ST eStore: customs duties

[MaxC]

Hello,

last week I purchased an  X-NUCLEO-67W61M1 eval board from ST eStore  (the cost is about 38$ = 32 Euro) taking advantage of the free-shipping. 

Yesterday, Fedex told me that I have to pay 28 Euro as custom duties (+ VAT for Italy). I'm very disappointed about that because I was not aware about that amount before paying.

I would ask to add a feature in the ST eSTORE website in order to estimate the custom duties (shipping from USA) and VAT for Europe so the customer can check if it's more convenient to purchase the item on another website in Europe.

Thanks

[Lina_DABASINSKAITE]

Hello @MaxC, 

Thank you for bringing this up. I have shared this feedback with our eStore team, and here is their response.

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Dear MaxC,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. As stated in our ST eStore Terms and Conditions, Section 4 – Sales Tax and Duties: “International shipments: All applicable VAT, PST, HST, and/or GST charges, along with brokerage fees, will be the responsibility of the customer and are due at the time of delivery.”

However, we understand that the VAT charge of €28 seems high, and we have opened a case for investigation with our fulfillment partner. To assist us further, we would appreciate it if you could provide a proof of invoice or any relevant document related to this charge. Please submit this through our online support portal [here]. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

We also appreciate your suggestion to display estimated taxes, and we are pleased to inform you that this feature is currently under development. Unfortunately, customs duties are determined by the destination country and cannot be controlled or pre-determined by ST.

Thank you again for placing your order. Please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to support you.

Best regards,
ST eStore Team

[Andrew Neil]

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@Lina_DABASINSKAITE wrote:

we understand that the VAT charge of €28 seems high, m

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@MaxC Was that figure purely VAT?

It is common that carriers like FedEx will add their own fees for collecting these duties/taxes ...

There may also be "duty" which is separate from VAT ...

Yes, I have been stung by these things in the past.

Some distributors (including Digikey, I think) will include all these charges in the invoice

[Raúl]

I have also been surprised in the purchase process. I thought STMicroelectronics was a Europe based company or at least it should be able to choose shipment from Europe. I actually could not figure out that shipment warehouse is located at the US.

In my case, we had some issues with the payment in the eStore (presumably related to stricter anti-fraud protection in European banks) but now we also have to deal with customs. I hope it is possible to relax these inconveniences more easily with Europe based shipments

[Andrew Neil]

Probably easier to just buy through distributors?

PS:

See my previous reply.

PPS:

Related: Where are products shipped from estore.st.com.