Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
Prusa3d could have done a better job displaying VAT fees for USA on orders over $800.
I waited 2 months for the Black Friday sale and would have kept my order at $799 with free shipping.
Instead I added a spool holder and Nextruder for $25. That $25 is now costing me $25+$43.81. Now the courier wants an additional fee to complete delivery, or they mail the printer back to CZ.
In the USA, sales tax is typically charged during payment by the seller, not upon reaching the country and paid to the courier.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
send it back or pay up that's it i had the same in uk it is in the small print lol
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
Yet another post about import duty and taxes. Its not hidden, theres loads of info about it. Multiple posts on here. Mostly from Americans who don't really know how to deal with international purchases. Its normal and what the rest of the world deals with on a regular basis. Import duty is done by your country, extra charges for handling this on your behalf by the couriers is normal if a right pain in the rear.
Amazon do exactly the same.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
Support has known about this issue for a while.
In my opinion, this blue section is not good enough for USA customers:
No taxes are included for orders outside the EU. Import taxes may be applied upon arrival, based on country laws. Customers with shipping addresses outside the EU are responsible for all duties, import taxes and brokerage fees.
You can check the list of common customs charges on our Knowledge Base. Keep in mind, that charges in the table are only estimates - real charges may differ.
Please be informed, that all payment fees, such as currency transfer or bank fees, are to be covered by the customer.
As a black friday customer, my order could be $799 and not pay $43.81 for an order over $800. There should be more than a "notice" in blue that contains a link. There could be a warning at checkout that orders slightly over $800 will incur full sales tax as VAT, and orders below $800 will not. I could have sourced extra parts elsewhere and incurred no VAT. It's a surprise charge. I can pay it, but what if I was away from my computer for 5+ days, or didn't have the money?
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
"If the duty is not paid within 5 days from the arrival date, the parcel will be returned to the shipper."
This VAT for USA should be a warning, not a notice. Easily avoidable and unnecessary.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
And do not forget, these charges are nothing to do with Prusa, they are set and levied entirely by your government. Every country charges different import duties, it is not practical to do what you say for every country and it would be unfair to do it for USA but not for UK, Canada, Australia, NZ etc.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
I'm sure customers in other countries would prefer a warning instead of a notice.
If the order was divided, I'd pay $15 for shipping on the 2nd order instead of $43.81 VAT.
The price for the MK4 kit seems to have intentionally set the price right below USA VAT cost ($799). Why not take an extra step to warn users so they can avoid VAT instead of an easily overlooked blue notice? I've never paid VAT to Customs to the Carrier when the shipment reaches the country.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
I've never paid VAT to Customs to the Carrier when the shipment reaches the country.
Lucky you. It is normal to do so. You should try getting VAT added not only to the product, but also the shipping costs AND the fee itself. Anything to make things the most expensive they can be.
You point out that Prusa has a notice about this on their website, so what, you want an extra second warning? You can only blame yourself for not paying attention. Its surprising how pretty much all these import tax threads are started by people from the US. Its almost like they never have to deal with anything outside of their own borders.
I mean we Brexitted, stupidly, so we can only blame ourselves for leaving the EU and getting charged more but at least we are aware that fact causes problems.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
I'm sure customers in other countries would prefer a warning instead of a notice.
You seem to be failing to grasp that $799 is set by the US Government, my government sets its equivalent at £135 and both are free to change those values at will. So that is two values that need setting and tracking so the warning is correctly shown. There will be a need to track a value for every country that is not in the EU which, as I said, is not practical.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
Support told me it's typically $35 to $45 for the USA. They know about it but it's not well advertised.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
Support told me it's typically $35 to $45 for the USA. They know about it but it's not well advertised.
I think we will have to disagree on that, I saw it easily enough and was not surprised when I got charged £240.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
I got caught on this on my first Prusa order, a MK3S+ and MMU2S. The warnings were on Prusa's website but it didn't click with me. Being ignorant is on me, not Prusa.
The charges levied by US Customs are import duty taxes, not VAT. Most US States have a Sales Tax. It is not collected by Prusa or anyone else. In my State I'm responsible for reporting any purchase on which I didn't pay the Sales Tax when I file my annual income tax return.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
I believe the reason we miss it is because it doesn't have the right color scheme or language.
Here are some color schemes for different types of user alert messages:
https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/alerts/
https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/w3css_alerts.asp
Warning alerts are orange and info alerts are light blue.
RE:
Prusa makes mistakes in addition to the good work they do.
Unless someone points out the pitfalls, more customers will fall into them.
RE: Black Friday $799 and hidden VAT fee to USA
When I bought my kit from Prusa I didn't have any trouble finding the warnings about import duty; I can't remember whether from their store website or here on the forum. Either way, it's not Prusa's problem, and they cannot be expected to keep track of customs regulations in all of the countries they ship to. I think they are to be commended for having kept the cost of their basic kit below the threshold that triggers US import duty, in the face of rising costs.
What's maybe more of a problem for those of us in the US, is the haphazard way in which the duties are collected from the consignee. Some people get charged up front prior to delivery, others get a bill after delivery (sometimes long after), and there appear to have been some cases where the carrier demands the fee even when no duty is owed. There's no real consistency to it at all. Which again, is our problem, and not Prusa's problem. It would be more appropriate (though likely no more effective) to complain to your representatives than to other users on this forum (which Prusa only pays limited attention to).
To be fair to the OP, the vast majority of US consumers never have any actual need to ever order anything from outside the US, so when they do, yeah it's easy to get burned by some of the intricacies. The snide comments from a (very) few of our European counterparts are no more useful, and no less ignorant than complaints about Prusa not making their warnings obvious enough. Yes, when you live in a country that's smaller than some US states, international shipping is routine. At the same time, it doesn't lend itself to having a real understanding of just how huge the US is, or why for many here, the printer they ordered from Prusa may be the first thing they have ever ordered directly from overseas.