Retailers and their customer service - good and bad.

[Kuat]

They might be willing to do it but you shouldn't take it for granted. It's a risk, speaking as a business owner.

I never understood how that works. As a business owner, could you please explain where the problems could possibly come from?

I mean, who exactly is going to look into how much the item really costs, and how? Post office? And what if the store owner had the item on sale? Who's to tell the real price?

You are still declaring the full price value in your country and pay full taxes on the sale. So the only ones who get screwed are the other country's customs. (which is still questionable, cause no one on my country can produce such items, so wtf they are taxing me for, i'm not taking potential work away from anyone)

Anyway, am I wrong?

[Tiranis]

I never understood how that works. As a business owner, could you please explain where the problems could possibly come from?

I mean, who exactly is going to look into how much the item really costs, and how? Post office? And what if the store owner had the item on sale? Who's to tell the real price?

You are still declaring the full price value in your country and pay full taxes on the sale. So the only ones who get screwed are the other country's customs. (which is still questionable, cause no one on my country can produce such items, so wtf they are taxing me for, i'm not taking potential work away from anyone)

Anyway, am I wrong?

There are a million things that can go wrong. Let's start far away from the legal arena: you buy a BBS Tejana jacket, you ask the store to mark down the value of it & they do. Since they marked down the customs value, they also have to mark down the insurance on that item to the same level. The shipping courier stores the jacket improperly in a damp corner of their warehouse. It arrives with mold all over it. You get a fraction of the value of the item back because the insurance wasn't adequate. Maybe you succeed with a credit card chargeback in which case the store is on the hook for the money instead. (This happened to me except both parties came out happy because it was not marked down and was fully insured.)

You also have to worry about your courier losing the package. FedEx's package loss rate is 0.55%. That's much lower than national mail and yet still significant.

A loss like that can wipe out profits from that whole style. And for what? A customer who is likely going to always buy on sale, price compare to death & expect me to break the law for them?

Now, customs... first you have to worry about export. Many countries have limits on exports of textiles & clothing. In Canada, depending on the country you're shipping to, that limit can be as low as $2k and at that point additional paperwork is required.

When it comes to import... How does one tell the value of an item? If there's an invoice inside the shipment & it was selected for a random search, there's your evidence. Otherwise, if a store regularly ships items worth $2k+ and suddenly they sent a $20 or $200 piece, that's pretty suspicious. The customs official can request official documentation for the transaction. Are you going to forge those documents too?

Worse, they can also arbitrarily determine the value themselves. If you bought the item on sale, this arbitrary value might be 2x what you actually paid and those will be the duties assessed.

Now, if the seller is caught and builds a rep for falsifying customs value, their shipments might all get flagged going forward which means customs delays on all their shipments. What store needs that hassle?

[lowrey]

As a business owner, could you please explain where the problems could possibly come from?

From the recipients point of view declaring something in customs at a lower value is tax fraud, so in theory at least you are enabling this. I don't know if any law specifically says what you need to fill in the forms or literally prohibits making up the value, I suppose its possible that when signing the shipping documents, you are declaring the information to be correct or something along those lines which would make it illegal though very theoretically.

Now obviously, the chances of someone getting into trouble specifically for marking a false value is very unlikely. Of course, there are possible downsides as a result, some of which Tiranis explained. It's more likely the recipient might face problems with their customs, which could backfire to the sender if they file a claim, refuse the accept etc. so in that sense the sender is also taking a small risk.

Either way, it's best to just say a store was helpful and leave it at that.

[Kuat]

The shipping courier stores the jacket improperly in a damp corner of their warehouse. It arrives with mold all over it.

I find this hard to believe, since the items are usually handled by credible commercial carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL) but if true then it's pretty messed up.

From the recipients point of view declaring something in customs at a lower value is tax fraud, so in theory at least you are enabling this.

It's more likely the recipient might face problems with their customs, which could backfire to the sender if they file a claim, refuse the accept etc. so in that sense the sender is also taking a small risk.

This happened to me a few times. The worst that came out of it is that I had to pay tax on full price (the customs officer googled the brand/item and set the full price on the item). But other than that, the recipient gets far more benefits out of marking down the price, because if you buy a 1500-3000 EUR item and have to pay 40% local tax on that = you'd want it marked down.

Though I can see that it''s too much hassle and headache for the store owners to enable this.

Thanks for the great write up guys, I see your point now. Hadn't thought before that it was much of a big deal.

[Tiranis]

I find this hard to believe, since the items are usually handled by credible commercial carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL) but if true then it's pretty messed up.

Yes but shit happens when transporting items. My example was on the absolutely extreme end of things. That said, just look at this study: http://bright.stellaservice.com/fulf...rrive-damaged/

I doubt you get more than 10-20 packages a month. A mid-sized retailer, might ship that out in a day and then some.

[stagename]

Outstanding service from Graham at Calculus. Can't recommend enough. But who's surprised at this point, really.

[550BC]

Avoid Caliroots by all means. I only ordered from them because they had Rick Owens Runner boots on sale. Hours after I ordered they decided to reduce the price with 20% extra. Package still not shipped, but they're not willing to compensate on the price difference for me and say the shoes will be shipped and I have to return it and order again to get the discounted price :/

Also their 2-4 days shipping is a load of bullshit. Takes them 4+ days to just process the order...

[nvsnli]

I have nothing but positive experiences with Caliroots and their shipping has been lighting fast previously when i have ordered from them.

Actually never heard anyone say bad things about Caliroots before.

[550BC]

Thought so too. But unfortunately mine has been negative.

[nvsnli]

Thought so too. But unfortunately mine has been negative.

Hope you get it sorted man and this was just one time incident.

[SketchingJack]

I love ZamB and his work but I tried ordering something from the recent sale a week ago but I don't think its been shipped yet. Ive tried calling a couple times, Ive set a couple emails, I even tried facebook messaging because I didnt know what to do next. I havent gotten any replies or help and its a little concerning. I'm sure Ill get the package eventually but I thought theyd be a bit more responsive.

[curiouscharles]

I love ZamB and his work but I tried ordering something from the recent sale a week ago but I don't think its been shipped yet. Ive tried calling a couple times, Ive set a couple emails, I even tried facebook messaging because I didnt know what to do next. I havent gotten any replies or help and its a little concerning. I'm sure Ill get the package eventually but I thought theyd be a bit more responsive.

yeah, just the realities of running a properly small business.

they'll get back to you eventually for sure, most of the team is in Paris for fashion week but i think he mentioned they left someone behind for shipping orders et al.

you might not hear from them before your order is actually received, but they're 100% trustworthy and just can't always keep up with the demand.

[yffet]

Was in Italy a bit.

Once again i was really pleased by PnP firenze. Lovely staff.

Daad Antone is different, colder maybe but very helpfull.

Im heading to Roma now for the next month, i dont know any store there so feel free to give some advice :). I ll try to get some information in the Italy thread

[Glanton]

I'll post a few since this is my first time here:

Japan:

Vektor: Really nice store, quite small but a great selection and the guy who served us was very helpful.

Boutique W: Again a really nice store, my girlfriend particularly liked the layout of this one

Lift: need I even say? definitely one of my favourites, even after one visit.

London:

Library: I love it here, probably my favourite store in London, the staff are so friendly and it pretty much introduced me to Layer-0

Layers: really great staff, very friendly and helpful also much more stock than I expected.

Vertice: Went here with my girlfriend, she isn't really interested in the same kind of clothes as I am but she definitely dresses well. As soon as we got in and went to look at the mens clothing downstairs she seemed upset, and it turns out that one of the SA's (The guy with the bowlcut who models some of the stock on the website) had made a comment about the size of her legs and a pair of shoes she was wearing, she didn't tell me this until after we'd left London so i couldn't actually do much confronting . I made a complaint through email but it didn't really go much further than "I'll look into it" from the manger.

[kOrtuoste]

Does anyone have any experience with Suspension Point? Ordered something last week and still haven't gotten any shipping email. Was hoping to receive it for an event later this week.