Import fee warning!!!

[ptiano]

I am almost regretting buying this now... Haven't had the pleasure of playing with it yet. I am in Spain and I had to pay 130 euros in fees just to get it delivered, between national sales tax and import fees. That is almost half the value of the unit itself. I knew I would pay import fees but I thought it would be something reasonable. Now I ended up paying close to 500 euros for this product. That is a lot. It would be nice if you could sort out a European warehouse so the import tax costs could be calculated by whole sale stsndards and not retail, and we (the customer) would not be hit sooooo hard! I am sure most of us in Europe wouldn't have a problem with the price being slightly higher to get it... If it means not getting so screwed like I just did.
Best, 
A disgruntled future user.
BTW I am totally looking forward to trying this out but I have a sour taste in my mouth now... I'm sure that'll change once I see how awesome NDLR is.

[Regrib]

Je kan de synths aansluiten op de midi thru van de synths die je al aangesloten hebt. Zo kan je ze aan elkaar doorlussen. Mocht je geen thrubuitgang hebben dan kan je een splitter kopen die 1 midi in opsplitst in bijvoorbeeld 5 uit

[Darryl]

I am almost regretting buying this now... Haven't had the pleasure of playing with it yet. I am in Spain and I had to pay 130 euros in fees just to get it delivered, between national sales tax and import fees. That is almost half the value of the unit itself. I knew I would pay import fees but I thought it would be something reasonable. Now I ended up paying close to 500 euros for this product. That is a lot. It would be nice if you could sort out a European warehouse so the import tax costs could be calculated by whole sale stsndards and not retail, and we (the customer) would not be hit sooooo hard! I am sure most of us in Europe wouldn't have a problem with the price being slightly higher to get it... If it means not getting so screwed like I just did.
Best, 
A disgruntled future user.
BTW I am totally looking forward to trying this out but I have a sour taste in my mouth now... I'm sure that'll change once I see how awesome NDLR is.

Yes, the government loves their taxes. Really sorry about that, I think Spain has higher tax than some other EU Countries. It feels unfair, but I guess we can only vote for what we want, and hope to benefit from the tax money we pay. It is also unfair to the makers selling product from outside the EU because we could sell more NDLRs in Europe if the import tax was not so high. Its protectionism, they don't want you to buy our stuff.
In the future we will look at providing our products through retail channels, we are starting to experiment with it in the USA, but its time consuming and we are not yet big enough to hire someone to own it. We have to focus on making more products to get big enough to get help for things like marketing and retail sales. Someday soon we hope.

[PDofCC]

I'm waiting for my delivery in the UK.  I expected to have to pay 20% VAT, but unfortunately my NDLR was subject to a random UK government Customs check and I was required to send a copy of my payment receipt (USD 329 + 34 shipping) from Indiegogo to check the value of the shipment against the item value declaration made by the Hong Kong distributor (Sunny Access?).   Unfortunately these two figures did not match, and I have now been charged a GBP 45 supplement plus GBP 10 admin fee to correct the value declaration for UK Customs (HMRC).  I don't know what value was declared by the HK distributor, but it's really important this is correct, otherwise the customer can get high surcharges, as I have, or even have the item confiscated if the discrepancy is high.  Please look into this.  If Sunny Access is under-declaring value to save customers money, I'm afraid it's a false economy if the shipment is subject to customs inspection.  My total payment to receive the NDLR from DHL is GBP 112 !!   I'm hoping the NDLR is worth it....

[winke082]

Je kan de synths aansluiten op de midi thru van de synths die je al aangesloten hebt. Zo kan je ze aan elkaar doorlussen. Mocht je geen thrubuitgang hebben dan kan je een splitter kopen die 1 midi in opsplitst in bijvoorbeeld 5 uit

Dank je wel.
Ondertussen heb ik de Motif 1, Motif 2, Pad en Drone al aangesloten middels een Midi thru box.
Met 1 in en 5 maal thru.
Maar wat ik nu nog niet snap is, als je meer dan 4 synths wil syncen met de NDLR.
De NDLR kan zelf toch maar 4 MIDI kanalen afspelen?
Ja, er is nog veel onduidelijk voor mij haha.
Bedankt en groeten,
Ronald Winkel

[Darryl]

I'm waiting for my delivery in the UK.  I expected to have to pay 20% VAT, but unfortunately my NDLR was subject to a random UK government Customs check and I was required to send a copy of my payment receipt (USD 329 + 34 shipping) from Indiegogo to check the value of the shipment against the item value declaration made by the Hong Kong distributor (Sunny Access?).   Unfortunately these two figures did not match, and I have now been charged a GBP 45 supplement plus GBP 10 admin fee to correct the value declaration for UK Customs (HMRC).  I don't know what value was declared by the HK distributor, but it's really important this is correct, otherwise the customer can get high surcharges, as I have, or even have the item confiscated if the discrepancy is high.  Please look into this.  If Sunny Access is under-declaring value to save customers money, I'm afraid it's a false economy if the shipment is subject to customs inspection.  My total payment to receive the NDLR from DHL is GBP 112 !!   I'm hoping the NDLR is worth it....

I really don't understand this. I've checked the commercial invoice, the price declared is $329 USD plus shipping converted to GBP. As Indiegogo isn't really a store, they only offer flat shipping rates per country, so the actual shipping will vary depending on the destination and carrier. Otherwise, the only other discrepancy I can think of could be in currency exchange rates. 

We will check  with the fulfillment warehouse to make sure they are not somehow changing the declared price, but it should not change from what we get from Indiegogo and upload to the postage provider. They just print the stickers after we purchase them so I don't think they can change it.

Can you email us the commercial invoice and any other paperwork you received?

[PDofCC]

OK many thanks for checking this.  I was also interested to see the paperwork that has now arrived with the NDLR but the only document in the plastic wallet stuck to the package had no cost or value information at all.  I’ll contact DHL to ask for a detailed explanation and will ask them to provide evidence of the reason for the surcharge, and I’ll get back to you.

[Darryl]

Thanks for checking on it, I can send you the invoice that is generated by our postal provider, and we can compare. I am a bit surprised that the invoice wasn't on the box, but I know they electronically communicate it to customs and DHL typically has their own dedicated customs interface in major ports.

[PDofCC]

Hi Darryl - an update.  It's incredibly hard to follow up on a shipment with DHL.  Customer Service is another name for a department that simply gives you other departments to call, invariably the wrong ones.  After 5 calls I reached the DHL Customer Accounts department who confirmed that the surcharges are due to a discrepancy in the shipper's declared value and the amount paid to Indiegogo.  On pressing for the actual numbers, it seems that this may be due solely to currency exchange variations, and the difference is only a few GBP (all dealings with Indiegogo are in USD, but all UK customs valuations are in GBP).  The adviser I eventually spoke to has opened an enquiry into the surcharge and I am promised they will get back to me in 3-5 working days.  Watch this space!

[jrayon]

Yes, the government loves their taxes. Really sorry about that, I think Spain has higher tax than some other EU Countries. It feels unfair, but I guess we can only vote for what we want, and hope to benefit from the tax money we pay. It is also unfair to the makers selling product from outside the EU because we could sell more NDLRs in Europe if the import tax was not so high. Its protectionism, they don't want you to buy our stuff.
In the future we will look at providing our products through retail channels, we are starting to experiment with it in the USA, but its time consuming and we are not yet big enough to hire someone to own it. We have to focus on making more products to get big enough to get help for things like marketing and retail sales. Someday soon we hope.

Hi. I bought my NDLR unit just days ago also from Spain and had the very same experience. I end up paying 136 € more, which I detail below.

Spain has a 21% VAT tax, which is a thing, but not the highest in EU. That's ~69 €. There's some other customs tax for +17 €. Total, 86 euros in customs. However what increases the price unexpectedly is the delivery agency (in my case DHL) which charged +50,11€  for customs formalities, that is, an administrative fee, not a government tax. IMO this is a total scam and an abuse of power (you have no chance to negotiate it or can't really do anything if you want your delivery). Just pay or give up.

My suggestion for Conductive Labs would be to check if is there any another post service in Europe that does not charge so much for this basic procedure. I already have my NDLR, but I'm sure many other users could get benefit of it

Edit: worths mention that, apart of the mentioned fee, DHL worked out very well, and the delivery was really fast. I was expecting a longer delivery time for something traveling from HK