iDeal Wine

WINE TALK
1

Anyone have experience purchasing and shipping wines from iDeal? Looks like shipments would be coming from France and wondering how the tax/import fees are handled. Would UPS/FedEx simply tell me how much I need to pay and deliver them to my residence/storage?

2

I only have experience with this when dealing with DHL but typically they will pay the fees and then put a hold on your order. Then they will email you a bill which you have about 5 days to pay, as soon as you make payment the shipment will continue through their system on its way to you.

3

Thanks. Other than paying the fees, do I need to do anything else? I presume the carrier will deal with the customs and all that? And is there any monetary threshold that I need to be under?

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4

I bought around $900 of champagne recently, took them about 3 weeks after payment to get my order shipped but once released to Fedex I got it in a few days. Fedex subsequently sent me a bill for duties for around $60. The wine arrived in fine condition but the box was falling apart and had the box needed to travel any further, I fear the wine could have been damaged.

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5

Thank you for the info Zack! That’s really helpful. Did Fedex send you a bill via email later on? Curious how that step works. I presume you didn’t have to deal with any paperwork correct? Appreciate the help.

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6

Bill came via mail, no paperwork to deal with.

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7

Curious - how many bottles and what was total shipping charge including the $60 for duties?

8

Just checked the invoice, 8 bottles for a total of $1,019 (with fees), shipping charges of $134 and the Fedex bill was around $60.

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9

Thanks! Somewhat odd that they sent a paper bill. Wonder if there is a way to receive and pay the bill online?

10

You can pay the Fedex bill online but I don’t have an account with them so how would they know what email to send it to ?

11

I bought a bottle of vintage Armagnac from them recently. Same deal - I received a bill (around $40 if I recall) from Fedex in the mail several weeks after delivery. It took all of a few minutes to pay it online.

12

I have no idea of shipping to US, customs, duty etc. … but from idealwine France to Austria it worked fine several times … they hold purchases for a month for free to combine shipping … no customs within EC … packing is fine … and I paid 20 € for 12 bottles … recommended

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13

There was another thread about this:

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14

The shipper can provide FedEx with a recipient email address, which FedEx encourages for international. Some things with FedEx go through the mail regardless. At my work, we have a Fedex account and recently received a credit, which bizarrely came as a paper check in the mail.