Estervals: Is The Party Over?
- Thread starter peregrinus
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40-60$ shipped from overseas is exorbitant...? Tell me how. Shippers in different countries have to deal with their local postal/package services, and Govt. regulations.
You think THAT'S expensive? One of my friends, who does a lot of business with Germany told me that Esterval's could have used DHL for door to door, but that would have run about $140.
What they did worked for several years and then it didn't. Problems were definitely on the rise in 2019. They might have been happening earlier for all I know. My Estervals shipments were all smooth sailing in 2018 and earlier.
But to be honest, the last batch of HU blends that I bought were disappointing.
K&K, who blends for Hans, had started substituting cheaper components in these blends as well as skimping on the cocoa and Malawi that went into Makhuwa, such that they didn't much resemble what I have bought earlier, certainly not what I had bought directly from HU in 2016.
So while it's kind of a shame, the blends that I had grown to love just weren't being produced in the same manner and so far as my palate was concerned, were no longer in existence. Hans confirmed that Director's Cut was not the same when he tried a more recent batch.
I'll live with what I have, and I hope that the kilo of Director's Cut that I bought in 2018 will eventually settle into something worth smoking.
As far as international shipping goes, there’s a whole lot behind the scenes that most people don’t consider. Seems people think it should work like you’re sending a package across town.
Here’s a little article on a small aspect of it...
www.inc.com
Here’s a little article on a small aspect of it...
The USPS Is Now Charging Other Countries More to Deliver Their Packages. Here’s What It Means for SMBs
The USPS now charges other countries more to deliver their packages, championing U.S. businesses.
I have been an Estervals customer for a few years, and I have always been treated very kindly. A couple of years ago I ordered, among other things, a 100 grams tin of Rattray´s Red Lion. They sent by error a 50 grams one, I contacted them and suggested that they send me the 100 tin in next order and charge for a 50 grams one to break even. What they did is send me the 100 gram tin by international DHL and tell me to keep the 50 grams one as a gift. I think the shipping costs were higher than the tin cost.
I don't think they are rude or dry; sometimes translations may lead to that impression.
I don't think they are rude or dry; sometimes translations may lead to that impression.
All Estervals had to do to avoid this entire fiasco is offer a FedEx option, which anyone placing a large expensive order would have gladly chosen to avoid the spurious USPS returns.
It's called "harm reduction" in the medical field, and it has been in practice for decades.
It gets in the way of the business side of things.
I have to disagree with the first paragraph. US Customs will return packages to the sender either at their discretion or, as has been the case with some Estervals orders as well as nasal snuff orders, on the order of the USPS. There have been numerous cases of this recently - I myself watched a package of snuff make it all the way to my local PO, only to be returned once I inquired about it. It made it all the way back to a PO on the Isle of Man, where I believe it still sits to this day.
FedEx has the same restrictions and has to comply with the same regulations as everybody else. They’re not a magic bullet...
They don’t even have other options for shipping. In Germany DHL is basically your only option especially into the US.
Sigh. No. DHL has its own customs brokerage subsidiary. The post office was kicking Esterval packages back to DHL. Part of DHL’s services offered to shippers is to retrieve goods that would otherwise not be deliverable.
My suspicion is that DHL is making these decisions on its own. Correctly interpreted, there is nothing illegal about sending pipe tobacco from Germany to the US.
Snuff is illegal to send in the mail in the US, period. What the USPS’s policies are about returning packages I do not know. All I know is that the government employees who work for the United States Department of Customs and Birder Protection do not - repeat do not- return packages. They collect duties, attempt to collect duties for dutiable imports, and destroy contraband. Herr Harm said it was the US customers fault for not understanding that duties.had to be paid and that was the cause of the problem. That is a false statement, completely. Duties had nothing to do with it.
FedEx is a private company and can make it’s own rules. But there is nothing illegal about shipping pipe tobacco from Germany to the US. The United States Code Annotated and the Code of Federal Regulations are both on line and searchable. Cite me any such statute or regulation that you can find and I will be glad to look at it.
I haven’t, btw, ordered any tobacco from outside the US since the 1990’s, and then it was Cuban cigars. I am with @chasingembers, I can spend all the money in my budget for pipe tobacco right here.
A shipping buddy would have to pay the 20% VAT.
It’s very sparse. It’s totally possible that the closest fedex to Estervals could be 50 miles away. Whereas DHL is their postal service and literally everywhere.
it would be like comparing DHL service in the US to the USPS.
With all due respect, I was among the first to have an Esterval's package returned to Germany by USPS.
We mustn't forget that in all of this fiasco, the packages were marked "return to sender / undeliverable address" for no discernible reason.
No reason was ever given when I, or anyone else attempted to ascertain the motives for the return with USPS.
Thus, it was not a "customs circumvention" as Andreas Harm incorrectly suggests.
It was, as far as we can tell, a logistics failure specific to USPS.
Had FedEx, or even DHL door-to-door, handled the packages, there would likely not have been this error.
If Estervals was very competent and really wanted to ship to the USA, I would think they could work it out where they pay the customs fees and build it into the office. Or as an additional line item. If I knew this would allow me to receive the product in less than two weeks without any hassle, I'd gladly pay it.
I am not concerned with VAT, I am concerned with getting it shipped to me.
I am not concerned with VAT, I am concerned with getting it shipped to me.
Whether its USPS or US Customs or both that is/are to blame, the fact is that packages were being returned to Germany with no opportunity for the intended recipient to intervene. Estervals is as much in the dark as to how or why this happens as we seem to be.
As an aside, I will say that I was kind of disappointed with a tin of Director's Cut that I received last year.
As an aside, I will say that I was kind of disappointed with a tin of Director's Cut that I received last year.
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