This is my first post about the Mega SD, and it's only about the order/shipping itself. As soon I got my hands on my unit I can talk about the quality, and I truly hope it's good as it seems, so at least this story ends in a good manner…
I hardly have time to keep the pace on the retro mods scene, and sincerely I didn't knew nothing about TO and theirs devices and accessories, and I was impressed after visiting their web shop with all the advanced stuff they have.
This happened in June, when suddenly, looking at one of FB groups I'm member of, I looked at the Mega SD news. Checking the specs, I thought this is just what I need to give my Mega CD laser and my games in CD some deserved vacations, and maybe store it on original box and have some more space on my gaming desk. I still believe this device worth 230€ if it does what's advertised.
Going directly to the link I was pleasantly surprised to see the price was in Euros, but I still wanted to know their location, and from were the items are going to be shipped. Strangely from the web shop I didn't understand the exact location. But I can confirm that during that period (day 01 of pre-ordering) it didn't have any import/taxes fees, or Andorra location written.
For piece of mind I goggled a bit searching for the company, and saw some posts saying it's from Spain (My neighbour country).
So looking back at that day in June, this is what I know for sure: I will order/pay now, in Euros, and they will only ship it in August, but it's DHL and I will have my hands on this very soon after it's available. And seems this guys are from Spain, so this will be super fast!
I bought/paid this the minute after, using credit card. (I now see people talking about PayPal, but I don't remember seing it available). I didn't visited the site again after the purchase. On August 01, I searched for Mega SD in YouTube, looking for a day 1 review. I was able to find one unboxing/testing, and seems what I was expecting, so far so good.
On the ordering side, I received on 03/08 one mail from TO saying "Your order with the reference xxxxx is currently in transit." But using the link to track my package I got an DHL "not found" message. I thought it was probably a matter of some hours to be available. The days after, the status was the same, that's when I returned to TO site, and found their forum, and a post from Todd, written in 05/08 explaining the delays, and the DHL tracking unavailable. That's when I understood also the shipping it's coming from Andorra because they moved:
"DON'T PANIC! Yes, DHL is usually really quick, but we have a special set of circumstances that are causing this slowdown. Terraonion has moved to Andorra and since DHL doesn't have an office in Andorra, all packages get transported to them for processing. Also, local customs in Andorra are not use to processing a lot of outbound packages for export. They are clearing about 45 per day. So when we drop off several hundred at one time, it takes them multiple days to clear.
After that it goes into the DHL system for processing on it's way.
The bottom line is this: From the time a package "ships" till the time it arrives to you is going to possibly be 2 to 3 weeks. Once we get all of the MegaSD orders shipped, shipping shouldn't be an issue. But for now packages are going to take a while to process.
Don't be alarmed if the package sets in Andorra for a while. That's customs. Don't be alarmed if it sets in DHL for a while. That's normal since the packages have to be transferred to DHL in Spain.
Also if you see shipping exceptions or clearance events: Ignore them. It's processing through DHL.
If your tracking isn't active at first, again, give it some time.
We appreciate your patience."
At this time, and reading this I didn't think about any customs fees. Also I remembered the sale had an "no shipping taxes" or something like that. It was later that I started to read on the same TO support forum that some people from EU are getting taxes, then searching the site again I found an "news" dated 06/08 saying:
"Terraonion relocated from Spain to Andorra approximately 2 months ago. Lately we have been receiving lots of questions about this and I thought this deserved a blog post of it’s own.
All of our products are still produced inside of Europe, however we are no longer located in Spain.
We made this move to Andorra to help put the company in a better place for future developments. Spanish tax law is extremely hard on small businesses, so leaving Spain was our only choice. One thing to keep in mind: If you are located in the EU, you will most likely have to pay import/VAT charges upon delivery. We have no control over this as there is no VAT on exports in Andorra so no way for us to collect it. However your country might very well charge you. Please check with your local government on your import laws regarding non EU countries."
Ok, they needed to move to Andorra because of taxes and stuff, but have they forgotten many people like me bought this Mega SD almost two months ago, without having a clue on this?!?
I'm 41 years old, and buying stuff from the internet over 20 years now, and I understand the hard way, in my early Ebay.com shopping that I can't buy stuff from USA, or Japan, or any where outside EU without a good reason, because as soon it arrives it gets taxed - My country vat (23%), plus handling fees from their "services". Now EBay also evolved and we can see prices with already this included, and we have a "final price" to look.
The 18€ DHL express service I paid was not express anymore because it got delayed by all this Andorra story, and their difficulty to handle so many shipping’s, and I got extra charged, because now I have to pay VAT, plus customs handling, plus DHL extra service of taking care of the clearing with the customs. So I received an not so nice message on my mobile phone and mail from DHL asking for the invoice so they can show it to the customs. Checking my TO order mail, I didn't found nothing, but had this written: "You can review your order and download your invoice from the "Order history" section of your customer account by clicking "My account" on our shop." So I entered TO site once again, just to find there is nothing there also. So I written an message to them asking for it. Until today I didn't receive any invoice, or any answers from them... So Last Friday I decided to just make an print screen of that email, and send it to DHL, they replied fast saying it's ok and Customs are about to give their sentence. One hour later I received another email with this:
"Your DHL Express shipment with waybill number XXXX from TERRAONION S.L. has arrived in the country and cleared customs. There is import duty/tax due on your shipment. The amount is € 126.77.
To avoid any impact on delivery, please pay us this amount securely online now. Click here to pay, view the duty/tax calculation and download the relevant documents."
Looking at all the posts in their forum, this seems the largest amount received. It's not surprise on a country with 23% vat, and pos IMF. But for me this would never happened if TO have been fair since the beginning...
Sadly this will be my first and last purchase from them. Even if they continue to develop great products like this one seems to be, I can afford to buy directly from them.
I wish them best of luck, but I'm afraid the costumers are all around the world, in European Union, US, etc. not in the little Andorra which is best know for tourism.
Happy gaming everyone