> - Use USPS/Deutsche Post whenever possible.
This is my recommendation, too. However, just for the record:
Fastest packet ever sent Germany - US that way was 2 days.
Slowest packet ever sent Germany - US that way was 45 days.
Slowest packet sent Germany - Australia that way was sent
December 3, 2000 and arrived April 18, 2001.
>Visit them and deal everything out there. At least in Paderborn, employees
>there were very polite and helpful. They are used to deal with truck
>drivers and have little experience with private persons.
It is the same here. They are very helpful, but inexperienced. I must
admit that the things I am sent are usually a challenge for them because
they have no idea why anybody in his right mind might want to buy things
like that in a foreign country. Or why a publisher from the other end of
the planet might want to send me an expensive book for free just to have
it reviewed on my website (what was a website again?...)
> Ask them for
> taking a look at their customs fees book to find out, which number
> describes your parts best.
Yep, this is something I always enjoy...
> These lists seems to be written in the 1950 and
> never changed,
Correct. Which is why you have to have the number in the first place and
then
tell it to their computer so it can print the correct form.
Instead of being able to use the computer for a keyword search to get this
number. The book these numbers are in is about the size
of what I expect the New York phone book to be...
> you'll have no problems finding livestock
... which I try to avoid buying as most of these animals can't be
persuaded to stay within the bounds of a Newton case for any
reasonable amount of time...
> but computer equipment is not mentioned.
Oh yes, it is. Trust me, I recently spent 15 minutes looking over the
shoulder of a very charming and helpful lady who tried to find out the
correct number for Newton 120's without a case and mostly broken
displays...
There's even a number for broken and obsolete computer parts, mail me
privately whenever you need it ;-)
> Most items are free customs
> fees, you only have to pay import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer).
Well, this is pretty much the choice of the person you are talking to.
If you can't convince him that what he sees is dead, you either provide
proof of the current price for a used item or he is entitled to charge
16 percent of the price of the item when it was new. Which set me back
considerably when I once had to pay 16 percent of the price of a new
MP130 for a corpse...
>Ask the sender to declare the value as low as possible, dead batteries
>should be declared as a value of $0 on the green customs sticker. Items
>less than 50DM (I don't know how they changed that in Euro) are free of
>tax and customs fees.
This only works to a certain degree. Customs officials are inclined
to think everyone wants to cheat them, so they have a tendency not to
believe that low a declaration. In my experience this happens especially
when packets declared thus aren't very small in size.
The only quite safe way is to have the sender put an invoice into the
packet that looks as official as possible. Again, the sum mentioned there
should be one that doesn't sound too unlikely.
> I have better with FedEx.
I haven't used them yet as they seem to be even more expensive than USPS.
Frank
Newton software and hardware stuff at www.pda-soft.de
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