Cross Pens

Wolftown

Also spoke to a guy called Steve in their CS dept. He couldn't check my order due to an IT issue so not sure what the status is.

Also mentioned the Covid outbreak causing warehouse delays of up to a week.

Ordered on 01/01. For those who have received shipping confirmation, when did you order?

mr_edge_to_you

Those who've gotten delivery confirms, did you buy engraved pens? Hardly worth cancelling those orders.

holly_johnson

My order is due to be delivered on Monday. Just got a text saying there’s customs duty of €12.64 on a €44 order. Sod that. I’ll be calling Cross.

Fr_Dougal

holly_johnson wrote: »

My order is due to be delivered on Monday. Just got a text saying there’s customs duty of €12.64 on a €44 order. Sod that. I’ll be calling Cross.

Bit of a sharp practice, the site presents itself an the Irish version of the site, there is no mention of any additional charges or fees.

sydthebeat

If something like that happens, can you simply refuse delivery at your door...

I assume cross will send it regardless, as the customs had nothing to do with them

august12

sydthebeat wrote: »

If something like that happens, can you simply refuse delivery at your door...

I assume cross will send it regardless, as the customs had nothing to do with them

I will be refusing delivery, I have email confirming no additional charges from cross.

Lucifer

Just got email for customs of 12.08 on an order for 33 ish. I've paid it as I still think it is a good deal for the 3 pens and refill pack I ordered.

EDIT no engraved pens in my order

mr_edge_to_you

Lucifer wrote: »

Just got email for customs of 12.08 on an order for 33 ish. I've paid it as I still think it is a good deal for the 3 pens and refill pack I ordered.

EDIT no engraved pens in my order

Ye, still makes for a great deal all-in.

SouthWesterly

Don't give up hope.
My money reverted to revolut last night.
Just now cross took it back and I got an email to say my order has shipped.

Going to be hit with duty but I'll call cross to get a vat refund when it happens.

It's a good deal either way

Atlantic Dawn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Bit of a joke of a company, my order appears to be cancelled, I've received no notification if it has or not, the confirmation number is not being recognised, I didn't create an account. It's one of those things you remember when a company goes under for being run in to the ground, good riddance.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!...Just got confirmation my order has shipped. It's a really nice pen so feck it even with customs charges it's still a bargain but I will be complaining to them to refund the UK VAT. The website is too confusing being a .ie and showing exact Euro pricing despite the goods are being shipped from UK, it wasn't an option I selected to get Euro pricing, if it was being shipped from UK it should be by default GBP priced for clarity.

mr_edge_to_you

Just got confirmation that my order shipped. If customs is only a few quid I'll have no problem paying it. Happy enough with that!

Castlecomer

I got saddled with a customs fee of E12.12. I’ll pay it (order was 2 pens totalling 40 quid) but it’s a lesson learned. Thanks Brexit...

Ryath

Castlecomer wrote: »

I got saddled with a customs fee of E12.12. I’ll pay it (order was 2 pens totalling 40 quid) but it’s a lesson learned. Thanks Brexit...

At least DHL don't seem to be charging their usual admin fee. It's 2.5% of the the taxes and duties with a 14.50 minimum charge. Wonder are they waiving it for the minute for packages from the UK so they don't have to deal with a load of complaints over it.

They are a shower of incompetents I got passed around departments with phone calls and emails before when I was over charged by around €15. Was told it was the other departments responsibility passed back and forth finally told it would be rectified. It wasn't more back and forth then told that customs had set the amount and they couldn't change it. I gave up at that stage it just wasn't worth the time and effort.

mr_edge_to_you

It would seem to me that anyone who got the stacked discounts across multiple products did pretty well. If I had bought 2/3 pens for €45 and the customs was only €12, I'd reasonably happy with my purchase.

It is disappointing though that, if you're buying through a specific Irish "website" that you can get hit with customs.

In fairness to Cross, I know from my first week back in work that a huge numbers of businesses are really struggling with the exact same issue. The rules were only finalised a fortnight ago. Whats frustrating is the Brits spent years banging on an about a deal/no-deal Brexit. After all the fluting around, it seems there was no deal! All those negotiations were a complete waste of time. EU should have just let them go last Jan.

lawred2

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

It would seem to me that anyone who got the stacked discounts across multiple products did pretty well. If I had bought 2/3 pens for €45 and the customs was only €12, I'd reasonably happy with my purchase.

It is disappointing though that, if you're buying through a specific Irish "website" that you can get hit with customs.

In fairness to Cross, I know from my first week back in work that a huge numbers of businesses are really struggling with the exact same issue. The rules were only finalised a fortnight ago. Whats frustrating is the Brits spent years banging on an about a deal/no-deal Brexit. After all the fluting around, it seems there was no deal! All those negotiations were a complete waste of time. EU should have just let them go last Jan.

they have a trade deal

but they were always leaving the single market and customs union - as was their wish

Lucifer

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

It would seem to me that anyone who got the stacked discounts across multiple products did pretty well. If I had bought 2/3 pens for €45 and the customs was only €12, I'd reasonably happy with my purchase.

It is disappointing though that, if you're buying through a specific Irish "website" that you can get hit with customs.

In fairness to Cross, I know from my first week back in work that a huge numbers of businesses are really struggling with the exact same issue. The rules were only finalised a fortnight ago. Whats frustrating is the Brits spent years banging on an about a deal/no-deal Brexit. After all the fluting around, it seems there was no deal! All those negotiations were a complete waste of time. EU should have just let them go last Jan.

I didnt know when I ordered where they were coming from, nor did I check so I am in the same position as most, not from a position of forsight. But I dont believe we should be blaming cross for our oversight.

The website we all went to was https://www.cross.com/cr_en_ie/

If it was www.cross.ie I would agree with you, and it should have been clearer that it was not coming from Ireland.

The fact that it is a .com website, and with the en_ie at the end, this says that we are viewing a section of a website, aimed for our country, rather than an Irish website.

I think it is a lesson to us going forward, to check where things are coming from after brexit, and to be more aware if we are on an irish site, or international. I'll admit I didnt look, I hopefully will next time.

Examples

https://www.next.ie/en

https://www.arnotts.ie/

https://www2.hm.com/en_ie/index.html

https://www.nike.com/ie/

I would expect the first 2 to be irish based, the second 2, probably not.

NOTE I do not know if any of these examples are/are not shipping from Ireland, just noting the difference in the web address.

hhmmm?

Have 2x pens totalling €37 coming on Monday. Notification email and SMS from DHL confirming delivery but no mention of customs or tax charges. When were you guys notified of the extra charges?

whiterebel

Lucifer wrote: »

I didnt know when I ordered where they were coming from, nor did I check so I am in the same position as most, not from a position of forsight. But I dont believe we should be blaming cross for our oversight.

The website we all went to was https://www.cross.com/cr_en_ie/

If it was www.cross.ie I would agree with you, and it should have been clearer that it was not coming from Ireland.

The fact that it is a .com website, and with the en_ie at the end, this says that we are viewing a section of a website, aimed for our country, rather than an Irish website.

I think it is a lesson to us going forward, to check where things are coming from after brexit, and to be more aware if we are on an irish site, or international. I'll admit I didnt look, I hopefully will next time.

Examples

https://www.next.ie/en

https://www.arnotts.ie/

https://www2.hm.com/en_ie/index.html

https://www.nike.com/ie/

I would expect the first 2 to be irish based, the second 2, probably not.

NOTE I do not know if any of these examples are/are not shipping from Ireland, just noting the difference in the web address.

Screwfix.ie is shipping from UK and not dropping the UK or paying Irish VAT. .ie doesn’t mean much

Lucifer

hhmmm? wrote: »

Have 2x pens totalling €37 coming on Monday. Notification email and SMS from DHL confirming delivery but no mention of customs or tax charges. When were you guys notified of the extra charges?

Dispatched fri, customs notification sat. Expect €12.77 ((37*0.21)+5)

Lucifer

whiterebel wrote: »

Screwfix.ie is shipping from UK and not dropping the UK or paying Irish VAT. .ie doesn’t mean much

I am not saying .ie means dispatched from Ireland. But you could understand consumers having an issue with a .ie website not being clearer.

We can all use this as a relatively cheap test and lesson on post brexit online shopping, and we need to do a bit more homework before ordering in future, especially for large value items where it could sting a lot more.

Although, had it been a large value, I probably would have tried to get the UK vat refunded from cross, but for what I got charged, Im not going to, as I still feel I got good value.

DroidJoi

Made an order of nearly €200 on the 1st. No further correspondence yet. Only used the main code.

KinsellaJ

Has anybody with an engraved pen got a shipping notification yet? Ordered an engraved pen on the 1st and refills on the 2nd but no shipping email yet? Pen works out about €40 and refills work out about €14 so expecting fee's for the pen!

DroidJoi

KinsellaJ wrote: »

Has anybody with an engraved pen got a shipping notification yet? Ordered an engraved pen on the 1st and refills on the 2nd but no shipping email yet? Pen works out about €40 and refills work out about €14 so expecting fee's for the pen!

I think I read that engraving takes longer. Not sure.

Mine isn't engraved and I ordered on the 1st. Orders after me are being processed and shipped before mine so I guess they don't have any systematic way of processing orders...

blindsider

If a company is charging in € from a .ie website, surely you'd expect that 'the price is the price'?

Similarly, if you're directed to an Irish page on a website, with € pricing...then how can VAT + Customs + Handling be added? Especially if there's no disclaimer...

Lucifer

blindsider wrote: »

If a company is charging in € from a .ie website, surely you'd expect that 'the price is the price'?

Similarly, if you're directed to an Irish page on a website, with € pricing...then how can VAT + Customs + Handling be added? Especially if there's no disclaimer...

Expect is the key word in your first sentence. Yes, most people would expect, but as the other poster pointed out, not all .ie websites dispatch from Ireland.

Unfortunately customs/revenue are only concerned with the origin of the package, not what the website says or doesnt say.

I would agree, websites should probably be more clear where you are buying goods from, rather than the customer having to try figure it out, especially with a .ie domain.

I think unless this happens, we are left to figure out if a .ie is infact coming from Ireland.

EDIT I would not be happy ordering something off a .ie website, and having it shipped from china and then getting hit with customs that were not expected. So a .ie should not really be doing the same from the UK without making their customers aware that custom charges may apply.

I have often seen websites state, "Custom charges may apply". .ie based stores should be including this same information.

Especially as .ie domains are protected and only allowed to companies or persons that have a connection to Ireland

Lucifer

DroidJoi wrote: »

Made an order of nearly €200 on the 1st. No further correspondence yet. Only used the main code.

Expect charges of about €47. If you feel with this charge it is no longer good value contact cross and cancel. A few others have done so any they cancelled their orders for them. If it has dispatched, refuse delivery and they should refund you.

mik_da_man

I ordered on the 1st, just over 100 quid.
Nada from then yet
So going on others experience I guess it will be 26 quid.
I have emailed them already about the VAT and plan to get them to refund that.

torrevieja

blindsider wrote: »

If a company is charging in € from a .ie website, surely you'd expect that 'the price is the price'?

Similarly, if you're directed to an Irish page on a website, with € pricing...then how can VAT + Customs + Handling be added? Especially if there's no disclaimer...

Absoultely Agree , and i woulld blame the Company for this Set Up and this needs to be Addressed From the Hirearchy from now on,

endacl

mik_da_man wrote: »

I ordered on the 1st, just over 100 quid.
Nada from then yet
So going on others experience I guess it will be 26 quid.
I have emailed them already about the VAT and plan to get them to refund that.

Not that simple. If they refund the value of the VAT, they are essentially reducing the purchase price. VAT would still be due @ 21% of (just over 100 quid, minus 26 quid). Revenue would owe you about a fiver back, which would be a pain in the arse to chase on principle.


Joys of Brexit.

DroidJoi

Lucifer wrote: »

Expect charges of about €47. If you feel with this charge it is no longer good value contact cross and cancel. A few others have done so any they cancelled their orders for them. If it has dispatched, refuse delivery and they should refund you.

Thanks. I had emailed them about cancelling and another email asking about VAT. No reply yet, wanted something in writing around the VAT.

I would have thought that they will cancel/suspend all orders when the first few landed in Ireland and DHL started charging.

Ignorance isn't an excuse for them anymore.