I live in the EU (Sweden) and starting December 31st I have to pay a load in customs and handling charges in order to receive packages sent from the UK.
Ah, gosh, I hadnāt realised youād have to pay too, just assumed cost to send would increase. So is the only difference with the EU site the currency? Stock etc is the same as UK?
I bought a headset the other day with a similar situation. Bought from the UK website thinking they will have a warehouse here then got an email from UPS saying I had an import fee of like 35% of the total order cost because the warehouse is in Denmark. Was fuming and now in a debate with the CS of the company
@Smultron - Iām sure youāre not the only one too! This is the absurd reality of brexit and the so-called ātrade dealā.
Any UK company that wants to keep its EU customer base will have to do as you say: set up proper EU-based warehouse facilities. Until that happens, there really wonāt be any point in lovehoney having a website with a .eu domain at all - and no point in EU customers ordering any goods.
I know thereās been a huge amount of confusion and uncertainty as to how brexit would pan out, but I am tempted to say: UK companies who export to Europeā¦ youāve had nearly 4 yearsā notice that this would happen. What were you doing for all this time that youāve been caught on the hop like this?
Whilst I agree with your frustration, Iām not sure itās entirely fair to lay the blame at companiesā feet over this.
Itās really not as simple as setting up a shed in the EU! I work for a large international business and we set up a new EU warehouse in response to brexit. It has cost us millions.
In addition, you have to change the whole way your business operates. You have to forecast your sales in the UK and Eu separately, buy stock separately, if something sells better in the UK/EU and not the other, you canāt just move the stock in between, you need to set up an EU entity, the list goes on and on.
No offence to lovehoney, but they are a fraction of the size of my company and it was such huge burden, I canāt imagine how smaller companies could achieve it.
Add on top of that, with the uncertainty, there could have been a trade deal that rendered all of that investment unnecessary. An impossible position!
Sorry, about the rant, but itās been a long day!
Thereās a Ā£11-12 handling fee per package plus 25% of the value of the contents, even if itās a free product or an exchange.
However there are no costs if the sender is a private person (not a company).
It appears so, even though I havenāt compared everything thatās listed on each site.
Oh, that sucks! I hope you can refuse to pick it up and get a refund.
@PleasureDrone To be honest I havenāt been following Brexit that much, just read the biggest headlines. Therefore I donāt know if there was any uncertainty, hope or any action taken to come to a trade deal or agreement.
What I know for sure is that, at the moment, there are lots of UK-based online retailers that are faced with this problem.
Just yesterday I was checking out some clothes and there was a disclaimer on the site that they do not accept orders from EU-countries for the time being. Some retailers seem to be trying to figure out a solution now, and thatās positive! =)
@Earl_Grey Thanks for the glimpse into how these things actually work!
I assumed it would cost both time and lots of money, and mean that the companies have to take a risk.
As someone talking about it in theory, I understand that the best option for most companies would have been to look into their EU-sales, see if a new warehouse (and all it involves) would be a viable, profitable option and, if so, get prepared to go through with it.
As a customer, I feel sad and upset that I have to choose to either pay an arm and a leg to order from my favourite UK shops, or I have to order from Swedish/ EU shops that generally have higher prices and a very limited product range.
Personally I have an extremely low income and even Ā£5-10 can make a huge difference. I understand that others are more financially comfortable and therefore not affected to the same degree.
For me, this change means that Iāll have to treat myself to some āāluxuryāā snack instead of getting a sparkling new toy or lingerie, because my budget is limited and not flexible at all.
Customers might also want to know if the packages will be required to have customs declaration labels saying what the contents (and value) are. Just saying.
My boyfriend received a package with a customs declaration from lovehoney and 50 shades of grey toys in, it read ānovelty itemsā. (Heās in Germany.) Not sure if thatās any use. I donāt know if thatās because itās classed as official merchandise however.
Right now, biggest stumbling block stopping me from ordering are the unknown import duties I face to unblock parcel at customsā¦ that along with customs officials knowing/finding out what is in parcel
Isnāt there information about the duties in your countryās postal service providerās website, or in the customsā website?
As for customs officials finding out about the contents of the parcel, I donāt think they really care. They probably have to go through hundreds of boxes and chances are theyāve seen weirder things. xD
load in customs and handling charges in order to receive packages sent from the UK.
I hope you can refuse to pick it up and get a refund. 
