I’d really like to order the indoor kit, but was turned off by the shipping fee. There will be additional import taxes as well, resulting in a price that is more than double the advertised one. I haven’t been able to find a distributor in Europe, am I missing something?
We currently ship only out of Thailand and don’t have distributors. However into most countries the custom fees for air quality monitors/electronics is very low and it is mainly VAT that might get charged. So typically it is way less than “double” the advertised price. Which country you are based in?
Ok, I thought the kit was shipped from the USA, I’ve had a few expensive surprises in the past with import fees. I live in Belgium.
How was the shipping finally to Belgium?, I’m thinking to order one kit to Spain but I am also curious about the import fees.
I ordered one a few weeks ago, and got it delivered to me in Denmark last week. There were no additional fees on that which surprised me, whether this was a fluke or not I can’t really tell.
For the record:
Took 3 sensors (1 outdoor / 2 indoor DIY).
~450$ with shipping. Got 53€ import fee in France (and a big delay cause the invoice was not in the package)
Thanks for the feedback.
We did a survey a while ago. In the US most people do not get charged at all. In Europe it varies a lot. Some packages do not get charged at all. The ones that get charged what I saw was around EUR 20 for one AirGradient ONE kit.
1 Like
Some experiences from Belgium
- Ordered 1 indoor monitor (kit) on 12th Aug which was delivered this morning (9th Sep) - so quite a long time.
- It arrived in Belgium on 28th Aug after which bpost contacted me to pay the VAT and some handling/declaration fee (done the same day)
- They then mentioned it would be provided to customs by 2nd Sep for any import validaitons. So they did and no extra fees to pay.
- And thus delivered today.
In summary total amount paid:
- The kit: USD 138
- Transport: USD 25
- VAT+handling: EUR 37.10
- Customes: EUR 0
FYI:
I ordered from Italy
TOTAL order paid to Air Gradient’s website USD 436.00
Order arrived in ITALY in 11 days
TOTAL FEDEX 68.47€
(In Italy VAT is 22%)
Checking the Fedex bill I see:
- VAT: 54.97€
- Fedex Fee: 13.50€
That’s all, have a nice day.
For the records
For Switzerland, order placed 29 of Nov and AirGradient One arrived today 14th of Dec with Swiss Post, totaly tax I had to pay was CHF 23.50
2 Likes
My recent experience: ordered on December 23, received on January 10.
Shipping was managed by the Netherlands post (PostNL) and tracking number was created as if the parcel is arriving from the Netherlands. This was to my benefit because I am from the EU and my local post processed the parcel without charging me any extra fees. When I received the parcel, the label actually said that it was shipped from Thailand but also had PostNL logo and indication that if the parcel is unclaimed it should be returned to an address in the Netherlands, city of Schiedam.
I am not sure what to make out of it, maybe the parcel was indeed arriving from some storage location in the Netherlands.
All three of my monitors arrived without having to pay extra tax/customs in The Netherlands. These were three separate shipments, so three different packages.
I can second the experience: my monitor arrived to Czechia via the Netherlands without having to pay any extra fees. One day the postman showed up with it and that was it.
It took exactly 2 weeks after placing the order to receive the package (in Vienna, Austria). I didn’t have to pay anything extra, just what I paid when placing the order.
I’d say the main advantage of being able to order from Europe would be the shipping costs. I noticed one can buy spare parts directly from the AG shop which is great! However, paying $8 for a sensor and $35 for transport is not really ideal…
I’m not sure how much having a local supplier depends on AG, though. I mean no one is stopping RS or some other global distributor to buy in bulk and send from .eu.
I can’t edit the above post anymore and I want to correct an assumption I’ve made.
The $35 transport fee was for 2 indoor sensors and I’ve assumed it would apply to other items as well. It looks like I was wrong because I just checked how much the transport is for the $8 sensor I used as an example and it’s actually $12.5.
I still think shipping from .eu would help especially for spare parts.
EU distributor / warehouse would not solve all shipping costs – it might be lower than from outside EU, but not as cheap as domestic.
What would make the difference is on full systems, because of the price. The EU rule is, that you have to pay VAT on all products, that are imported from outside EU, and if the value is above DKK 1.150 ( ≈ € 150) you also have to pay Told (I don’t know how much that is).
If the items is shipped from within the EU. There is no additional price to pay – not even a charge from the forwarder to handle the declarations.
We are actually currently looking into delivering from a European warehouse but we just started vetting potential service providers so it will still take a while until this will be operational.
6 Likes
Another option you could consider is offering DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) shipping, which is more expensive to the end customer than paying the import fees themselves but often much faster and less of a headache. UPS and Passport offer it for example.
While that is going on, to provide another datapoint: My AirGradient One to Germany cost me an additional 21.53 Euro, collected by DHL, of which 15.53 is import tax and 6 is a handling fee.
To save on shipping costs I have a friend in Thailand who is visiting me soon… would you be able to deliver to them and, if so, what is the current lead time on two kits please (indoor and outdoor)? Thanks.