Shipping costs from Thomann

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MKTuba
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Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by MKTuba »

Anybody know what it would cost to ship a tuba to the states from Thomann? It wouldn’t give me shipping info without putting my card information in and I’m not ready to bite the bullet on this purchase yet. If this matters I’d likely be ordering some sort of Miraphone 6 valve F tuba.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by GeoffC_UK »

Contact them via e-mail (brass@thomann.de). They have plenty of helpful people there that speak English - they do have an International Customer Care unit. I found them quick to respond and have ordered from them often to UK.

Further, if buying from UK, they quote Sterling (£) prices on their site and they did have a UK bank account which I used to pay by BACS (bank transfer). That avoided paying any currency exchange costs with the banks. In my purchases, the VAT paid was UK import tax, so check with Thormann, and there should only be one lot of sales tax. Deliveries from Germany to UK take about 4 or 5 business days, I have found
Last edited by GeoffC_UK on Sat Mar 04, 2023 3:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by arpthark »

MKTuba wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:11 pm Anybody know what it would cost to ship a tuba to the states from Thomann? It wouldn’t give me shipping info without putting my card information in and I’m not ready to bite the bullet on this purchase yet. If this matters I’d likely be ordering some sort of Miraphone 6 valve F tuba.
Thomann won't ship tubas to the USA. I've asked.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by MKTuba »

No kidding. I don’t see why they wouldn’t, especially if the consumer assumes the shipping cost. I’ll reach out and see if they give me a different answer.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by arpthark »

MKTuba wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:17 am No kidding. I don’t see why they wouldn’t, especially if the consumer assumes the shipping cost. I’ll reach out and see if they give me a different answer.
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kingrob76
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by kingrob76 »

I bought one from them in March and they shipped it to Virginia, but, they do appear to have stopped shipping to the US since then. It came via UPS and was not very expensive to ship, but at this point they apparently don't want to deal with any headaches that might arise from shipping to the US.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by bort »

You could also check out FMB
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by Roger Lewis »

It has to do with customs. You need to find a freight forwarder to get it through customs plus if it arrives damaged the return shipping would have to be paid completely by you. There’s also the Value Added Tax to deal with.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by hubert »

DHL costs:
https://www.dhl.de/en/privatkunden/pake ... ional.html

Insurance above Euro 500 is extra (if you want that).
US Customs is very cheap, as I have understood. Not more than 4%, as far as I know.

DHL hands over package to US Postal for transport and delivery within USA. Delivery time is about 10 - 12 days. My experience: no other parties involved, only DHL and USPostal. So, for questions you may address USPostal, I suppose.

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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by kingrob76 »

Customs costs vary by point of item manufacture, not point of sale or location of inventory. A tuba built in China sold by a company in Germany is imported as if it came from China originally (even if it was in Germany). The rate is much higher for items from China than from the EU.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by circusboy »

It seems that this is a case in which size matters. I tried to order a tuba case from them, and the website told me that it was too large for UPS Express to ship. That seems to be their only carrier to the US.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by hubert »

Two:

1. To Circusboy: Max. size through DHL/USPS is 120 x 60 x 60 cm.
2. To Kingrob: How can US customs know where a Thomann-branded tuba has been produced/built?

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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by kingrob76 »

hubert wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 3:46 am Two:

1. To Circusboy: Max. size through DHL/USPS is 120 x 60 x 60 cm.
2. To Kingrob: How can US customs know where a Thomann-branded tuba has been produced/built?

Hubert
Country of origin has to be declared, I believe by the shipper.
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by Cthuba »

Ugh so frustrating reading this. I’m VERY interested in the ZO travel tubas but can only seem to find them from Thomann. The VAT is really keeping me at bay with it. Especially when I compare to the price of a Wessex bubbie 5 or tornister c
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by hubert »

Thanks, Kingrob.
Do you know, whether this also applies to used tubas?
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Importng instruments

Post by Robert Tucci »

Private import may require a customs broker; the costs can be high. It is important to thoroughly clarify all details related to shipping costs, insurance, import-related, storage costs, customs clearance charges, duty, excise, state and local taxes. All related costs are added to what becomes "total cost of acquisition" on which the above charges are based.

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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by circusboy »

kingrob76 wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 7:02 pm
Country of origin has to be declared, I believe by the shipper.
Yes. I recently bought a piece of art at auction in Tokyo as an online bidder. Though the work was made in Germany, the artist was born in Russia. The auction house mistakenly put Russia as the country of origin on the import papers which prompted a 40% customs charge, due to current US sanctions on Russia. It took me and the auction house a couple of weeks to convince customs that it was not Russian, which brought the customs charge down to 1/2%.
Cthuba wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 10:06 pm Ugh so frustrating reading this. I’m VERY interested in the ZO travel tubas but can only seem to find them from Thomann. The VAT is really keeping me at bay with it. Especially when I compare to the price of a Wessex bubbie 5 or tornister c
If you live in outside of the EU, you are not subject to VAT. Some companies will charge you VAT up front, then refund it. Others simply won't charge it. I'd check with them to clear it up.
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Cthuba
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by Cthuba »

circusboy wrote: Mon Feb 27, 2023 1:25 pm
kingrob76 wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 7:02 pm
Country of origin has to be declared, I believe by the shipper.
Yes. I recently bought a piece of art at auction in Tokyo as an online bidder. Though the work was made in Germany, the artist was born in Russia. The auction house mistakenly put Russia as the country of origin on the import papers which prompted a 40% customs charge, due to current US sanctions on Russia. It took me and the auction house a couple of weeks to convince customs that it was not Russian, which brought the customs charge down to 1/2%.
Cthuba wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 10:06 pm Ugh so frustrating reading this. I’m VERY interested in the ZO travel tubas but can only seem to find them from Thomann. The VAT is really keeping me at bay with it. Especially when I compare to the price of a Wessex bubbie 5 or tornister c
If you live in outside of the EU, you are not subject to VAT. Some companies will charge you VAT up front, then refund it. Others simply won't charge it. I'd check with them to clear it up.

What do you mean by in outside of the EU? Are you saying that since I live in the US I would not have to pay VAT?
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Re: Shipping costs from Thomann

Post by circusboy »

Yes, that's my understanding.
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