A WARNING TO BRIT’S AND EUROPEAN’S ORDERING FROM SMOKING PIPES

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Thing is, I decided to smoke a bowl of 1Q tonight. A delightful aromatic from across the pond. It is my last bowl of the stuff as well. Now it seems, probably my last bowl ever

 

[Birddog66]

They don't sell bacci

Do they not? Probably just an operation to get their hands on all those Peterson POTY’s they’ve been selling. I thought it strange because so many US blends are verboten in the UK and EU because of the additives.

 

[Birddog66]

Thing is, I decided to smoke a bowl of 1Q tonight. A delightful aromatic from across the pond. It is my last bowl of the stuff as well. Now it seems, probably my last bowl ever

There’s a lot of blends I’m gonna miss now, it’s a shame.

 

[LeafErikson]

Extortion to the degree that'd make Al Capone blush.

For real. It’s unbelievable how expensive tobacco is in some of the European countries, not to mention Australia and New Zealand. It’s shameful considering it’s mostly working class people that indulge in the vice.

 

[Birddog66]

For real. It’s unbelievable how expensive tobacco is in some of the European countries, not to mention Australia and New Zealand. It’s shameful considering it’s mostly working class people that indulge in the vice.

You’re right, I’m bitching about customs charges but the Aussies have to pay ridiculous amounts for tobacco.

 

[AJL67]

I'm only here for all the speculation and expert opinions, always so much to learn.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I’m sorry to have to post this warning but things have changed at SP for those ordering from outside the USA. Smoking Pipes now makes no effort to cover the contents of the packaging and it’s very unlikely your tobacco will make it through Customs. In the last two months I put in six orders, all within a short period of time and five of the six has been stopped and ludicrous duty imposed on the tobacco. Four tins of MacBaren costing £60 had a £124 duty added on, two tins of Midsommer that cost under $30 had £72 added on and the other duty’s were for similar amounts. It’s now virtually impossible for anything to make it through and I’ve heard from a friend that pipes are also being stopped and massive duty added to make it very unprofitable to purchase from SP anymore.
It’s a very sad time for me because SP has been my go to for three years and during that time I had only one package stopped by UK Customs and that was the very first order I placed, everything after that made it through without difficulty and even with the cheapest untracked postage made it safely to the UK in a consistent eleven days but since the recent change in labelling nothing is getting past those greedy bastards in Customs. The charges seem arbitrary, numbers plucked out of the air by whoever grabs them upon entry into the UK, there’s no formula to it and it seems more like punishment than a desire to tax your tobacco.
I’m informing everyone so that you know what to expect if you place an order from them now. The golden days are over.

I've had the same problem with customs in the past. Certain packages they would charge me less than what the import duties should have been, and sometimes it'd be more. Luckily, over many orders it all evened itself out.

From what you've said it sounds like they're adding £30+ in duty per 50g tin. It never used to be that high. Looking at my account on the Tobacco Cellar app it seems like I was paying about £10 to £15 in taxes & duties. This was between 3 to 8 years ago. A 50g tin back then worked out to about £18 - £23. That included buying it from SP, p&p, import duties and the £7 The Royal Mail add on for collecting the duties. I thought paying an average of £20 a tin for stuff that i'd never get over here was perfectly acceptable.

If your recent experiences of ordering from SP are anything to go by, a 50g tin now works out to about £45. I would never pay that much. There's lots of great new tobaccos being released in the US but none of them are worth £45 a tin. Not to me, anyway.

As others have already mentioned, there are other options for ordering abroad so it isn't the end of the world.

 

[Birddog66]

I've had the same problem with customs in the past. Certain packages they would charge me less than what the import duties should have been, and sometimes it'd be more. Luckily, over many orders it all evened itself out.

From what you've said it sounds like they're adding £30+ in duty per 50g tin. It never used to be that high. Looking at my account on the Tobacco Cellar app it seems like I was paying about £10 to £15 in taxes & duties. This was between 3 to 8 years ago. A 50g tin back then worked out to about £18 - £23. That included buying it from SP, p&p, import duties and the £7 The Royal Mail add on for collecting the duties. I thought paying an average of £20 a tin for stuff that i'd never get over here was perfectly acceptable.

If your recent experiences of ordering from SP are anything to go by, a 50g tin now works out to about £45. I would never pay that much. There's lots of great new tobaccos being released in the US but none of them are worth £45 a tin. Not to me, anyway.

As others have already mentioned, there are other options for ordering abroad so it isn't the end of the world.

I know but it still feels like losing a good friend.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I know but it still feels like losing a good friend.

Totally agree. I ordered loads of times from SP and always received great service.

 

[vosBghos]

Your country Customs may have done what Canadian border agency did - contacted tobacco retailers and told them to stop sending "hobby supplies" to Canada.

^^^THIS^^^
there is a mega war on tobacco

 

[sablebrush52]

For real. It’s unbelievable how expensive tobacco is in some of the European countries, not to mention Australia and New Zealand. It’s shameful considering it’s mostly working class people that indulge in the vice.

The point to all of this is to wean people off of tobacco. They see no shame in it whatsoever. They're reducing an
addiction that costs billions of $$$ a year to their general economy.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Do they not? Probably just an operation to get their hands on all those Peterson POTY’s they’ve been selling. I thought it strange because so many US blends are verboten in the UK and EU because of the additives.

LDG, which owns SP, acquired Kapp & Peterson 5 years ago.

 

[coys]

Canada has done the same thing for other sellers. They are getting more sophisticated in tracking and they seem to know now to divert everything coming from those shippers' addresses to slap massive taxes on them. I would expect UK is smelling revenue in those boxes and making sure they get tagged.

Asking a legitimate business to falsify customs forms and such is not reasonable.

 

[Terry Lennox]

So is it a package labeling change?
I wonder if 4Noggins is still an option. They were always a goto for international buyers.

 

[Birddog66]

Canada has done the same thing for other sellers. They are getting more sophisticated in tracking and they seem to know now to divert everything coming from those shippers' addresses to slap massive taxes on them. I would expect UK is smelling revenue in those boxes and making sure they get tagged.

Asking a legitimate business to falsify customs forms and such is not reasonable.

They’re cutting off their nose to spite their face though because the taxes are so high no one would pay them, £50 worth of tobacco plus £124 in duty…. That’s £44 for 50g of tobacco, who’s going to pay that! This is why I said it’s more like a punishment than duty.

 

[Birddog66]

So is it a package labeling change?
I wonder if 4Noggins is still an option. They were always a goto for international buyers.

I couldn’t say but I would talk to them first about how they label everything now.

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Canada has done the same thing for other sellers. They are getting more sophisticated in tracking and they seem to know now to divert everything coming from those shippers' addresses to slap massive taxes on them. I would expect UK is smelling revenue in those boxes and making sure they get tagged.

Asking a legitimate business to falsify customs forms and such is not reasonable.

Can this be true though I wonder. I know Heathrow has more than a million packages come through their airport each and every day. Could they really track the tiny amount of parcels coming from SP, which probably isn't even as much as one per day? And whatever money they would get from them would be chicken feed compared to what must be made on potentially thousands, tens of thousands of other parcels.

 

[coys]

Can this be true though I wonder. I know Heathrow has more than a million packages come through their airport each and every day. Could they really track the tiny amount of parcels coming from SP, which probably isn't even as much as one per day? And whatever money they would get from them would be chicken feed compared to what must be made on potentially thousands, tens of thousands of other parcels.

I wonder if they don't use electronic and mechanical means to sort those packages out which are likely to generate revenue. It makes a lot of sense to do so from their perspective. The tech exists and would certainly pay for itself.

 

[vosBghos]

I wonder if they don't use electronic and mechanical means to sort those packages out which are likely to generate revenue. It makes a lot of sense to do so from their perspective. The tech exists and would certainly pay for itself.

The barcode/address for SP outgoing could easily be red-flagged and added to a check for tax/duty bin while being scanned on the conveyer belt when reaching the destination country, it is 2023 after all.

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

I wonder if they don't use electronic and mechanical means to sort those packages out which are likely to generate revenue. It makes a lot of sense to do so from their perspective. The tech exists and would certainly pay for itself.

Yes, very true indeed.