International Shipping

[Springfairy]

I'm getting desperate, my last two orders after the shipping rate hike look like this:

$37 worth of products, $15 shipping and $13 UK customs and handling fee
$61 worth of products, $16 shipping and $25 UK customs and handling fee.

Any ideas how to get around this?

[bellatete]

the only way i see to get around at least the customs fees is to stick to the usd equivalent of whatever the threshold is in gbp for paying customs at all. i think i wrote it before in this thread, but that's what i do. my holy limit is products for 30 usd per order, that even allows me to pick a free eyeshadow every once in a while, and so far - knock on wood - i never paid import duty and/or customs.

i know it hurts a bit that for almost the same shipping price you get less products, but hey, at least it's taxfree products

[emilky]

Does anyone know if the customs rates etc have changed for the UK? I used to order SN stuff and could get away with 30 USD worth of products without having to pay VAT but I've just looked on the UK customs site and it looks like it's now saying only products worth £15 or under are exempt from paying tax which is 23 USD. Any Brits who have ordered recently know? I haven't ordered since the start of the year so just want to check. Thanks!

Emily

[Springfairy]

Yes, that's what Royal Mail told me. My orders are getting more and more expensive. And it's not only VAT and duty but also handling fee 6 or 7 pounds.

[Xarata]

The only other thing I have heard of is big orders or group orders (orders for multiple people getting shipped to one house and then dispersed either by pickup, get together, or mail) The tax gets split by everyone for group orders and you make less orders in the bulk orders. Kind of like group Catalog sales. SN book club? Someone find a coffee shop!

Remember that shipping goes up based on the weight of your package, so if you want something like conditioner, buy a few bottles at a time as the shipping is already high on one bottle (for example, I live in the US. Shipping on a package with 1 bottle of conditioner with shadows is ~$13, shipping on a package with 2 bottles with shadows is ~$15, shipping on a package of just lippies and shadows is ~$5). From the site: "Orders over 5 pounds ship via Priority Mail international (hint- it's cheaper to get 2 smaller packages than one big 5 pound package)." Karen recommends placing 2 $15 orders (you can still mark for a free shadow on one of them when you do this) rather than placing a $30 order. It SHOULD save on shipping AND keep the package under customs.