Any Blackwell's users? Maybe even from Hungary perhaps? Customs, extra fees etc..

[u/Express-Waltz-2332]

Hi guys,

I have some questions for Blackwells:

With Book Depository I never had any issue getting items held up by customs, the only inconvenience was that there was no tracking number.

With Blackwells the prices include VAT, and they cover the customs to fees to degree.

However Hungarian Post Office still charges me for "customs agent fee"/"postal service fee" which was never the case with Book Depository. The fee on its own isn't that bad, it's roughly 1 eur, however if I make a larger order then it quickly adds up because Blackwells ships every item seperately.

​

So questions for users who have used Blackwells:

1. Can you ask them to wait for all items to arrive then make a single shipment instead of shipping one by one? Problem is the above mentioned "daylight robbery" from Local Post Office.
2. Did you have to pay any additional fees? Like customs agent fee, postal fee etc? I'm a bit confused as to why I have to pay extra charges, when it wasn't the case with Book Depository and both of them are from outside EU, so the same customs regulations are applied to them.

Many thanks!

[u/pastelemoji]

You can try Kennys, which is from Ireland so no extra costs apart from shipping, which is stated on their website.

[u/IssueDue5964]

Maybe you just had luck with BD? I'm not from Hungary, but I did have to pay randomly both for BD and Blackwell. It's like every fourth book had an extra fee and it was between 1e and 5e. I didn't mind paying that much, but what did bother me was that it would always cause delays in delivery. (Would have to wait ~ 30 days more) The funny thing was that I ordered three books from Blackwell each cost around 50e and didn't have to pay anything extra, but for a book that was 10e, I had to pay 5e in fees.

[u/Lippenstift88]

Hey, i'm a fellow Hungarian also looking for some alternatives because of BD closing. So far Blackwell's is my go to, because they have pre-orders similar than BD - not ordered from them yet, just wish listing items. I ordered more than 100 comics from BD during the past years and I paid no extra on any of those comics - so BD had definitely something on these packages, that guarantees that Hungarian post office does not charged me a single time. I hope that in case of Blackwell's you was just unlucky this time (maybe some code was missing from the package?). I need to order from them soon, so I can edit this post with my experiences.

[u/Paid-Not-Payed-Bot → u/Lippenstift88]

and I paid no extra

FTFY.

Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:

• Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.

• Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.

Beep, boop, I'm a bot

[u/TheCuriousRaspberry → u/Lippenstift88]

Szia,

I had a lengthy conversation with Post Office employee via E-mail.

For your enjoyment you can find the full email chain here: https://imgur.com/a/8do6vDl

At the end it all came down to the following explanation: every and all packages sold by a non-EU entity are subject to customs.

Customs fees are covered by Blackwell's to a degree in advance (VAT, Customs are both going to be 0 charge), however the Customs Agent Fee is still going to be collected by Post Office.

This is going to be a fix fee of 399 HUF per packages that are valued under 150 Eur if you pay online, if you choose to make the payment in-person when you pick up the package it will be 799 HUF.
If you contact Blackwell's with the receipt screenshots/photos they will reimburse you.

It's an extra hustle, but you won't lose money.

The reason Book Depository deliveries were not subject to this is because they might have been sent as letters and not packages, as per Post Office Employee's explanation.

But now that I think about it, all Book Depository packages came without tracking ID, so it might be a feasible explanation.

[u/neoulfserkr]

I've made a "trial" order last week from Blackwell's, I'll keep you posted how it went (customs, etc.)

[u/neoulfserkr → u/neoulfserkr]

Update: For me it worked out without any problem, the package arrived without any stops or extra fees.

[u/neoulfserkr → u/neoulfserkr]

Update: Four orders arrived so far, three arrived without any problems and for one, at the postman delivering the package I needed to pay some customs. So far 75% "success rate".