SonnenbarkeJul 31, 2023
So today I woke up to another 9 Euro customs fee on a single paperback book order because a British small press publisher couldn't be arsed to deal with the reality of Brexit. I've e-mailed them to try and get some kind of refund, and if not I'll have to add them to my growing "blacklist".

This is such a massive downer though. Some of my once favourite book dealers and publishers are on that blacklist now. I just can't afford to buy from these people any more because they don't state their P&P prices properly. I've refused to buy from Amazon for decades, but this shit is making me actually consider going over to them. The alternative is just not buying any British books at all, even from tried-and-tested dealers (this particular dealer was always fine up until now!)

For context, I should state that this customs business virtually never happens with US companies. Even the small US presses usually avoid springing nasty surprises on you, and if they can't afford to pay the customs fees they just don't sell you the frigging book. If they can keep on top of their tax situation, why can't the Brits?

#HorrorFiction #Books #SmallPress
Show threadSonnenbarkeJul 31, 2023
So the publisher/vendor, Black Shuck Books, has got back to me and claims that it's impossible for a UK sender to know ahead of time how much customs fees are going to be because these fees are determined by "local authorities". That sounds like it's got to be horseshit to me, but am I wrong? I'm trying to search online for an answer to this question and it's a lot harder than I thought, so if anyone knows (about sending goods from the UK to France) please feel free to weigh in...

I mean technically, they could be right because a lot of those duty and tax calculators small vendors use only provides an "estimate" of the amounts you need to pay. And some vendors have a little bit of boilerplate on their site warning you of this; maybe Black Shuck does somewhere on its site. But I still think that if you want French money you need to know what French customs charges are! And 9 Euros is a pretty bad miss. It's not just a quid or two.

I should mention they have offered to refund me half the fee, but honestly I can't be bothered. Because in my experience once a vendor starts acting like this, it just runs and runs. I'm just going to have to stick them on the blacklist and get their books second-hand in future from one of the numerous UK dealers who don't make this kind of mistake.
Show threadSonnenbarke
God though, supporting UK small presses is exhausting sometimes. My three-year tour of duty on book Twitter has only confirmed my distaste for Amazon and as a book buyer you are constantly being exhorted to buy directly from the publishers instead. And for well over a decade I've done that, even though it's often far cheaper to buy from Amazon or some similar place, even before you factor in the customs charges. I've spent so much money trying to do the right thing, and I'm in a single-income household. If they're going to make it this hard I just can't do it any more.
Jul 31, 2023 at 4:13pmWeb