Aussies who have bought of Loupetroop, Diamond Bistro etc...

[sugarcloud]

Are there any Australians here who have made purchases off of websites like Diamond Bistro or Loupetroop? How did it work as far as paying GST or import tax / duty fees? I am looking at purchasing a ring and I don't know what is the best process to get it into Australia. I would be paying via Paypal, would the seller need to do anything specific on their end or would it just be someting I would need to deal with once the package arrives here?

 

[Bron357]

Hi,
If you now buy on platforms such as eBay and Etsy, GST will be charged automatically on purchases under $1,000 by eBay or Etsy. In the olden days, purchases under $1,000 came to Australia GST free (and irrespective if bought brand new or 5th hand pre loved).
With platforms such as Loupe Troop and Diamond Bistro purchases aren’t on the ATOs radar so no GST gets charged on purchases under $1,000.
However,
Importing into Australia with goods costing over $1,000 (from EBay, Etsy, Loupe Troop, etc etc ie anyone) GST and Import tax is done at Customs entry. That is at least 10%, sometimes plus an extra 5% and customs processing fees (about $75).
If your purchase has a declared / insured vale of over $1,000 it will be intercepted at Customs and you’ll get notification that processing is required and payment needed prior to release. If you use Fed Ex for shipping, they will do the customs for you (like for an extra $75 or so).
Thats why I try and keep my purchases under $1,000.

 

[Bron357]

So, if the ring is over $1,000 ask the seller to ship it to you via Fed ex. Once it arrives in Australia, Fed ex will phone you (give the seller your phone number as well as address) and tell you how much you owe. You can pay over the phone to Fed ex via credit card. Then a few days later your parcel is delivered to you.
If under $1,000, ask the seller to send it tracked, signed for mail. That will just be delivered to you.

 

[sugarcloud]

Hi,
If you now buy on platforms such as eBay and Etsy, GST will be charged automatically on purchases under $1,000 by eBay or Etsy. In the olden days, purchases under $1,000 came to Australia GST free (and irrespective if bought brand new or 5th hand pre loved).
With platforms such as Loupe Troop and Diamond Bistro purchases aren’t on the ATOs radar so no GST gets charged on purchases under $1,000.
However,
Importing into Australia with goods costing over $1,000 (from EBay, Etsy, Loupe Troop, etc etc ie anyone) GST and Import tax is done at Customs entry. That is at least 10%, sometimes plus an extra 5% and customs processing fees (about $75).
If your purchase has a declared / insured vale of over $1,000 it will be intercepted at Customs and you’ll get notification that processing is required and payment needed prior to release. If you use Fed Ex for shipping, they will do the customs for you (like for an extra $75 or so).
Thats why I try and keep my purchases under $1,000.

Thank you for your reply My purchase I think will work out to be around $1900 AUD so yes it will get picked up in that case, as long as the seller won't need to fork out any additional fees on their end I am happy to deal with the fees once it arrives. I will have to see what shipping options they have though but as they are in the US I'm guessing that will be simple enough for them to sort out.

 

[sugarcloud]

So, if the ring is over $1,000 ask the seller to ship it to you via Fed ex. Once it arrives in Australia, Fed ex will phone you (give the seller your phone number as well as address) and tell you how much you owe. You can pay over the phone to Fed ex via credit card. Then a few days later your parcel is delivered to you.
If under $1,000, ask the seller to send it tracked, signed for mail. That will just be delivered to you.

Do you know if the seller would need to do any thing specific because it is a piece of jewellery or does it just come down to the declared value? Also this is probably a silly question but does the seller need to have a fedex account or can anyone use their service?

 

[Bron357]

Just be mindful if using PayPal Friends and Family that there is NO recourse if nothing turns up. For that reason I only pay using Friends and Family with sellers who have a presence here on Pricescope.
To be safe, if you don’t know the seller, ask for an invoice and agree to pay an extra 3% to cover the sellers PayPal fee. If the seller doesn’t agree to that, I wouldn’t proceed.
There aren’t many scammers out there, most people are lovely and honest but it’s important to remain mindful that $1,900 is a lot of money to lose.

 

[Bron357]

The seller can use any mail service if they don’t have access to Fed ex.
If you have to do Customs via Australia Post, it’s a lot slower.
Aust Post will send you a letter telling you need to process an item through customs. They have a form that you have to complete (and look up the Codes and numbers) and fax / email back to Customs through Aust Post. Aust Post charges $55 (I think it’s still that). So you will need full name and address of the seller for the Customs form.
Then Customs tells you the import due and you can pay that at Australia Post. With Fed ex it’s much much quicker and easier.

 

[sugarcloud]

Just be mindful if using PayPal Friends and Family that there is NO recourse if nothing turns up. For that reason I only pay using Friends and Family with sellers who have a presence here on Pricescope.
To be safe, if you don’t know the seller, ask for an invoice and agree to pay an extra 3% to cover the sellers PayPal fee. If the seller doesn’t agree to that, I wouldn’t proceed.
There aren’t many scammers out there, most people are lovely and honest but it’s important to remain mindful that $1,900 is a lot of money to lose.

The seller can use any mail service if they don’t have access to Fed ex.
If you have to do Customs via Australia Post, it’s a lot slower.
Aust Post will send you a letter telling you need to process an item through customs. They have a form that you have to complete (and look up the Codes and numbers) and fax / email back to Customs through Aust Post. Aust Post charges $55 (I think it’s still that). So you will need full name and address of the seller for the Customs form.
Then Customs tells you the import due and you can pay that at Australia Post. With Fed ex it’s much much quicker and easier.

Thanks so much this is very helpful I will contact the seller who are actually a member here on PS, but I will try to do everything as carefully as possible because I have never made such a large purchase from overseas before.

 

[MollyMalone]

Before you and the seller decide upon FedEx, please know that FedEx International (from USA) won't cover jewelry, gemstones, and the like for more than $1000 USD when sent by a consumer here in the States. I.e., it's fine if the declared value for Customs purposes is more than $1000, but FedEx limits its own liability coverage on such items to $1000 USD.

Given the gap between your purchase price and FedEx's $1000 cap, think you and the seller should consider what would happen -- moneywise between the 2 of you -- if your purchase gets lost (or damaged) en route to you.

FYI: if your seller used the US Postal Service's Global International Mail, s/he could buy insurance for the purchase price; the cap for such shipments to Australia is $5000 USD.
Insured Global International Mail is not available for every country, and the cap on coverage will also depend on the destination, but Australia is no problem:

Australia | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

322 Priority Mail Express International Insurance | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

 

[yssie]

I'm based in the US but have mailed to PSers in Australia a fair few times.

The pe.usps.com details and Click 'n Ship form defaults/ranges/validations often disagree. In cases where there's a disparity, if you file a claim USPS will follow the letter of the charts, not the specifications in the Click 'n Ship UI, so if your seller is making a USPS label online - have him double check all inputs against the charts that USPS posts online. I do recommend having your seller make the label online: The software that reps at post offices use is different from what we use on the website, and I've had tellers tell me that their systems won't allow them to add any insurance on an international package at all (totally incorrect!). The counter reps are certainly not going to be familiar with the vagaries of international postage, and in cases where the counter reps and the pe.usps.com details disagree, again, if you file a claim USPS is going to follow the letter of the charts not whatever they told you at the counter.

1. Go here and choose your destination country (Australia, in your case):

Individual Country Listings | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

2. Read the restrictions on what is and is not permitted in various mail classes:

Australia | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

The notes on this page indicates that Priority Mail International is your only service option. Priority Mail Express International is not an option if you want to declare and insure jewellery.





3. Go to his page to see the individual country merchandise limits:

322 Priority Mail Express International Insurance | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

4. In this chart, PMI is Priority Mail International, and PMEI is Priority Mail Express International. Remember that because USPS stated (on another page off yonder) that when shipping to Australia jewellery is not insurable through PMEI, the PMI limit of $3644 is your maximum insurance limit.

- - - - - - - - - -

Some additional notes:

I like to request mailing information like this, to make sure I get all form inputs correct. It's easy to forget that people in other countries sometimes organize addresses differently!

First name =​

Last name =​

Street addy =​

City =​

State/District/Territory/Whatever =​

Post code =​

Phone number (and include country code) =​

Hand the package to a person at the USPS service counter and save the acceptance receipt. If you need to file a claim this is the first thing USPS will demand.

When filing a claim the sender must do the bulk of the work, not the recipient. The recipient is actually pretty powerless in this process (which can take months). The sender will need to provide USPS with some proof of contents and value. I've had USPS accept photos taken of contents and packaging prior to shipping and images of original sales receipt indicating dollar value of those contents without much drama; I'm fortunate that I thought to take them in the first place.

USPS very rarely loses packages. They might take the world tour but they'll almost always get there eventually. So even if something does seem awry - don't panic!

 

[MollyMalone]

HEAPS OF THANKS, @yssie , for correcting my errors -- and sharing your first-hand experiences-information

(Since I had just looked at the very same sentence on the USPS Australia page -- "Jewelry is permitted only when sent as an insured parcel using Priority Mail International service" -- I have no idea why I typed Global International. And altho' the difference in the coverage limitations between Priority Mail Express International & Priority Mail International has registered for me in the past, it obviously didn't this time )

 

[yssie]

@MollyMalone apologies - my intent wasn’t to issue corrections on any prior posters! It is really astonishingly and unnecessarily complicated -and it drives me batty beyond belief that the tool USPS provides to make this easier for consumers contains incorrect information And telling USPS about the errors achieves nothing of course

 

[sugarcloud]

I'm based in the US but have mailed to PSers in Australia a fair few times.

The pe.usps.com details and Click 'n Ship form defaults/ranges/validations often disagree. In cases where there's a disparity, if you file a claim USPS will follow the letter of the charts, not the specifications in the Click 'n Ship UI, so if your seller is making a USPS label online - have him double check all inputs against the charts that USPS posts online. I do recommend having your seller make the label online: The software that reps at post offices use is different from what we use on the website, and I've had tellers tell me that their systems won't allow them to add any insurance on an international package at all (totally incorrect!). The counter reps are certainly not going to be familiar with the vagaries of international postage, and in cases where the counter reps and the pe.usps.com details disagree, again, if you file a claim USPS is going to follow the letter of the charts not whatever they told you at the counter.

1. Go here and choose your destination country (Australia, in your case):

Individual Country Listings | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

2. Read the restrictions on what is and is not permitted in various mail classes:

Australia | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

The notes on this page indicates that Priority Mail International is your only service option. Priority Mail Express International is not an option if you want to declare and insure jewellery.





3. Go to his page to see the individual country merchandise limits:

322 Priority Mail Express International Insurance | Postal Explorer

pe.usps.com

4. In this chart, PMI is Priority Mail International, and PMEI is Priority Mail Express International. Remember that because USPS stated (on another page off yonder) that when shipping to Australia jewellery is not insurable through PMEI, the PMI limit of $3644 is your maximum insurance limit.

- - - - - - - - - -

Some additional notes:

I like to request mailing information like this, to make sure I get all form inputs correct. It's easy to forget that people in other countries sometimes organize addresses differently!

First name =​

Last name =​

Street addy =​

City =​

State/District/Territory/Whatever =​

Post code =​

Phone number (and include country code) =​

Hand the package to a person at the USPS service counter and save the acceptance receipt. If you need to file a claim this is the first thing USPS will demand.

When filing a claim the sender must do the bulk of the work, not the recipient. The recipient is actually pretty powerless in this process (which can take months). The sender will need to provide USPS with some proof of contents and value. I've had USPS accept photos taken of contents and packaging prior to shipping and images of original sales receipt indicating dollar value of those contents without much drama; I'm fortunate that I thought to take them in the first place.

USPS very rarely loses packages. They might take the world tour but they'll almost always get there eventually. So even if something does seem awry - don't panic!

OMG this sounds ridiculously complicated for a simple package, how crazy! I'm going to have to think about this all because if something was to go wrong it would be such a pain Thanks so much for the info though!!

 

[MollyMalone]

@MollyMalone apologies - my intent wasn’t to issue corrections on any prior posters! It is really astonishingly and unnecessarily complicated -and it drives me batty beyond belief that the tool USPS provides to make this easier for consumers contains incorrect information And telling USPS about the errors achieves nothing of course

No need to apologize! I wasn't being sarcastic, I honestly appreciated you cleaning up the "mess" I made.

(I think the UPS website is lots worse than the USPS one, but maybe my perception is colored by a few awful experiences with USP whereas I've never had any problem with USPS deliveries -- except during this past COVID-Christmastime.)