Buying From France post Brexit.

[marshalllucky]

I had a sorry experience earlier in the year, I saw a beautiful bike in March on ebay.fr and bought it for 1000euro . Seller was really quite calm and seemed confident that there would be no issues as they had sent loads of bikes and frames over to the UK . It was sent via Colissimo Poste in March but never arrived , I checked the tracking online regularly getting updates that paperwork for Customs was missing etc and other similar issues which the seller assured me they would sort with the carrier. After 6 weeks of waiting one day the tracking said it was being returned to the seller in France without them ever contacting me despite them having my email and phone number. The seller then kindly offered to resend it on a better service ( UPS ) at their cost and anyway after it being stuck in Customs again for about 3 weeks ( still in France ) I got an email asking me for about £200 which was duty and brokerage charges ( I was expecting this ) and I paid online within half an hour. The delivery status then updated to `in transit ` and over the next 3-4 weeks kept changing and stating it was `delayed due to a Brexit related issue ` . Phone calls and emails to UPS proved useless, the call centre staff advised me they only have access to the same tracking that I have and ` to wait` . After a couple more weeks the delivery status suddenly changed to `parcel being returned to sender` despite me paying UPS £200 in Customs charges. I then started a campaign of calling and emailing UPS to no avail, it was delivered back to the sender and I was now 1000euro and £200 out of pocket. I logged a dispute with ebay for the bike, it was not the sellers fault and I really felt for her but I had lost all faith in the post system . I got the money back for the bike but had to log a dispute with paypal for the UPS Customs charges as UPS told me they had no idea how I could get my money back despite them collecting the duty but failing to deliver the bike. In the end UPS did not engage with the dispute process and paypal ruled in my favour and refunded me . I thought that was the end of it but am still getting invoices from UPS for the duty charges that paypal refunded , I have spent hours on the phone being passed around an no one at UPS has been able to help. I am expecting debt collection letters next , I`ve kept all my emails and have to say UPS Customer service stinks. I`m hoping the situation has improved now but if not I just want people to know so they dont end up like me .

 

[Blackers]

Ups are clearly trying it on .
Trying to collect import charges for a parcel they never imported and then returned to sender .
If they except PayPal as payment for goods and services. Then they agreed to PayPals terms and conditions.
And ignoring paypals resolution process at the time is on on them .
Obviously there failed to provide the service you paid for.
Although the French side of of customs exports
Seems to be overly pretty just to be awkward for the sake of it .

 

[Nob]

UPS are terrible & are to be avoided at all costs!! The wouldn’t deliver to my address out here & you had to go to there depot to pick up packages! AVOID
,

 

[Augustus]

I had a sorry experience earlier in the year, I saw a beautiful bike in March on ebay.fr and bought it for 1000euro . Seller was really quite calm and seemed confident that there would be no issues as they had sent loads of bikes and frames over to the UK . It was sent via Colissimo Poste in March but never arrived , I checked the tracking online regularly getting updates that paperwork for Customs was missing etc and other similar issues which the seller assured me they would sort with the carrier. After 6 weeks of waiting one day the tracking said it was being returned to the seller in France without them ever contacting me despite them having my email and phone number. The seller then kindly offered to resend it on a better service ( UPS ) at their cost and anyway after it being stuck in Customs again for about 3 weeks ( still in France ) I got an email asking me for about £200 which was duty and brokerage charges ( I was expecting this ) and I paid online within half an hour. The delivery status then updated to `in transit ` and over the next 3-4 weeks kept changing and stating it was `delayed due to a Brexit related issue ` . Phone calls and emails to UPS proved useless, the call centre staff advised me they only have access to the same tracking that I have and ` to wait` . After a couple more weeks the delivery status suddenly changed to `parcel being returned to sender` despite me paying UPS £200 in Customs charges. I then started a campaign of calling and emailing UPS to no avail, it was delivered back to the sender and I was now 1000euro and £200 out of pocket. I logged a dispute with ebay for the bike, it was not the sellers fault and I really felt for her but I had lost all faith in the post system . I got the money back for the bike but had to log a dispute with paypal for the UPS Customs charges as UPS told me they had no idea how I could get my money back despite them collecting the duty but failing to deliver the bike. In the end UPS did not engage with the dispute process and paypal ruled in my favour and refunded me . I thought that was the end of it but am still getting invoices from UPS for the duty charges that paypal refunded , I have spent hours on the phone being passed around an no one at UPS has been able to help. I am expecting debt collection letters next , I`ve kept all my emails and have to say UPS Customer service stinks. I`m hoping the situation has improved now but if not I just want people to know so they dont end up like me .

Living in France and buying much online, I can say with experience, even the better couriers like DPD or UPS are fine until the item arrives in a French depot. Then it goes wrong literally every time.
My Moots came from Steamboat Springs in Colorado fine, until it got to the local UPS depot here. I had every excuse from the driver from 'i don't know where your village is' (when he came the week before, to 'it's too far, come and meet me 15km away in a cafe'!
And you go because it's £4k of Ti you don't want sitting in a box in a cafe.
Collisimo seem ok-ish as they're the post office, but couriers here are beyond laughable. Every time.

 

[Woz]

March was still very much in the Brexit - EU "how does it work" uncertainty mess period for buyers, sellers, customs agents, customs officiers and courriers. You were very unlucky but on one side didn't give enough time for it to all settle. Remember the prick Johnsson signed at the last minute burying it as a Xmas present - caused the EU not to sufficiently prepare either and guidlines and systems were not in place.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/whats-going-on-with-the-mail.425903/https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/brexit-and-shipping-to-eu.425431/
"I am expecting debt collection letters next" - I have been there with UPS. The bastards charged for unordered services and absolutely no proof they paid customs duties on my behalf; when I pushed them all they could produce was a blank customs declaration - not even a copy of what they submitted to the customs office and no proof of the customs import duty assessment. I left it to the last court action threat then paid. They are now boycotted forever and I will not buy from the USA if the seller chooses UPS.

As a seller in France I have shipped to the UK and used Colissimo - frankly I wouldn't trust anything else since the process is fairly mature now but it is a lot of paper work for the seller (physiscal documents and online) and it MUST be done correctly even before the package is left at the post office for dispatch.