Has anyone else stopped shipping to EU countries ?

[Justin Smith]

Has anyone else stopped shipping to EU countries ?
The great majority of our orders are within the UK, but particularly recently (Starlink install stuff) we get a reasonable number of orders from abroad.
However since leaving the EU the amount of paperwork required for orders to EU countries is now worse than for non EU countries. We can send stuff to the USA or Australia with less paperwork than to Ireland for Gawd's sake ! What kind of free trade deal have we actually got ? ! ? In fact we have recently been trying to send an order via DX and they are absolute sticklers for paperwork. Sending stuff via Parcels2Go their paperwork isn't too bad (though far worse than when we were in the EU) but I have just been looking at DX's "template commercial invoice" and associated paperwork *, my eyes literally glazed over. TBH I did not even understand what much of the stuff they wanted to know was. I have therefore decided I will only send small stuff to EU countries. Has anyone else come to a similar conclusion ?

* PLUS : Standing authority for agent + Customs clearance agents + Standing authority to act as customs representative ! ! ! (Ballcox to all this, I've got a life to live....)

 

[thetiger2015]

Yes. We are only shipping small orders at the moment. Tried to do wholesale orders for places like Sweden/France but it's not worth the hassle and our insurance has also changed recently, the costs have gone up for EU cover, so we may cut the EU sales completely next year.

Also, product safety information - some of our products require a UFI number in the EU. The UK is no longer a member state, so we can not add our details to the UFI register, it just puts up an error message and says UK businesses don't need UFI numbers. We do though, if we are selling the product in France!

 

[TheFairyBoutique]

Prior to leaving the I used to get a lot of orders from RoI which was great, but since leaving I've had so many orders returned back from customs for silly reasons - that only being the ones I could get an explanation for. I use Parcel2Go and almost every time a parcel is returned they cannot tell me why.
My last order I tried to ship to RoI was returned 3 times! In the end I paid all duties, paid excessive delivery, just to get it to the customer as it was regular client.

I recently setup an Amazon store and have several orders from Germany which I first thought was great until they started getting returned (or lost), so now I've switched off my products from being available outside the UK on Amazon.

It is a nightmare me as a small online retailer.

 

[Paul Norman]

More or less, yes.

We now get very few EU orders. When we do, we ensure the customer knows the score. A tiny number proceed.

More of an issue is getting supplies, though. We are still planning to either:

1. Stop retailing. My preferred option.

2. Do everything from the EU. A good option, but I am getting too old to bother!

 

[DontAsk]

The one and only issue I have had is an item returned for not having a CN22. I suspect they simply did not look on all sides of the parcel.

 

[DefinitelyMaybeUK]

My last order I tried to ship to RoI was returned 3 times! In the end I paid all duties, paid excessive delivery, just to get it to the customer as it was regular client.

Ah yes, been there and got the T-shirt! We now don't process any ROI orders via RM since the 1st July customs changes. We tried to work out what was going on with one order as the customer wasn't in a hurry (thankfully!) - Initially we sent via RM click & drop DDU, then again via click & drop after RM "fixed" the default sales category not being propagated in the electronic data, then once more via the local post office counter with a hand written CN22 (no electronic data involved!) - all 3 were eventually returned saying "failed electronic data". Finally sent via UPS and paid the extortionate €18 disbursement fee.

RM support have just acknowledged after months of complaining since the 1st July customs changes, that An Post customs look to be returning any parcel that contains the ROI prohibited HS codes which RM said (an still officially say) should only be applied to IOSS orders:

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/roy...ted-HS-Tariff-Codes-Ireland-November-2021.pdf

What a complete fiasco. Rest of EU is fine, bar some slow processing, especially Italy...

 

[Deleted member 335660]

Has anyone else stopped shipping to EU countries ?
The great majority of our orders are within the UK, but particularly recently (Starlink install stuff) we get a reasonable number of orders from abroad.
However since leaving the EU the amount of paperwork required for orders to EU countries is now worse than for non EU countries. We can send stuff to the USA or Australia with less paperwork than to Ireland for Gawd's sake ! What kind of free trade deal have we actually got ? ! ? In fact we have recently been trying to send an order via DX and they are absolute sticklers for paperwork. Sending stuff via Parcels2Go their paperwork isn't too bad (though far worse than when we were in the EU) but I have just been looking at DX's "template commercial invoice" and associated paperwork *, my eyes literally glazed over. TBH I did not even understand what much of the stuff they wanted to know was. I have therefore decided I will only send small stuff to EU countries. Has anyone else come to a similar conclusion ?

* PLUS : Standing authority for agent + Customs clearance agents + Standing authority to act as customs representative ! ! ! (Ballcox to all this, I've got a life to live....)

We are in Spain and we are finding more and more UK suppliers not willing to supply us, especially smaller ones. The larger ones have set up EU distribution.

Anyway, as I am constantly told by Brexiters, we had a democratic vote so stop moaning. This what the country wanted.

 

[apricot]

I have closed the market for Italy and Spain but I do continue with Germany and France for both B2B and B2C sales

B2C sales are as long as under 150Eur so they are fine but B2B sales require a lot of papers etc...It's a bit boring and time consuming but I am kind of getting used to it now.