On Fri, 23 Aug 2019 20:13:53 +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:41:19 +0100, charles wrote:

well, it all depends on what sort of 'stuff'. I don't think the goods
I ordered last week from Germany would only take 4 days to arrive and
I expect the price would be higher.

Exactly.

Case in point this week. Last Thursday I ordered a piece of test
equipment (not cheap) from a company in the UK. Supposedly next day
delivery, but I got a cryptic email that I assumed meant it was being
drop shipped and would take an extra day.

At lunchtime Wednesday, with nothing in sight (and no promised email
update in sight) I phoned them. "Oh no, it's out of stock and we don't
know when...but the website would have told you". No it bloody didn't
(corroborative detail omitted to save space). So I cancelled the order.

I ordered it from the European distributor, near Eindhoven, mid
afternoon Wednesday. I watched it quickly move to Eindhoven, Liege,
Stansted, Maidstone, and here (less than 24 hours in total).

I had to pay 21% VAT (Netherlands rate) and it was almost exactly the
same price as the UK supplier. That isn't going to happen after any
Brexit.

Without any trade deal, presumably you would have to persuade the vendor
to sell it to you VAT-free - and you would have to pay the UK customs
the UK VAT, plus the appropriate import duty on the total purchase price
+ VAT?

And it would have taken much longer than a day.



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