Customs charges when ordering supplements from the US?

Neamhshuntasach

With the price of supplements over here i have decided to look into ordering from bodybuilding.com in the states. Very cheap and with the rate of the euro vs the dollar at the moment it works out great for us. But i was just wondering if anyone has ordered from them before and whether or not customs got a hold of it and added tax to it or whatever? don't want to try being clever and then end up paying more than buying it over here. Thanks

rubadub

Many supps are illegal here now. Even if not the firms are pissing off Irish customs and they are returning nearly all stuff now from 1 particular company, the one you mentioned, whether it is legal or not.

You can get €22 worth of goods, including the postage without being liable for duty/tax.

If it is marked as a gift this is €45 including postage. In practise they usually will only charge duty on stuff of value €45 excluding postage.
Try
www.pronutrition.ie
www.irish-lifting.com
www.bulkpowders.co.uk

fatal

simple put,it isnt worth ordering from bodybuilding.com. You may get your supplements once(if you're lucky!) but at some stage they will either be shipped back to the states or you will be charged for them by customs.
Although it's really annoying to have to pay far more than Americans do for protein etc,unfortunately there isn't any real way around it for us.Therefore,just stick to the sites mentioned above

Patto

fatal wrote: »

simple put,it isnt worth ordering from bodybuilding.com. You may get your supplements once(if you're lucky!) but at some stage they will either be shipped back to the states or you will be charged for them by customs.
Although it's really annoying to have to pay far more than Americans do for protein etc,unfortunately there isn't any real way around it for us.Therefore,just stick to the sites mentioned above

Have you any personal experience of using bodybuilding.com?

From my experience I reckon you couldn't have. Can you tick any of the 3 below I wonder?

1. Are you are just propagating a myth for the sake of it?
2. Did you import a motherboard for your old Dell last year and get stung by customs and you figure the same applies to supplements and bodybuilding.com?
3. Do you have a vested interest in the sale of supplements in Ireland yourself?

I have ordered 5 or 6 times from Bodybuilding.com and I have never had a problem with customs. I've never heard of anyone having a problem with bodybuilding.com, bodybuilding.com themselves say that problems with customs are very rare. Generally they are very helpful and their customer service is excellent. Unless you try to bring in something illegal it is not going to be sent back, I would never try but I reckon you would even get away with that most of the time. Most of my orders have been over €500. Bodybuilding.com use Fed ex, they are excellent as well, I have never had to pay a penny to customs.

To the Op, on the downside the delivery charges are quite high i.e. up to 40% even on big orders. The initial setup with bodybuilding.com is fairly intensive, you have to become a validated customer so you have to send them a copy of your credit card bill and your passport or drivers licence. They are very strict on fraud etc.

I have tried bulkpowders.co.uk recently, they work out cheaper but of course you're not getting any shinny marketed labels.

rubadub

I've never heard of anyone having a problem with bodybuilding.com,

Here is one
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055236916

Bodybuilding.com use Fed ex, they are excellent as well, I have never had to pay a penny to customs.

How much has your largest order been? I had to pay customs to fedex once, months after receipt. Think the item was around €150.

Do you have a vested interest in the sale of supplements in Ireland yourself

A lot of people try and support irish companies. I am not great at doing so myself but others do. If you buy outside of Ireland you are usually paying VAT to another country's economy, and depriving your country of that potential revenue, not to mention jobs/workforce etc. Most look at the small picture though and just go with the cheapest to them. I know what you are really getting at with that question though, has he a shop himself or is he mates with one of the sellers.

2 shops I listed are Irish, I do not know the lads, other than just posting here, but they are cheap, esp. for smaller quantities of branded stuff due to free/low postage, I have dealt with irish-lifting and was very pleased with the service.

WHIP IT!

rubadub wrote: »

Here is one
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055236916




How much has your largest order been? I had to pay customs to fedex once, months after receipt. Think the item was around €150.



A lot of people try and support irish companies. I am not great at doing so myself but others do. If you buy outside of Ireland you are usually paying VAT to another country's economy, and depriving your country of that potential revenue, not to mention jobs/workforce etc. Most look at the small picture though and just go with the cheapest to them. (I know what you are really getting at with that question though, has he a shop himself or mates with one of the sellers.)

Personally I'll always go with the cheapest/best service, Irish or otherwise - sometimes I think Irish companies play on people's loyalty, but that's a whole different bag of spanners and not at all aimed at any of the irish companies listed above... but I'm hugely surprised to hear, Patto, that you haven't got charged by customs/fed ex for €500 orders?? I got charged nearly €30 for an item that cost me €65 from the States last year!

BossArky

fatal wrote: »

Although it's really annoying to have to pay far more than Americans do for protein

Any idea how much cheaper protein is in the US? (roughly?). I will be there for 6 weeks soon with work and wonder if I should buy it there or just take over some.

Patto

rubadub wrote: »

Here is one
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055236916

I hadn't seen that one. I wonder how he shipped it, did he use international post or a courier (Fed ex)? I have always used Fed ex.

Its interesting that you paid customs to Fed ex, that would indicate that they handle the customs themselves (as opposed to the muppets in the airport). I'm guessing here but I reckon any fed ex package doesn't leave fed ex hands in transit. With international post it is possibly a completly different process. I always request BB.com to mark the package with a value of €50 maybe that short circuits the fed ex customs process.

This is pure guess work on my part but as I said I have never had a problem.

Patto

BossArky wrote: »

Any idea how much cheaper protein is in the US? (roughly?). I will be there for 6 weeks soon with work and wonder if I should buy it there or just take over some.

About half price at the moment.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/whey.html
$41.99 = €28.36

http://www.pronutrition.ie/products.php?action=brand_products&brand_id=22
€59.99

http://www.fitnessireland.ie/product_info.php?products_id=463
€56.99

fatal

Patto wrote: »

Have you any personal experience of using bodybuilding.com?

From my experience I reckon you couldn't have. Can you tick any of the 3 below I wonder?

1. Are you are just propagating a myth for the sake of it?
2. Did you import a motherboard for your old Dell last year and get stung by customs and you figure the same applies to supplements and bodybuilding.com?
3. Do you have a vested interest in the sale of supplements in Ireland yourself?

I have ordered 5 or 6 times from Bodybuilding.com and I have never had a problem with customs. I've never heard of anyone having a problem with bodybuilding.com, bodybuilding.com themselves say that problems with customs are very rare. Generally they are very helpful and their customer service is excellent. Unless you try to bring in something illegal it is not going to be sent back, I would never try but I reckon you would even get away with that most of the time. Most of my orders have been over €500. Bodybuilding.com use Fed ex, they are excellent as well, I have never had to pay a penny to customs.

To the Op, on the downside the delivery charges are quite high i.e. up to 40% even on big orders. The initial setup with bodybuilding.com is fairly intensive, you have to become a validated customer so you have to send them a copy of your credit card bill and your passport or drivers licence. They are very strict on fraud etc.

I have tried bulkpowders.co.uk recently, they work out cheaper but of course you're not getting any shinny marketed labels.

1. I did order from bb.com once and got stung the very first time.My order came to no more than 100 dollars.O and you'll be glad to know that the order was shipped with fed-ex aswell....

2. I didn't know anything about a motherboard until about 2 months ago,so thats your dell idea gone out the window

3. I have no vested interest whatsoever in the sale of any supplements in Ireland.I have bought from irish-lifting.com and based on the service which they have offered so far,I would recommend them to anyone lookin to buy supplements

rubadub

Patto wrote: »

Its interesting that you paid customs to Fed ex, that would indicate that they handle the customs themselves (as opposed to the muppets in the airport).

They do handle it themselves, and it is in their interest to charge if they can since I think they get a cut of it, either a % or handling charge. In one way it is good since it is not held up in customs. But I got no notice of it upon delivery. Say I had won a prize, or was sent a gift, 2 months later I get a bill for duty on it, while if I had know at the time I might have refused delivery. I didnt pay it for ages, until I got a solicitors letter from them!

Patto wrote: »

I always request BB.com to mark the package with a value of €50 maybe that short circuits the fed ex customs process.

This is pure guess work on my part but as I said I have never had a problem.

That is why you have no problems so. Technically it can be on €22 worth including post. In practise the customs even came out at xmas and said €45. It is not really worth their administration costs to collect duty on less than €45.

I am surprised they do mark it as low value, it is illegal to do so, and since customs are seemingly out to get them they could probably have them done. Most big companies will not do this.

KiwiChick

Have a look at irish-lifting.com, they seem to be the best for service and price in Ireland anyway.

Patto

rubadub wrote: »

I am surprised they do mark it as low value, it is illegal to do so, and since customs are seemingly out to get them they could probably have them done. Most big companies will not do this.

If I remember correctly they don't actually mark the package with the $50 value on it. I think in fact there is no value on the package. I just put it in as a note in the order, maybe this flags them to package it in some way to lower your risk of being stung by customs. On the web site they say that they will do as much as they can legally to circumvent hold ups in customs.

I'm not saying this is fool proof btw, you take a risk with every order of being stung, you are obliged to pay after all. And if I do get stung on an order then so be it. If it happened twice or three times in a row I probably would stop ordering from BB.com.

I think shipping with a courier there is very little risk of having your package sent back as long as what you are shipping is legal. I think there is definately a way around that one.

korb

You might want to try iHerb from Us it is $ 12 with DHL 3 days to Ireland.You can use the discount code NOF721 for your first order. I never had any orders stopped except for the last one but that's because iHerb are going paper less from some of their warehouse and the customs will stop if there is no documents.So what you do is either email customs a copy of your invoice from your account at iHerb(not the email) or present yourself with the invoice and collect your parcel.
Many times I ordered opti-man (Us version) as the one in Ireland has less ingredients some which are illegal in Eu and never got stopped.
Also a price difference: Solgar L-Arginine 500 mg 50 caps in Ireland € 9.99
Solgar L-Arginine 500 mg 250 caps at iHerb € 19.51 5 times the quantity for double the price. Sounds good to me.

WHIP IT!

Old thread is old....

WHIP IT! wrote: »

Personally I'll always go with the cheapest/best service, Irish or otherwise - sometimes I think Irish companies play on people's loyalty, but that's a whole different bag of spanners and not at all aimed at any of the irish companies listed above... but I'm hugely surprised to hear, Patto, that you haven't got charged by customs/fed ex for €500 orders?? I got charged nearly €30 for an item that cost me €65 from the States last year!

... on the other hand, check me out, way back in 2008.... there goes that little guy... so full of dreams... PS: 2008 WHIP IT! - in about 4 years you're gonna have a holiday in Thailand. Avoid Phuket, it's a sh*thole and you will eat a dodgy sandwich in the airport that will seriously hamper the last two days of your trip...