A warning about buying from Thomann

[Megwegpeg]

Hi, 

I'm normally just a background stalker but wanted to share my experience dealing with Thomann post Brexit as there seems to be some conflicting information out there and it might save someone some money.

I sent a guitar back for warranty repair. Just a faulty switch but it was brand new and I thought why not.

The switch was replaced under warranty and the guitar returned today by UPS who refused to hand it over without the payment of £112 in VAT and fees.

Spoke to Thomann who gave me a seemingly scripted response of "Its because of Brexit", told me it was out of their hands and offered no kind of resolution, apology or goodwill gesture. To be honest it seemed the lady on the phone had taken our departure from the EU personally, or was just sick of dealing with people like me complaining about this I don't know.

If they had  informed me prior to sending it back I would of course have just ordered a switch. I (maybe foolishly) assumed that as I had already paid the duty on the product I would not have to do it again. 

I'm not saying I wouldn't deal with Thomann again, but I will be treating the sale like I'm buying second-hand off ebay so that price will have to be exceptional.

 

And hi by the way. Nice to be official at last!

 

 

[ezbass]

That’s not good, or right. Name and shame (both Thomann andUPS) on the socials until they rectify the issue.

Welcome, BTW.

[Megwegpeg]

Had a look into it. Not UPS's fault, although thy are trying to help more than Thomann. Thomann dropped the ball when they exported it back to themselves for repair. The correct bit of paperwork and none of this would have happened. I can try and claim back from HMRC but in reality this will just be a bit of an expensive lesson. Good news for the British economy though, my chronic GAS and the money that goes with it will be going to my excellent local shop A-Strings and Andertons from now on.

[EdwardMarlowe]

This is a paperwork thing. In terms of arrival of goods from the EU, the UK is now a third country like the US. If it had been labelled as a return repair or one of a range of exceptions, it would have been fine, but otherwise they will now assume it's a new purchase and you will be taxed. A big part of the problem is that because the fig-leaf 'deal' was so last minute (a week before the deadline), nobody had any time to get ready or knew what they were preparing for. In the next few months, it'll be come clearer, but don't expect there to be less bureaucracy or there not to be more expense than there used to be - that's simply the end result of not being part of the club any longer. 

TBH, I very much doubt it's going to encourage me to "buy British" on anything I wasn't already buying, as the reason I was buying from abroad in the first place was lack of availability locally either at a price I was prepared to pay or at all. A few years ago I wanted to buy a Steinberger Spirit as a travel guitar. The USD operation wouldn't sell me one so as not to undercut their UK distributer (who sold them in the UK at twice the then US price). The UK distributor wouldn't import or sell the only left handed model they did. Eventually I bought a used one somebody had managed to privately import, so neither of them got any money from me. I suspect I'm just going to start buying a lot less of everything, perhaps with the odd major purchase on holiday (where even with customs charges I can still being it home with less paid out than in rip-off Britain). I need to cut back anyhow....