Online Shopping? Amazon in particular.

[McAdam]

From my experience:

Amazon Global is an option available on all amazon sites for addresses in "Non-Amazon" locations (which the canary islands are). It has no direct relation to where the items originate from.
Generally, the options are available to easy and simplify the importation process of goods to tax jurisdictions where amazon is not registered.

They will charge you separately for:
The items excluding taxes
Delivery
The deposit fee for import taxes and customs clearance fees

Approximately 2 weeks after the item has arrived, amazon will refund the remainder of the deposit.

I recently ordered a large electronic item from the .es store and selected the "Global" option.

The item was initially "undetermined delivery date", but once it was available, it was delivered within 3 days - direct to my door.
Out of the €158 global deposit, €121 was refunded 2 weeks later - which equates to a charge of about 7.5% on the item value of €525. 


So - Amazon Global is just a way to simplify the importation of products to unsupported tax regions, and it does not mean the items will come from a random country somewhere else.

p.s. Amazon global option might not be available on some sites vs addresses - in which case they will charge you the tax free amount, but you will have to deal with all the tax stuffs.
With the GBP vs EUR rate right now, it could be worth buying on the .uk site and dealing with things yourself.

[Ducks]

Out of the €158 global deposit, €121 was refunded 2 weeks later - which equates to a charge of about 7.5% on the item value of €525. 


So - Amazon Global is just a way to simplify the importation of products to unsupported tax regions, and it does not mean the items will come from a random country somewhere else.

I've used Amazon Global to shop from the US while in Ireland several times, and never gotten a penny back. Maybe they're just more experienced at calculating the cost to import into EU from the US?

Would never have thought to do this for items on the Spanish store to the Canaries, though, so thanks very much for the tip!

[milestone11]

Out of the €158 global deposit, €121 was refunded 2 weeks later - which equates to a charge of about 7.5% on the item value of €525. 


So - Amazon Global is just a way to simplify the importation of products to unsupported tax regions, and it does not mean the items will come from a random country somewhere else.

I've used Amazon Global to shop from the US while in Ireland several times, and never gotten a penny back. Maybe they're just more experienced at calculating the cost to import into EU from the US?

Would never have thought to do this for items on the Spanish store to the Canaries, though, so thanks very much for the tip!

Same here. I've used Amazon Global three times and never had a penny refunded from the deposit despite repeated phone calls. Never again!

[McAdam]

Sorry to hear you never got a refund milestone. Where was it from and to?

I think the amount they charge is based on what they expect the VAT and other fees to total to.
Also, different couriers charge varying fees. In Germany UPS would always charge me about €60 handling fee, whereas DHL only ever went as high as €35 (regardless or order value).

.es seems to add on about 28% charge for all the fees. Canary VAT is currently 7%, and I would guess about €30-40 for handling. All the rest should be refunded.
It could be that they don't know how to calculate the Canary VAT so they charge way over to cover their asses.
As Ducks said, its very likely that the US store knows exactly how much it would cost to import to the EU so they charge a more accurate amount initially leading to no refund.

[Rome77]

Two recent experiences from me:

1) https://www.pccomponentes.com/ I placed an order 1st July (a PC monitor) and had it delivered exactly one week later to our house by courier Asigna. The delivery cost was 15.5€ (total order price 163,15€ ), very pleased with how this worked out. Thanks for the heads up McAdam!

2) https://tiendaselectron.com/ Placed an order on Wednesday evening this week and just had the goods already delivered to our place (i.e. Friday midday). 10€ delivery fee, again very happy with this.

We don't have a car so these online orders with home delivery is really handy for us. We've tried both HiperDino and Mercadona for grocery deliveries and that's worked ok too. 

Are there any other online shopping / home delivery options locally on the island I should be aware of? I'm interested in anything from groceries to electronics to garden centres to hardware tools  

[Lexeus]

Out of the €158 global deposit, €121 was refunded 2 weeks later - which equates to a charge of about 7.5% on the item value of €525. 


So - Amazon Global is just a way to simplify the importation of products to unsupported tax regions, and it does not mean the items will come from a random country somewhere else.

I've used Amazon Global to shop from the US while in Ireland several times, and never gotten a penny back. Maybe they're just more experienced at calculating the cost to import into EU from the US?

Would never have thought to do this for items on the Spanish store to the Canaries, though, so thanks very much for the tip!

Same here. I've used Amazon Global three times and never had a penny refunded from the deposit despite repeated phone calls. Never again!

I would never use the expensive Global option if you have a choice, I have always used the standard Prime FREE shipping from Amazon Spain. According to some spanish folk though, the reason why you are highly unlikely to get any of your deposit back is because if it is one of the fraudulent local courier companies who deliver (rather than Correos) then they add on all sorts of ludicrous charges to eat up your deposit Money. It seems crazy but they know how much is at stake and they use the terms and conditions to apply almost unlimited processing charges.... it is criminal but do you plan on taking them to court? Everyone who experiences it should file a Denuncia against the courier.

The way I see it is, choose the standard option and there is a risk that you are asked for a sum of Money when the parcel turns up, but if you disagree with the charges then you can refuse to pay and get a refund from Amazon. If you use the global service you are just handing over the same cash and more in advance and letting the courier decide how much of that cash he wants to have from you.... (but it will be quick )

[Rome77]

Two recent experiences from me:

1) https://www.pccomponentes.com/ I placed an order 1st July (a PC monitor) and had it delivered exactly one week later to our house by courier Asigna. The delivery cost was 15.5€ (total order price 163,15€ ), very pleased with how this worked out. Thanks for the heads up McAdam!...

Have you managed to get it cheaper due to the VAT difference?

Yep. Towards the end of the checkout process the price is adjusted, reflecting VAT of 7% instead of 21%. This saving covered the shipping costs and still a couple of euros to spare 

[Rome77]

I ordered a fairly large item from amazon.es on the 10th of July. The item was shipped from Germany via DHL - timeline so far:

• 10th July item ordered on amazon.es
  
• 10th July: Order shipped from Germany via DHL
  
• 13th July: "The shipment has arrived in the destination country/destination area"
  
• 13th July: There is a mention of "ESMADB, ES" on the Amazon.es tracking, which is a sorting centre in Madrid.
  

The above is the final tracking info from DHL - it's been handed over to Correos and subsequent tracking is through Correos website:

• 13th July 0933: "Customs clearing pending" 
  
• 13th July 1508: "Classified shipping in Logistics Center"
  

Since then it's gone completely quiet - no further updates. Best case the item is on its way from Madrid to Fuerteventura, medium case it's still sitting in Madrid but will be shipped here, worst case it will be returned to sender...

The item is priced 149.99 euros (shipping included) so if it does arrive I am curious as to whether I will have to pay additional taxes!

I paid the full price with mainland VAT of 21%. I emailed Amazon.es about VAT refund, and they told me to contact the seller directly. The seller refuses any VAT refund though. Should I be able to claim a VAT refund when purchased at amazon.es or is that only applicable to orders from international amazon sites?

[McAdam]

Interesting position:

Amazon will not refund the VAT, and the seller is technically not under any obligation to either (Legally is a different matter).
I am not sure how it will go through customs... I havent come across this issue before.

When buying on amazon.es, I only purchase items "Sold and dispatched by amazon". These items will automagically remove the 21% vat in the cart.

Let us know how it goes!
The delay could be because the seller didnt include the correct export papers with the shipment, and thus its being held up in customs.

Sending items to Canarias is like sending them to any other non EU country. They need an invoice and customs declaration attached to the box.
In some cases the data can be transmitted electronically.

Good Luck.

[Lexeus]

I ordered a fairly large item from amazon.es on the 10th of July. The item was shipped from Germany via DHL - timeline so far:

• 10th July item ordered on amazon.es
  
• 10th July: Order shipped from Germany via DHL
  
• 13th July: "The shipment has arrived in the destination country/destination area"
  
• 13th July: There is a mention of "ESMADB, ES" on the Amazon.es tracking, which is a sorting centre in Madrid.
  

The above is the final tracking info from DHL - it's been handed over to Correos and subsequent tracking is through Correos website:

• 13th July 0933: "Customs clearing pending" 
  
• 13th July 1508: "Classified shipping in Logistics Center"
  

Since then it's gone completely quiet - no further updates. Best case the item is on its way from Madrid to Fuerteventura, medium case it's still sitting in Madrid but will be shipped here, worst case it will be returned to sender...

The item is priced 149.99 euros (shipping included) so if it does arrive I am curious as to whether I will have to pay additional taxes!

I paid the full price with mainland VAT of 21%. I emailed Amazon.es about VAT refund, and they told me to contact the seller directly. The seller refuses any VAT refund though. Should I be able to claim a VAT refund when purchased at amazon.es or is that only applicable to orders from international amazon sites?

I have had some really out of the ordinary experiences with the tracking information from Correos lately. Two weeks ago I was waiting for two identical 18Kg toilet cisterns to be delivered (ordered from Amazon ES) and one started it's trip in France and the other in Madrid. On the Friday the correos website reported the French one was on it's way and expected the following Friday but the Madrid one had a paperwork export error and when I contact Amazon they said it would be delayed by 2-3weeks.

The correos website tracking didn't update at all following that, then suddenly with no notice Correos arrives at my door 4 days later with both of the parcels!! 


With regards to the VAT, I only ever buy from amazon.es just like McAdam. My belief is that the company needs to be setup for VAT payments in the right way in order to properly declare the export and remove the VAT from the invoice, but if you look on Amazon.es there are some companies that are setup correctly and it will deduct the IVA at checkout just as it does for items sold by Amazon.es. I found a german bathroom company (mabado.de) who have an Amazon shop that will ship to the canary islands and it deducts VAT at checkout , for example.