From 21st June 2021 trade with new clients within the EU is paused with the exception of orders from Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Monaco and San Merino which remain unaffected. 

Current and past EU clients please email  Jules

We have closed our EU business to new clients as a direct result of the ongoing trade disruption on the border combined with the new EU VAT regulations.

From July 1st we had hoped to re-open for trade with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,  France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden but this proved financially unviable with many orders being returned from the border their entry barred due to incorrect paperwork.

There are many ways in which an item can be stopped at the border and held for weeks, returned without explanation, or charged 50-100% of their value in fees and it appears EU customs officers have been exploiting all of them.

The combination of time spent answering emails, chasing missing orders, phone calls, disappearing parcels and returns means we have started making a loss for the first time ever. It's absolutely heartbreaking to have worked so hard to build an outstanding business, get through a pandemic unscathed only to have it crushed by bureaucrats. 

Apologies for the rather boring amount of detail listed here, it's been added to stem the flow of emails we're receiving from prospective clients within the EU arguing against our decision and pointing out ways in which we could still get an order through if we only did this or that, and how it will be easy to get an order through.

Please believe us, your order is unlikely to get past the customs border to you and if it does the price may be doubled. That's what's actually happening on the ground out there and it's out of our control.

If you're still reading at this point, we can give you a taster of the admin level involved in every interaction with the EU border.

Let's say you're a client in an EU state who wishes to exchange an item for a different size, but you don't want to pay VAT on both the original and the replacement. To do that, you have to export the goods to us and get an export number from Brussels . And to do that you'll be needing the following information and documents for the customs declaration:

arrival notification (from the transport company)
a document to prove that the repairs are free of charge or exchange based on a warranty obligation
an export declaration or other document for the export. 

But getting the export declaration and it's number doesn't seem so straight forward

https://tulli.fi/en/private-persons/more-on-customs-clearance/goods-returned-from-repair-maintenance-or-replacement

https://inspire.customs4trade.com/blog/how-to-claim-preferential-treatment-and-returned-goods-relief-for-eu-goods-returning-to-the-eu#RGR

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/online-services/online-services-and-databases-customs/central-system-standardised-exchange_en

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/duty-relief_en

With regret we can therefore take on no new clients with delivery addresses in the EU. 

We had hoped to re-open for trade via an ebay hub, however, this would have involved a huge amount of time to set up and run, more rules, more protocols, more investment in a bureaucratic process that is basically against everything we stand for. I don't collect taxes on behalf of China and then pay Beijing, I don't collect taxes on behalf of Russia and forward money to Moscow, I won't be collect taxes on behalf of EU and send money to Brussels via an approved EU accountant that also needs paying.

There seems no way to receive anything within the EU from us that doesn't involve re-coding our checkout, re-writing our website and agreeing to collect taxes on behalf of a foreign state.

I'm so sorry to all my clients who remain affected by this, because I have always been and will remain pro-Europe

At the moment if you have an EU delivery address then the only way you can receive your order from us is by having a postbox in Switzerland, Norway, or Monaco, or once we can all fly again then you will be very welcome to come pick it up in the UK.

Please email if you are worried about anything and I'll try and help as best I can

Jules

Bêta-testeurs et cobayes

Comment et pourquoi vous devriez tourner le dos à la mode produite en masse