My god !I'm getting sick of this.All I can do all day is wait and wait and pay and pay even more and hear bad news ..... pffffffff!I ordered FSbus via simcockpit.nl ... still nothing delivered. 200 euro spent.I had ordered Photon in US. Payed +/- 300 euro for that. Then I payed +/- 40 euro for sending it to me. And 10 euro for getting my money there by post check. Now the package delivery tells me I have to pay 78 euro customs !? Scott told me to ask the guys to open up the package and recalculate the customs in front of me. He just mailed me while I am typing this msg and he sais it sounds wrong .. it would be 30% tax. Either way I am not at all mad at Scott or blame him for nothing. It's just sad that all this happens to me :(For all that money I think I could have gotten on a cheap plane to US and collect the stuff myself + having a day to visit NY !Then there was the gear lever knob I ordered from Aircraft Simulators which cost me a fortune concidering what it was and turned out to be something totally different from what you can see on the picture.I guess what keeps me going are the positive things like the gear lever weel I got for free from Claude Kieffer and the free F50 panel I got from Roberto Soriano and the help I got recently from Manuel Bessler whom kindly ordered LEDdisplays from Reichelt for me.Huh .. *sigh* .. And still not flying! pffffffffffff

Philippe,Paying customs is normal procedure, and I think you also have to pay if you bring it on the plane yourselves, unless you don't declare it of course and just put up your sun glasses and choose the green exit ;-)But, if you (from Belgium) buy from IOCards in Spain, you can pay via Paypal, delivery is fast and cheap and no Customs... (EU).Nicowww.nicokaan.nl

And they did warn us that this hobby is expensive ;)Your best bet is buying one of those cnc milling machine kits and doing the whole bloody lot yourself. I bet you'll save thousands in the long run ;)

I just received stuff from www.opencockpit.com in Spain, took 1 week, paid with paypal, no custom and the stuff is very high quality. I'm in Canada, so your closer, it should be even better!!

Yeah, I got my stuff from Opencockpits.com in Spain as well. I'm in the US (California) and it took exactly 1 week. No extra customs charges either. They're stuff is pretty cool and the guys on the forums always answer questions pretty fast.So far I'm surprised how well they work. Now I just gotta get my panels from FDS so I can make them actually do something. heheSorry to hear you're having issues though getting your parts you ordered though. What a real bummer indeed.-Jaime

Customs in US is a breeze: even if they decide to make you pay, it's 3 or 4%...In europe they are ####: added value tax is at 20%, so that's 16% more then what applied by US resellers, when not the full 20%.Also it dependes on carrier: professionals like UPS do not try to sneak past the douane, instead they show every single package.That's why i only paid customs for a package delivered by ups:i payed 20% tax + douane work fee (they make us pay for the fact they they do use a computer to calculate how much we have to pay) and UPS cod fee....36

There are 3 lessons to remember when dealing with custom taxes from a remote country shipping.Lesson number 1 : Sender must NOT write the real value of the content inside the box. Write a wrong value. 10$ is an example. Write "GIFT" on the box can still work (old trick for custom tax bypass).Lesson number 2 : Do not insure the package at all. If insured, you have to declare the value.Lesson number 3 : Never forget lesson 1 and 2. If package is properly crafted, nothing in will break. Insurance is useless. Optional lesson : When stuff is shipped from USPS using Air parcel, when arriving into europe country, local-end of shipping will be contracted with a local private delivery (GLS/extand in france, which is a concurrent of UPS or DHL for instance). They will try to make you pay taxes and tax treatment fees. Without mentionning local VAT.When stuff is shipped using Surface Parcel, local-end of shipping is usually done by your national Post (La Poste here in france, like USPS for US). U usually won't get any fees.Mind about it.@+Jerome

Right .. but that wasn't my choise to make. :(Scott told me that he put the correct price on the box.

If I calculate from my 330 euro payed, 78 euro would be 24%boh 20% or 24% .. both are a total ripoff.And why is this customs anyway ???To compensate the price difference between local goods and foreing ones ? So that european buyers would buy in EU and not in US ?Whatever, Photon is not available in EU.I know IOcards is but that wasn't my choise and Photon =/= IOcards.

>And why is this customs anyway ???That's politics indeed ("invoerrechten")You live pretty close to Bruxelles, you may try to change that policy...But anyway, you have a vote in the Elections for the European Parlement(coming Sunday in your country I believe...)Regards,Nicowww.nicokaan.nl

I receive my IOcard one week after order.Without any invoice on the letter, the swiss customshave open it and send me a letter to sent an invoice with theprice to calculate the taxs.Of course I've paid a tax for special customs handling ...But not very expensive.For FSBUS The easiest way is Cockpitsonic.Come in 1-2 weeks, pay with paypal,offer every FSBUS parts ... you may request morespecial part which are not in the shop by email.I've take the PCB not drilled, so it's really cheapand with a good Dremel and some experience you drillit in 10 minsBOB

Are you one of those who still believe in politics? ;)

So you know what drilling a FSBUS FSKEY is really like....Welcome in the club :(

...........STOP MOANING...............

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