StrawberryNET Irish Order Intercepted by Customs
Update 19 April: Strawberrynet responded to my e-mail within 48 hours to confirm that they would refund the customs charges in full! Now that’s what I call great customer service.
I have blogged before about the brilliant StrawberryNET website that sells big brand cosmetics at big discounts. I am a big fan of the site and my family have made several orders.
Unfortunately our latest order was intercepted by Customs and Excise, which meant we had to pay tax and a handling charge before our purchases were delivered. This is the first time that this has happened. Either Irish Customs have finally copped on to all the white boxed gifts with blue ribbon arriving from Hong Kong, or our package was just checked at random.
My Mum reports that dealing with Customs was more inconvenient than the extra charge, as apparently the note informing us that our StrawberryNET parcel had been retained contained out of date contact details for them! The correct address for Dublin in case you ever need it is as follows:
Customs and Excise
Dublin Mail Centre
Oak Road
Knockmitten
Dublin 12
Phone: 7059737
StrawberryNET are up front about the possibility of tax and duty charges on European orders and the official line is as follows:
For the current time, we will endeavor to assist and cover in cases where duty is charged to the customers in some European countries, but we emphasize this is on a goodwill, not on an obligation basis.
I have e-mailed them regarding our order and will report back with the outcome, but I am not expecting any compensation. I will continue to use the site, as there are still savings to be had. Just be warned that despite the tempting checkout total, your StrawberryNET order could be held by Customs in Ireland and may not seem quite so sweet when the extra charges are added on.
April 18th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
We were buying stuff – mainly chess sets and boards, from the US and were caught by Customs probably two out of three times – it got too expensive ! no more buying in the US, now we stick to Europe….
April 19th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I love Strawberrynet too and buy loads of stuff from them, not only because of their prices but they’ve had old favourites of mine on offer which shops here have told me are no longer made (tut tut …). One word of warnng: I don’t know about Dublin, but while cosmetics are keenly priced, perfume is sometimes the same price or more expensive than here in Jersey.
April 19th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
as updated at the top of my post, strawberry refunded the customs charges in full in under 48 hours. i am very impressed! if only other sites would do the same louise!
especially nice to hear from you again jayne
hope jersey is looking as lovely as when i left it! it must be nice enjoying those tax free prices too!
April 26th, 2006 at 9:14 am
My father is a customs officer and informed me that there’s usually no point in chasing after the small packages due to the administration work required (they have drugs to be chasing down) so they usually don’t bother seizing these packages. They’d only do it the odd time, maybe if they’re not meeting their monthly target for revenue or if it’s a quiet day at the post office. Also no search is ever random
May 1st, 2006 at 9:58 am
Thanks for the info Adam!
If no search is ever random, does that mean they are out to get my poor Mother
May 11th, 2006 at 12:50 am
I’m more scared that they have monthly revenue targets!!!
May 16th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Interesting website Janine, I’ve added it to my shopping directory. If you have any more gems like that please let me know. I’m trying to put together a directory of Irish and international shopping sites and am always on the look out for these kind of sites.
December 12th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Hiya!
Just received my order from Strawberry Net. Delighted with the service. No hidden charges for me, just a friendly postman with a box wrapped up in a blue ribbon knocking on my door!! Nice…
July 16th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Have heard a few girls saying Strawberry net sell their poducts at cheaper prices because the makeup is starting to go off or has already- would anyone knoe anything about this?
I have 2 creams a clinique trible action moisturizer and also an Elizabeth Arden cream and had problems with the latter.
December 24th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Strawberry Net is brilliant I have only been caught by customs twice and even after paying the VAT AND HANDLING CHARGE tHE COSMETICS STILL WORK OUT TO HAVE HUGE SAVING ESPECIALLY IF YOU PURCHASE THE IN US DOLLARS!!
November 26th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Just got caught for duty on my Strawberry net package today. BUT the customs and excise have now pushed the money collection onto the poor old postman who can only take exact amount or a cheque. Having payed the duty, I asked for a receipt, so that I could get the refund from Strawberry net. The postman told me that I had to contact customs to get the receipt. It was only later that I noticed that An Post has added an extra five euro to the charge for carrying out the service!!
November 27th, 2008 at 11:34 am
That’s mad Sue – what a joke!
Best of luck getting a refund from Strawberrynet. I tend to only get 1 thing at a time from them now to try and avoid customs charges.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
On my last package from strawberryNet the Greek customs office attached a note saying that from now on we must have the approval from the Greek FDA (eof) for the contents of the package.
Is there another site in Europe like strawberryNet?
May 12th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
The same thing happened to me Effie, about 4 months ago (i’m greek too). I haven’t placed an order since. I’m still looking for something else but no luck so far…
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Christina and Effie, I was about to order from this site…now after reading ur opinion i think i will not, I live in athens, and I didnt know that Greece’s custom asks that approval, is there anybody else that have ordered from Greece?
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:04 am
I would go ahead and place an order. As long as the order contains a maximun of 3 items, EOF has to give its approval.
For details refer to this site: http://eof1.eof.gr/html/law39.html
November 18th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Yes I gonna order, because 2 friends of mine have ordered from this site too and they didn’t have any problem with the Greek customs office, so I will let you know what happens. Thanks for your answer Effie.
February 16th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
i was given a bill at the door by postman from the irish customs. I contacted them and they said once the package value was more than €22 then they can charge i think 21% vat. so if you keep it under that per order, you should be ok. Or the company should put ‘gift’ on the package description. I buy from fragrancex.com. They have free post but put the value on packages.