Mountain High shipping and taxes

Probably because very few private people in France will buy from the US…

But I know normal couriers work fine to France – even from post-brexit UK which has to be the most tricky scenario.

The other day I sent a package there via Fedex (Fedex via a 3rd party consolidator actually; the modern way to reduce courier costs) and it got there fine… except I had no email address for the customer, who was not responding (Ebay sale), so he could not get the email notification that his package was stuck in Customs awaiting documentation confirming it was aircraft parts – probably this. In the end they delivered it anyway and probably just charged him for normal goods Had it been airmail, I am sure it would still be sitting somewhere.

Peter is possibly right that many people in France don’t regularly buy from outside the EU directly. In many areas it is just cheaper to buy from a dealer in France, whatever it is as they tend to pass on any discounts they get or at least some proportion to the customer. Eg if you buy a new washing machine through your local plumber and he fits it, he will often pass on a portion of the trader discount and you get the guarantee on work done. So it’s easier. The same applies to things in GA.
So I can only relate 3 non ga related incidents in recent times.
I have just had delivered a new tablet via UPS. Not from outside the customs union.
UPS were average and also DHL in this part of France are crap. FedEx is not bad.
Most things I have delivered , bought through the internet come via the post which has a connection with DPD when it comes to packages. Other parcels you need to collect from a collection point which could be a row of boxes which you have a code to open. I give this as background because communication of the arrival of an parcel goes from non existent to wrong, except for the boxes when you get an email telling you your package is in box number xx at such and such location. Your code is yyyy.
Two things which arrived here by post, one from the UK and one from the USA. Not big or heavy packages by any means, one being a painting both required me to pay the post woman €9. The explanation was customs but no paperwork to indicate exactly what was included.
In the past I have had experience of trying to buy from Amazon UK (since Brexit) but they have added charges as a just in case measure ranging from €12 to €20.
I also bought a couple of things from India which were delivered by FedEx with no extra or customs charges.
To be honest I no longer have a handle on the customs or whatever charging which is both why I have not attempted to answer the OPs question and why for the time being I am buying in the EU and leaving the problem to someone else.🤔

Problem in this case is that nobody in Europe makes this stuff. And same is true for the vast majority of bits for GA planes. Once one is prepared to buy from the US, a vast new spectrum of stuff opens up.

That incidentally also translates into big cost savings if you operate a fleet of similar planes and buy bits in bulk from the US. 20 air filters…

MH does the best oxygen gear there is.

There are MH stockists in Europe but they just buy from MH at the same price you can, and they stick 30% on top. And let’s face it, with historical hard-IR policies in Europe, there isn’t exactly a huge army of pilots flying with oxygen.

I routinely shop aircraft stuff from the US, and have changed to JetCarrier exclusively (no bad experiences yet, touch wood ). The way it works is you get an address in the US. Any goods are shipped with USPS or whatever is cheapest/fastest to that address (You essentially shop like an American which is the slogan for JetCarrier).

Then, at that address (at Jet Carrier), JetCarrier packs the goods in larger containers and ship it with air or sea. Sea is obviously much cheaper, but also takes time. When the goods arrive in Norway, it is taxed (VAT) and shipped with the normal local parcel service. The whole thing becomes much cheaper than any other method because the shipping gets cheaper. When the shipping gets cheaper, also the VAT gets less (at least in Norway). So far it just works. It takes a bit longer time, but usually not more than a week for air, and all VAT stuff is taken care of by JetCarrier, it’s all super easy.

LeSving wrote:

When the shipping gets cheaper, also the VAT gets less (at least in Norway).

In the EU, too. Import VAT is on the “total value” being purchase price plus shipping costs and any other thing charged by the seller (restocking fee, express fee, whatever).

LeSving wrote:

all VAT stuff is taken care of by JetCarrier

Do they apply special rates correctly, like e.g. lower rate for food and/or baby clothes or whatnot? The list of what has lower (or even zero) rate varies by country. That is what I never ever can get any transporter to do correctly. They just slap the maximum possible VAT rate.

However, with aircraft parts, the VAT is going to be always the same rate.

The challenge (see link I posted earlier) is that you may also pay import duty if the customs office is unusually smart (very rare) and the paperwork isn’t right for parts for certified aircraft.

The MH 1st stage reg outputs around 20psi and to back up an O2D1 you need something like the 1st pic here which comes with an adjustable primitive flow regulator on which you set the altitude.

To back up an O2D2 you need two of those.

I have 2 x O2D2 which supports 4 seats (which I never fly with) and supports 3 people total (rarely the case) and offers redundancy for 2 people. One should always preflight the system, and change the batteries at each annual.

A big bottle is worth it for the refill hassle reduction. See near the end of the above article. I went through the “small bottle” phase and would never do it again.

Not the same, but since France is mentioned. I just ordered Spare parts from Troyes Aviation, France, for an company to company intra-EU VAT exempt shipment. Troyes was not capable of shipping to an address different from my company (VAT registered) address, not even a question asked, just shipped and done – simple as is. I wanted to received the goods (shipping address) on an address (same country) different from the billing address (same country). With Troyes (France) simply, they were not able.

I´ve probably had about 30-50 intra-EU VAT exempt shipments done over the last 2 years (from various countries eg. Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, etc.), all shipped to an address different from the billing address. So perhaps it France or perhaps it´s Troyes Aviation, either way, NOT able to accommodate. Needless to say, one will be looking for suppliers outside France, and Troyes, for purchases, when possible.

Different addresses is an indicator of fraud, but it takes just a tiny bit of common sense and instinct to check the customer out… problem is, common sense and instinct are almost impossible to train