Ordering from UK

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

Thanks to Susan for sending me her saga of getting a few net curtains delivered which weighed less than 2kg.

THIS IS THE START:

Thank you for your order, placed on 12th May 2021 10:56:38.

Delivery Method: European Delivery (DHL Europlus).

This is confirmation that order #224960 (N2G224960) has now been dispatched for next day delivery.
If your order was dispatched on a Friday you will receive your parcel on a Monday.

I then sent a message:

I have just checked my order status to find it was posted and I have not yet received it. I have just checked with DHL and they cannot trace it – can you please give me a tracking number.

Their reply:

Thank you for your email, I have tracked your order and this is showing as still in transit. Your order was dispatched with Royal Mail and the tracking number is:

LP198743643GB

This can be used to track your order at Royal mails tracking website.

Something wrong here – what happened to their delivery method – DHL?

I then obviously tracked it. It arrived in Lisbon on 2nd June, within one hour of its arrival it was returned to the UK with the message:

Import Suspension – Irregularities in customs requirements, the shipment will be returned.

Next message from firm: Thank you for your email, I’m sorry there has been a customs issue with the order. We will dispatch this DHL as soon as we receive it back.

14th Jun: 1st Message from firm: Thank you for your email. Yes, we have received the parcel back and are preparing to dispatch it today via DHL.

2nd Message: Further to my earlier email, after referring to the business owner, we are not able to send your parcel via DHL. We have Parcel Force available to us if this is acceptable?

My Reply: That is a disappointment, especially as you advertise DHL Euro Express on your order form.  Unless you can solve the customs problem, the only option is a refund as it looks like it will not arrive using the same system as you used the first time.

Their Reply:

Your order was previously dispatched using Royal Mail International Tracked service not by courier, hence why we are looking at dispatching via international courier this time and all the necessary paperwork will be downloaded for the parcel’s journey to you. Parcel Force can collect from us tomorrow and expected delivery to you is Monday 21st June.

I was then asked to confirm my address and postal code.

Wait for it – this was their reply on 15th June:

Further to your email confirming your address, we have investigated the cost of shipping by courier to the Island of Madeira. As this is not mainland Portugal the cost to ship this would be in excess of £60.00. As a company we make a loss on postage over the course of the year. You have paid £13.00 for postage so we are unable to process this shipment at a cost of over £60.00.

If you are able to arrange the collection yourself via a courier company we would be happy to refund the £13.00 paid by yourself for postage, alternatively we can refund the cost of the order in full.  We apologise that this was not picked up sooner, the address field entered on your order did not mention the Island of Madeira and it was not until we googled your postcode yesterday that we realised this was not mainland Portugal and asked for your confirmation.

HAPPY END

I thought of Tobi as we all know he is in UK – quick email asking him to help and of course he said YES, parcel then sent to his address. It arrived within 24 hours and will fly back with him, hopefully his flight does not get cancelled.

I was happy to help Susan, and she now has her curtains which I dropped into her on Friday. 

It really seems its not worth ordering anything from the UK these days, idms there anyone out there who still is and companies you are using.?

I know things are worse since Brexit, but even before Brexit some postal and companies could just not get to grips that the islands are part of Portugal, or even in Europe, it has always been a case of will it arrive or won’t it… 

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM THE UK

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Tobi Hughes

28 Responses

  1. ….and if you are in the U.K. do not order anything from Europe. Pre-Brexit we have bought wine in batches of 12 bottles at a time from a vineyard in Tuscany. We placed an order 3 months ago which the vineyard confirmed as despatch within 3 days. The next day they emailed us to say that with the new paperwork needed and the huge cost of delivery since Brexit they were no longer in a position to despatch small quantities eg: 12 bottles. They refunded our money the next day.

  2. Another knock-on effect of Brexit is, according to an article in The Guardian, they want to restrict the amount of British television shown within the EU!

  3. Oh, it would not have stopped there, the bill for holding it at CTT and paying customs import duty isn’t brokered into this!!!

  4. Getting anything from the UK seems not to work, that said some books ordered through Amazon UK did arrive as stated, however are small package sent by guaranteed 8 day delivery (by me) still hasn’t arrived! Never mind, back home in a week.

  5. Just wondering, with the problems of shifting goods across the EU border, can you still get Tetley or PG Tips t-bags in Pingo Doce? We usually bring a pack of 40 and then top up whilst there. Not bothered about other foodstuffs but must have several cups of proper British tea to kick start our systems in the morning ??

  6. I was quoted 50 euros delivery from a bulb company in Holland to the island … think more about couriers charges in covid times than Brexit .. but so far had 3 parcels grabbed by customs with mad amounts of paperwork to try and free … got nowhere given up any and all ordering from UK using Amazon Germany and Spain now

  7. The little shop between the 2 Savoy’s always had PG Tips and my favourite Yorkshire Tea (if the shop is still there of course – it was last September).

    1. Yes Maurice you can still get them in Pingo Doce Funchal bought some last week. The ones in the plastic packet are the original ones ln UK ,bad news they have stopped doing ginger nuts.

  9. I have continued to order books and dvds from the UK. I have had a very mixed inconsistent experience. Only Amazon was able to deliver quickly and without any extra efforts on my part. Only one parcel thru Royal Mail also arrived as pre-Brexit. The others required online customs declarations ( I now have a CTT online account set up) each taking up to 90 minutes to compute, the production of a seller´s invoice/receipt, and declarations by seller on the outside of the packaging. Most got thru without the need for me to pay anything and 1 package worth 40£ required a further payment of 23 euros for “administration and handling.” This is even with the UK vat-free on books. All dvds came thru individually in small padded envelops just as pre-Brexit. A package from Germany using Hermes disappeared completely on arrival at Madeira for which I got a full refund. Hermes uses a man-and-van sub contractor here I believe. UPS and DHL have no problems…GLS are still useless!

    1. This may change after 30th June. There is currently a “small consignment” relief on items worth less than 22 euros which is likely why you received items posted individually. This is coming to an end and non-EU suppliers will have to register and make returns in an EU country and pre-pay VAT. The likely consequence of this is that it won’t be financially viable for small UK businesses to ship to the EU. The UK, incidentally, introduced similar rules on 1st January and that has already made if difficult for small EU businesses to the UK.

      1. Thanks for the update. Obviously I shall cease ordering anything from this week. Do you know if this will impact on UK family members visiting Madeira and bringing stuff out in their luggage?

        1. God forbid we go back to the days of having baggage searched on arrival looking for contraband! Stuff in cases should be fine.

  10. Has anyone tried Amazon.es? They have a choice of Spanish or Portuguese languages and, being in the EU, should be less hassle.

    1. Amazon.es does work quite effectively. Certainly for smaller items. But beware of ordering more expensive items if they come from China.
      I ordered several expensive light fittings on Amazon.es, and the parcels then got stopped in Customs. The supplier then starts on the routine of please assist us, we will give you a discount etc etc. Pay the customs fee and collect the parcel in person and we will refund you etc etc Still fighting to get a refund on these.
      Otherwise, it has worked well so far

    2. I’ve recently placed a few orders with Amazon.es: two of them shipped from Poland where there is obviously a large distribution centre and one from Spain. The Polish shipments were sent by UPS and the Spanish delivery came via CTT. I’m still awaiting one UPS parcel – unfortunately their tracking system stops being reliable in Lisbon and claims your parcel is “in Lisbon” even when its been handed to a local courier in Madeira, so predicting when things will actually arrive is a bit of a guessing game.

  11. I have used Amazon.es and also Amazon.de (you can select English on this one). Deliveries have mainly been good except for earlier this year when I ordered a mobile phone and phone cover from Amazon.es. The phone arrived via DHL about 3 days earlier than promised (was not expecting that). The phone cover sent by CTT never arrived, the address was not recognised (obviously the same address as on the same order). A visit to the Post Office identified that they had the wrong Block no. for our apartment. The item went back to the supplier. I then ordered another phone cover from Amazon.es but a different supplier and the same thing happened except they had omitted to put on the number of our apartment and that was returned to the supplier too. I suspect that CTT put their own address labels/bar codes on over the original one.

  12. I have ordered a number of times from Amazon UK both before and after Brexit. There have been no major issues although order tracking is not very reliable. I have also ordered from Amazon ES without issue. As to ordering products from the UK it is something i do regularly. I am a railway modeler and the only sensible place for me to order. I was ordering pre-Brexit and continued afterwards and the only frustration part is going through the customs process which delays deliveries by 2-3 weeks. The only issue that I had was when I accidentally clicked on the wrong button on the screen and returned the order to the UK supplier. I tried to contact customs but they said the goods were already on their way – that was the only quick operation!

  13. I have used amazon.es twice. The site is available in Portuguese.
    On both occasions I ordered on Thursday and things arrived the following week.

  14. For those who to voted to remain, you have my sympathies. For those who voted for Brexit, that’s what you get, so don’t complain!

  15. In the beginning of 2020 we sent 26 parcels from Germany to Madeira via DHL, all arrived within two to three weeks, some faster.
    If we order on Amazon from German delivery takes between a week and 14 days. We never had problems, except once, when a friend sent a small parcel (called Päckchen) from Germany without traceability and insurance, it did not arrive within 25 days.
    In the beginning of 2021 I ordered climbing bolts from England and was forced to pay 23!! (not 22) percent of taxes, because the parcel entered Portugal in mainland, wheere the TVA is higher.
    That was the day I stopped ordering from beyond EU borders.

  16. I have a 22k suitcase full of wool she paid for and had them sent to my address-in uk,that was over a year ago,we’ve had 2 holidays cancelled,and have decided to holiday in wales this uear,so she will have to wait unfortunately.it would cost £80 to couriers to Madeira,she said she’ll wait!

  17. The postal system in Madeira is dire and having got worse after Brexit.
    I had a parcel weighting approx 300 grams sent to Madeira in March. It got stuck at Customs and Execise in Lisbon but released after 6 weeks and lots of papers.
    It arrived in Madeira but despite it being the same country, the same parcel is having to go through Customs and execise again and ofcourse having to present yet again the same papers.
    It is over 3 months since the parcel arrived in Portugal and no explanation give so far as to what is going on.
    It seems that the Madeira moto is “why facilitate when you can complicate”

  18. Despite did lived in the UK for years and did returned back to Portugal and still like to buy thinks from the UK it is a complete nightmare buy anything from the UK from any company the main problem is the costumes release costs that are expensive after Brexit .

  19. We have been told by our Postie that Madeira Customs are holding back parcels until after July 1st. My BCS order, from beginning of June, is one of them. I can understand charging after July 1st but this is a form of theft or blackmail.

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