him: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054860781

Just might be best to bear that in mind when dealing with him.

TheWaterboy

rsynnott wrote:

Please note that the owner of perfumeireland.com seems to be, er, a bit of a scammer. Some of the people talking about how wonderful it is are actually him: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054860781

Just might be best to bear that in mind when dealing with him.

rsynnott - just because I did a bit of self promotion. I am not a scammer and I hope that anyone that has bought from me will back me up. I seen a lot of people doin what I did. Are you the one that has done the witch hunt about me and my company. And if it was you that sent me that snotty email from my website feedback form, then at least have the guts to leave an email and a name so that I could reply!

rsynnott

TheWaterboy wrote:

rsynnott - just because I did a bit of self promotion. I am not a scammer and I hope that anyone that has bought from me will back me up. I seen a lot of people doin what I did. Are you the one that has done the witch hunt about me and my company. And if it was you that sent me that snotty email from my website feedback form, then at least have the guts to leave an email and a name so that I could reply!

No, it wasn't. My email address is bla@rsynnott.com, if you're interested.

It was not a witch hunt. I simply observed a deplorable, dishonest practice, spent half an hour documenting it, notified the relevant authorities, and warned people. This would seem like the action of an ordinary decent person on seeing something dodgy going on to me.

Do you honestly think that making up people to talk about how good your service is is in any way acceptable? Honestly!

Oh, compare Kathleen's Country House: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186612-i487-k177374-_span_class_hterm_Kathleen_s_span_Country_House-Killarney_County_Kerry.html

quazzy

Hi all,

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their input.

Secondly I would like to thank The Waterboy for sorting my order out.

On a final note, I agree to an extent (with rsynnott) that creating several accounts to give the impression of customers is a bit worrying.

I don't think promoting your own business is such a bad thing ( but thats up to the Mods - not me), and after all the company is Irish and is delivering cheap goods to our emerald island of markups and margins. There are a lot of other users on boards that promote their companies, Komplett.ie and Smart telecom to name a few.


Regards to all,

Quazzy

rsynnott

quazzy wrote:

I don't think promoting your own business is such a bad thing ( but thats up to the Mods - not me), and after all the company is Irish and is delivering cheap goods to our emerald island of markups and margins. There are a lot of other users on boards that promote their companies, Komplett.ie and Smart telecom to name a few.

I'd argue that if boards admins are willing to let them spam, then it's not too bad. However, what thewaterboy was doing is immoral, deceitful and possibly illegal (it surely amounts to false advertising?) I see no reason that it should be tolerated here.

holly_johnson

quazzy wrote:

Holly,

Yeah, I did compare but I didn't find a huge variation maybe a euro or 2 at the most. Depending if you buy in dollars, sterling or euros.

I think the strawberry site is a bit "LOUD" . Its just a personal preference. I suppose I choose perfumeireland because it said Ireland in the name - may seem stupid but it worked out well.

Lemme know which way you decide to go?

Quazzy

Quazzy,

Just did a short price check on a couple of items I have bought before. In the cases where perfumeireland is cheaper, it is only by 10 or 20 cent. Where they are dearer, it is up to €10! So, for hassle free customs shopping I know I'd choose Strawberrynet.

TheWaterboy

rsynnott wrote:

However, what thewaterboy was doing is immoral, deceitful and possibly illegal (it surely amounts to false advertising?)

What is possibly illegal ?

This is my final post on this thread - Quazzy is happy with his purchase and hence Im happy.

holly_johnson wrote:

So, for hassle free customs shopping I know I'd choose Strawberrynet.

holly - u know that statement is incorrect. You can be charged customs from strawberrynet. Im currently sorting out the customs charges so my customers wont ever have to pay it.

rsynnott

TheWaterboy wrote:

What is possibly illegal ?

In the UK at least, the ASA has upheld complaints against those who use fake testimonials. I'd be rather surprised if it was any different here. I'm sure there are other issues with using fake people to deceive customers, too.

holly_johnson

TheWaterboy wrote:

What is possibly illegal ?

holly - u know that statement is incorrect. You can be charged customs from strawberrynet. Im currently sorting out the customs charges so my customers wont ever have to pay it.

eh, I don't actually.... I have bought a fair bit of stuff from strawberrynet, and I have never once been charged anything from Customs.
Quazzy buys one thing from you, and get done by Customs. The fact that you reimbursed is irrelevant, and I'd love to know how you are "sorting out the customs charges" so that customers won't ever have to pay it. How do you propose to do that??

TheWaterboy

holly_johnson wrote:

eh, I don't actually.... I have bought a fair bit of stuff from strawberrynet, and I have never once been charged anything from Customs.
Quazzy buys one thing from you, and get done by Customs. The fact that you reimbursed is irrelevant, and I'd love to know how you are "sorting out the customs charges" so that customers won't ever have to pay it. How do you propose to do that??

Coincidence is the word id use..Over 500 sales this year and Ive had 1 customs charge.

Customs charges will be sorted out in the same way as CD-WOW do it. On orders above a certain value I will pay the Hong Kong Postal service and in turn they pay the customs & excise guys to whatever country the parcel is sent to.

alastair

TheWaterboy wrote:

Coincidence is the word id use..Over 500 sales this year and Ive had 1 customs charge.

The problem is though, that you've shot any credibility you might have had, by merrily lying on these boards about who you are, and what you've done/bought. If you're happy enough to lie about one thing, why should anyone here trust you when you claim 499 satisfactory sales? How many of those customers are your alter-egos?

rsynnott

Incidentally, googling for perfumeireland.com produces interesting results.

Though his most egregious marketing practices were reserved for boards, apparently...

alastair

TheWaterboy wrote:

Over 500 sales this year and Ive had 1 customs charge.

Hmm, what's this then:
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:U0WEJVqxD-QJ:www.makeupalley.com/board/m.asp%3Fid%3D19588266%26ipn%3D1+perfumeireland&hl=en

from the above link: "Their package arrived today with £8.10 customs charge to pay. Why? Because it's sent from Hong Kong! I ordered from perfumeireland rather than an non-EC seller purely to avoid customs charges, and I've ended up paying the Irish prices, which are higher than the international sellers' - and the duty on top!"

You're clearly not someone that has any difficulty in telling bald-faced lies. Buyer beware.

rsynnott

There seems to be disappointingly little legal recourse on this sort of thing in this country, incidentally. For proper companies, an ASAI complaint is a possibility, but not really for something on this scale. Tsk. In the States, it would seem to be an FTC matter, and rather more serious.