Yet another Epic Pine Store fail
01-28-2021, 02:58 AM
Most countries, including Mexico, calculate import duty/tax upon CIF value which includes shipping. But many countries have a threshold on imported goods under which no fees are applied. That threshold varies a lot from country to country and from fee to fee and is often based on FOB value (shipping exclueded) as is the case in Mexico. In Mexico apparently you don't have to pay VAT if the FOB value doesn't exceed US$50.
So yeah, Pine64 should have probably declared product value und shipping costs separately (I don't know how that actually works), but this whole thing is a bureaucratic jungle and I strongly believe there is no intended harm done here. I'm sure Pine64 can be convinced by the facts that this was an honest mistake which should be sorted out for the benefit of this case and themselves for the future shipping process. I generally believe a company that ships internationally should have this kind of thing sorted out, but as has been pointed out before, Pine64 really makes the impression of trying to make good things available to a community in a very affordable way where other companies probably wouldn't step in because it's not a viable business model. Having everything sorted out perfectly costs money, a lot probably, and for what Pine64 is doing I'm gladly willing to accept the rough edges (which I hope can be smoothened out by direct communication–this seems to be possible here at least to some degree, considering @tllim and others are taking part here). Of course this cannot be put in a contract or anything and it is your right as a customer to have delivered what you paid for, but being open to accepting some inconveniences and having some patience for a more humanitarian take and some greater goals would make so many things so much better (generally speaking). So i'm very happy to see this community is trying to achieve more and willing to help out in so many ways!
So yeah, Pine64 should have probably declared product value und shipping costs separately (I don't know how that actually works), but this whole thing is a bureaucratic jungle and I strongly believe there is no intended harm done here. I'm sure Pine64 can be convinced by the facts that this was an honest mistake which should be sorted out for the benefit of this case and themselves for the future shipping process. I generally believe a company that ships internationally should have this kind of thing sorted out, but as has been pointed out before, Pine64 really makes the impression of trying to make good things available to a community in a very affordable way where other companies probably wouldn't step in because it's not a viable business model. Having everything sorted out perfectly costs money, a lot probably, and for what Pine64 is doing I'm gladly willing to accept the rough edges (which I hope can be smoothened out by direct communication–this seems to be possible here at least to some degree, considering @tllim and others are taking part here). Of course this cannot be put in a contract or anything and it is your right as a customer to have delivered what you paid for, but being open to accepting some inconveniences and having some patience for a more humanitarian take and some greater goals would make so many things so much better (generally speaking). So i'm very happy to see this community is trying to achieve more and willing to help out in so many ways!
