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iFixit Europe - more expensive, more hassle

Just tried to order the iPhone 4s earpiece speaker from both ifixit and the ifixit europe wep page. Living in Norway, I expected the europe version to be the best.

Turnes out it's more of a hassle to shop, having to create an account just to check prices (on transportation), and it's more expensive as well.

Transportation times are pretty much the same.

Question:

Is this as big a fail that I think it is?

Answer this question I have this problem too

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Good point! Norway is particularly difficult because you're not part of the EU or the customs union of European countries, so our shipping costs are very high. There's absolutely no advantage for Norwegians to buy from the EU besides (potentially) faster shipping from Germany.

We've got flat shipping prices to Germany, and we're working on improving shipping rates and speed to the rest of the continent.

Right now, we've got one distribution center in Stuttgart, Germany. It's surprisingly fast to get products from California to Europe, so I'm not super surprised the times from each place are about the same. Without setting up a distribution center closer to Norway than Stuttgart, there's not a whole lot we can do there.

You're right, we don't (yet) have a fancy shipping estimator in the EU store without entering your address. That's something we're working on! But we do have all the rates listed here on a page you can see without checking out.

If you already have an account on ifixit.com, we're working on using that same information on the EU Store so you don't have to enter it twice.

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You raise an important issue and I will try to answer you as best I can:

At first sight, European prices seem a bit more expensive than iFixit prices in the US. Things change, however, when you take into account that listed prices in the US are always net prices and do not include tax. Residents in the US will pay additional sales tax when buying anything, this is just not visible in the advertised product price. The European system is more transparent in this regard.

When you buy any product from the US while residing in Europe, you as the consumer will have to add your home country's VAT to the price and pay it as import sales tax when your order is delivered to you. VAT rates in most European countries range from 19 to 25 percent - so you'll have to add this to the end price of the goods you are buying in the US. In addition to the import sales tax, there are further additional costs when ordering abroad: In most cases, you will be charged customs fees and also a logistics brokerage fee when your parcel arrives at its destination in the EU.

When you consider that shipping costs are are also higher and that delivery takes considerably longer when ordering in the US, I think that the European offer starts to look quite fair and reasonably attractive. What do you think?

It is our intent to offer our European iFixit customers faster access to the most popular products - at an attractive price, and with a European warrantee.

However, Norway is special.

They are not part of the EU (same as Switzerland), but shipping to Norway is more expensive. So it definitely makes no difference for them where they order.

But it is only Norway, for all other countries it is a better deal to shop at the EU Store.

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Thank you for your answers, I will be shopping from the US then.

Just for your information, and to put some numbers to it:

There is no VAT or any other tax in Norway, importing small consumer products.

(Up to a limit ofc, but in this case it applies )

The transportation cost of a "iPad Service Kit - Tool Pouch" from europe is 23 USD,

but only 10 USD from the US. (Just chose a random product to check... )

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dontthinksono will be eternally grateful.