Well, I really hate to go public with this and I have more than one time defended Northerner against other members of this forum, who simply had bad luck with single shipments, but I guess Northerner is on a totally wrong path at the moment, a path that is neither in the favor of their customers nor in their own. First the forseable "snuson.com-disaster", with customs-troubles and long shipment-times for most customers ... and now, Northerner seems to have changed their postal service from the Swedish Post to the Swiss Post, which means forseable customs-troubles at least for EU-customers.
About snuson.com: yeah, everone, who orders tax-free stuff from outside of the EU to the EU does that on own risk. I never understood the people, who did so and then complained here and on other forums, about the forseable customs-fees and customs-troubles and long shipment-times. Shortly said, ordering from snuson.com, for EU-citizens, is nowhere cheaper or faster than ordering directly from Sweden, everyone with half a brain could have known that before ordering from them. But because of that I also never understood, why Northerner established their snuson.com-affiliate in the first place, which only could lead to nothing else but disappointed customers.
So, here is my own story:
Last week I ordered again from Northerner (which in the last two years has been a hassle-free and pleasing experience, all orders have been handled perfectly, not a single delivery that took longer than a week and not a single can ever missing) and chose First Priority Mail (EU). 10 days later (!), when I was already thinking, that something must have gone wrong (but yeah, shit happens, I'm always prepared that not every order will go well and simply hold an emergency-stash) I got a letter from the local customs-office to clear the shipment with them. I thought, well, that simply must be a mistake. So, I drove to the customs office, showed them the letter and said that it must be a mistake, because I ordered from Sweden (a EU-member) not from Switzerland.
The customs-officers, yeah several of them got involved in my case, where really nice and well-informed people. I could convince them with no trouble, that the snus originally came from Sweden and that it normally should be duty free, but they said that the import took place from Switzerland and I would additionaly have to pay the German VAT. Well, I argued with them for some minutes and said that I already paid the Swedish VAT (which is even higher then the German VAT and that it should be enough inside the EU), but I very soon realized that they were right. Yeah, they were right, the German customs-laws may be shitty in the first place, but that's not the fault of the customs-officers and the laws in other EU-countries certainly aren't any better, regarding what I've read also in this forum.
So, to make a long story short,
I paid
- The price of the snus
- the Swedish tobacco tax
- the Swedish VAT 25%
(all of them directly to Northerner , which roughly doubles the price compared to what American members of this forum have to pay) just like with every order. That's just the downside of living in the EU and I'm still fine with that overall. No problem!
- 19% German VAT (which simply is Northerner's fault). It hasn't been forseable for me that chosing "First Priority Mail (EU)" would mean that the Swiss Post (not a EU-country!) would process the order and that I would inevitably have to pay customs-fees, with all the other troubles associated. That really is Northerner's fault alone.
Yeah, I'd glady have paid 5 or 10 Euros more to Northerner, for avoiding all the trouble, which really was their forseable mistake (neither bad luck nor a single case-single-worker's mistake) and still the order would overall have been much more pleasing for me. I really wonder what's wrong with them. If they simply want to piss their European customers, well, it's their decision, but they also simply should make clear to their customers that they are using the Swiss Post, which probably will make no difference for Americans but inevitably for Europeans.
To make it clear, everyone makes mistakes and shit simply happens, that's no problem for me, but to chosoe the Swiss Post Post instead of the Swedish Post, with no information giving to the customers prior to that, is possibly the worst shit that Northerner ever could have done. As an experienced vendor They MUST have known the consequences prior to that and they must have known that they will "piss" their E.U.ropean customers ... and I doubt that the price-difference between the Swedish Post and the Swiss Post is more than 50 cents.
Damn, I had 3 minor problems with Buysnus over the last two years, single cans missing from an order and something like that, single, unforseable mistakes that have been immediatetly sorted out in a friendly way and I love Buysnus for that and will probably be their customer for the rest of my life. I hardly ever have mentioned these single-case-problems here on the forum. This is the first time that I have a problem with Northerner and I don't think that this is just a single, unforseable case or simple mistake, I almost think that a great deal of their business-model is that they don't give a shit on their customer's satisfaction. I'm not totally pissed yet, shit simply happens as I've said, but regarding my experience and regarding all the trustable case-descriptions I've read from other members here and on other forums, I'm absolutely not sure if I'll ever do business with them again.
This is not to hold anyone off of using Northerner. They still are a very reliable vendor and I guess everyone of us in Europe or the US) will learn to know the local customs-officers one day and maybe will have to pay a small fee. It's not like I feel like being heavily disappointed or something like that. I at least would be fine, if Northerner would state that the decision to use the Swiss-Post simply was a mistake. I just think that they've already gone to far lately with their snusen.com-experiment and that using the Swiss Post even for their regular customers, who already pay the Swedish tobacco-tax and VAT, with all the forseable trouble, simply was enough for me to post it here.
Cheers!
About snuson.com: yeah, everone, who orders tax-free stuff from outside of the EU to the EU does that on own risk. I never understood the people, who did so and then complained here and on other forums, about the forseable customs-fees and customs-troubles and long shipment-times. Shortly said, ordering from snuson.com, for EU-citizens, is nowhere cheaper or faster than ordering directly from Sweden, everyone with half a brain could have known that before ordering from them. But because of that I also never understood, why Northerner established their snuson.com-affiliate in the first place, which only could lead to nothing else but disappointed customers.
So, here is my own story:
Last week I ordered again from Northerner (which in the last two years has been a hassle-free and pleasing experience, all orders have been handled perfectly, not a single delivery that took longer than a week and not a single can ever missing) and chose First Priority Mail (EU). 10 days later (!), when I was already thinking, that something must have gone wrong (but yeah, shit happens, I'm always prepared that not every order will go well and simply hold an emergency-stash) I got a letter from the local customs-office to clear the shipment with them. I thought, well, that simply must be a mistake. So, I drove to the customs office, showed them the letter and said that it must be a mistake, because I ordered from Sweden (a EU-member) not from Switzerland.
The customs-officers, yeah several of them got involved in my case, where really nice and well-informed people. I could convince them with no trouble, that the snus originally came from Sweden and that it normally should be duty free, but they said that the import took place from Switzerland and I would additionaly have to pay the German VAT. Well, I argued with them for some minutes and said that I already paid the Swedish VAT (which is even higher then the German VAT and that it should be enough inside the EU), but I very soon realized that they were right. Yeah, they were right, the German customs-laws may be shitty in the first place, but that's not the fault of the customs-officers and the laws in other EU-countries certainly aren't any better, regarding what I've read also in this forum.
So, to make a long story short,
I paid
- The price of the snus
- the Swedish tobacco tax
- the Swedish VAT 25%
(all of them directly to Northerner , which roughly doubles the price compared to what American members of this forum have to pay) just like with every order. That's just the downside of living in the EU and I'm still fine with that overall. No problem!
- 19% German VAT (which simply is Northerner's fault). It hasn't been forseable for me that chosing "First Priority Mail (EU)" would mean that the Swiss Post (not a EU-country!) would process the order and that I would inevitably have to pay customs-fees, with all the other troubles associated. That really is Northerner's fault alone.
Yeah, I'd glady have paid 5 or 10 Euros more to Northerner, for avoiding all the trouble, which really was their forseable mistake (neither bad luck nor a single case-single-worker's mistake) and still the order would overall have been much more pleasing for me. I really wonder what's wrong with them. If they simply want to piss their European customers, well, it's their decision, but they also simply should make clear to their customers that they are using the Swiss Post, which probably will make no difference for Americans but inevitably for Europeans.
To make it clear, everyone makes mistakes and shit simply happens, that's no problem for me, but to chosoe the Swiss Post Post instead of the Swedish Post, with no information giving to the customers prior to that, is possibly the worst shit that Northerner ever could have done. As an experienced vendor They MUST have known the consequences prior to that and they must have known that they will "piss" their E.U.ropean customers ... and I doubt that the price-difference between the Swedish Post and the Swiss Post is more than 50 cents.
Damn, I had 3 minor problems with Buysnus over the last two years, single cans missing from an order and something like that, single, unforseable mistakes that have been immediatetly sorted out in a friendly way and I love Buysnus for that and will probably be their customer for the rest of my life. I hardly ever have mentioned these single-case-problems here on the forum. This is the first time that I have a problem with Northerner and I don't think that this is just a single, unforseable case or simple mistake, I almost think that a great deal of their business-model is that they don't give a shit on their customer's satisfaction. I'm not totally pissed yet, shit simply happens as I've said, but regarding my experience and regarding all the trustable case-descriptions I've read from other members here and on other forums, I'm absolutely not sure if I'll ever do business with them again.
This is not to hold anyone off of using Northerner. They still are a very reliable vendor and I guess everyone of us in Europe or the US) will learn to know the local customs-officers one day and maybe will have to pay a small fee. It's not like I feel like being heavily disappointed or something like that. I at least would be fine, if Northerner would state that the decision to use the Swiss-Post simply was a mistake. I just think that they've already gone to far lately with their snusen.com-experiment and that using the Swiss Post even for their regular customers, who already pay the Swedish tobacco-tax and VAT, with all the forseable trouble, simply was enough for me to post it here.
Cheers!
Just keep up the good work and great customer support!
Comment