How reliable is the shipping of vapemail from USA to Germany?

[Kaious]

I hear horror stories about packages getting lost in German customs and such. Does anyone have any vapemail stories to warn/reassure me before I order more vapemail to be sent from USA to Germany?

(If it helps, I'm mostly buying e-juice)

 

[fed71]

The basic rule - always buy from a reliable supplier.
Yes, there are rare occasions when a parcel is lost. To be safe, always pay through Paypal. In this case, if the parcel is lost you can get your money back.
And the delivery time depends on the efficiency-mail.
By sending me to Russia from the United States is 3-4 weeks. Parcel from Germany, I got through the 38 days.

 

[disarstar]

i orderd a lots of things in the USA, but wouldn't order liquids.
Hardware is no problem but liquids are another story.

If you order things in germany the german customs are not the problem,
more the customs in your country.

Pay with paypal (protects you 40days)
registerd mail or use Parcel companies like UPS/Fedex.

Till now i did not lost one registerd international sending.

But if you send things to Germany take care of a right declaration.
1. Hardware can be Metal Spare Parts, Flashlight or other things
2. Liquids can be perfume oil, aromatic oil
3. 150€ is the value that is custom free (only tax 19% have to be paid), everything above will go to the customs.
45€ is a safe value for private gifts, 22€ for commercial orders (These are without tax and customs)
4. Place the Bill outside of the package (that is important, because without the customs answer for that.) and if the bill is outside the package the tax can be paid at the postman.

If you take care of these things the international shipping is no problem.

 

[Tomintoul]

If you're after liquids, why not just order them from within the EU? No hassles then (and no tax to pay to customs) and you can get most of the stuff from the States over here anyway.

 

[Aymoon]

In the past few months I've ordered the following from the States to Germany:

Pink Spot Vapors (Liquid): Ordered 11th March, Arrived 28th March
Heathers Heavenly Vapes (Liquid): Ordered 9th March, Shipped 18th March, has not arrived yet
Provape (Provari): Ordered February 8th, Shipped Feb 8th, Arrived Feb 14th, but delayed as I had to go to pay customs and collect the package.
IBTanked (Tank and Carts): Ordered 21st Feb, Shipped 22nd, Arrived last week.
Phiniac (Tank): Ordered 11th March, Shipped 13th, has not arrived yet.

I'm sure the HHV and Phiniac orders will get through, it just takes a while. I called USPS and they said that their regular 'priority mail international' is not tracked once it leaves the US, and can take "up to 2 months"!!! Sheesh. Patience is definitely required...

 

[Aymoon]

If you're after liquids, why not just order them from within the EU? No hassles then (and no tax to pay to customs) and you can get most of the stuff from the States over here anyway.

Hey Tom, can you share any good German vendors? I can barely find any of the stuff I want here in Germany, except for PSV when it's in stock at the Steam Store Berlin, my local B&M...

 

[Jeremy Evans]

In the next couple of months I might be able remedy some of the wait you guys are suffering. I possibly might be moving back there and I will be able to utilize USPS services while I am over there. So I have thought about maybe starting up an exchange of sorts btw Europe and USA

 

[Marob]

I've had some good luck and bad. I recently bought a Volt kit from Smokeless Image that arrived in 1 week, no problems with customs. On the other hand, last year I ordered some liquids from Alice in Vapeland, the first shipment got lost when it entered the country. They were super nice and send me out another set of bottles and after spending two weeks in customs they finally arrived. Customs had opened the package up (there was a notice inside) and inspected it.

Like people have said, most things will arrive fine except there might be a problem with liquid. I haven't tried a second time and am now ordering from Germany or the UK for my liquids (I've had no problems with liquid coming in from other EU countries).

p.s. I also had a supplier mark a shipment from the US as well under the actual value and customs didn't touch it. No, I'm not going to say who....!

EDIT:

p.p.s An extra note on shipping from the UK to Germany: When I've paid for the more expensive tracked shipping, it always comes to the door with DHL. DHL is my ultimate nemesis as the drivers and often leaving things with neighbours (with no note!) or returning to sender because they "couldn't find the address" etc. However, when I've gone with the less expensive Royal Mail 'International Signed For', it's always come with GLS (who seem to be much more reliable, at least in my neighbourhood!).

 

[Marob]

Hey Tom, can you share any good German vendors? I can barely find any of the stuff I want here in Germany, except for PSV when it's in stock at the Steam Store Berlin, my local B&M...

Totally wicked have a German site, as well as Janty (although I haven't ordered from there...)

Liberty Flights in the UK have good shipping and are currently stocking a few good American liquids. I'm waiting for mail from them now in Berlin so I'll let you know if there were any problems!