Can I skip customs fees when purchasing a Nucleo board on ST ecommerce?

[Cesare]

Dear friends,

If I buy a Nucleo board on the ST ecommerce site, it turns out that the warehouse is located in the US, in fact the currency is expressed in dollars.

Last time I made a purchase, I had the unpleasant discovery that I had to pay very expensive customs fees, in addition to the cost of shipping precisely because the shipment was coming from the US, and this was not clearly explained during the purchasing process.

Considering that
- ST is a French-Italian company
- Nucleo boards are made in China

How it is possible ST doesn't have an European warehouse where I can purchase with Euro?

Question: is there any possibility to buy from an European ST official warehouse?

Note: I know there are the usual distributors (Mouser, Digikey, RS, ...) but only few of them sells to private individuals and some have very expensive shipping cost. I found the board I am looking for (Nucleo-G0B1RE) on Distrelec but sign-up is now disabled due to the merger with RS, and on RS website that board is out of stock.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Uwe Bonnes · Accepted solution]

Mouser/Digikey are based in the US andsell to private persons. Only european base companies like RS/Farnell restrain to sell to private customers, because  EU private customers have special right with EU company as compared to company customers.

So as long as ST does not offer to ship DDP (delivery/duty paid), as privat customer buy at Mouser/Digikey.

Otherwise find some STM boards e.g. at Reichelt.

[Cesare]

Just for information, I am located in Italy, here:
- RS sells to private customers with physical shop (had already purchased several stuff) saving shipping cost.

- Distrelec sells to private customers but is now sold to RS.

- Mouser sells to private customers only since a couple of years ago. If you buy something, "international shipping cost" is added. Nothing is said concerning customs fees but I guess they will be added later as "final surprise" on delivery (as happened to me with STM ecommerce).

- Digi-key sells to private customers but same history as Mouser (international shipping + customs fees).

- Farnell doesnt sell to private customers.

- Aliexpress has Nucleo boards but they are expensive.

At the end, I ended up ordering from Reichelt, which I didn't know before. Thank you for your suggestion.

[Uwe Bonnes]

@Cesare: You need to enter Mouser/Digikey from the website of your country, e.g. for me in germany de.mouser.com/de.digikey.com. Then on checkout you are offered a DDP shipping option. If you enter from the US or international site, no DDP option is offered.

Please check again and report back!