I just got contacted by the support, they provided the feedback that my Basestations and Index controllers are not shipped yet and they only can start to ship from Hongkong if I take over 50% of the shipping costs with UPS to Germany which is 35$.
I’m eagerly waiting for the stuff so I’m tempted to just pay it but I like to ask if anybody paid shipping costs for plan F additional to the 179$ upgrade? As far as I understand the Kickstarter price included the shipping?
As a maybe more important followup question, do we now have to pay customs for it as well? I thought Pimax is currently dealing with the customs to finalise the shipping to a EU based Amazon warehouse in Marseille?
My HMD got here without extra expenses due to having been mass freighted into EU with a bunch of others to a German warehouse (i think) and then separately shipped from there to my door in Sweden.
I had to pay customs for my replacement cable as it was sent directly from china.
I thought that the basestations and controllers were shipped from the US, where they were tested and repackaged, and that this whole ordeal was (partly) a justification for the 179 USD “fee”.
The 179 USD was for the cost of the index controllers (compared to the Sword ones) - the basestations were the same as originally promised - i.e. already from valve.
I don’t remember seeing anything about them being tested and repackaged in the US. It was just that they were being delivered to US customers first.
They kept posting up dates they were going to ship by, and then kept delaying that date, the reason for the delays they gave was that they had received bulk packaging and so they were going to test and repack every item before shipping them to customers. Now people are getting DOA items, so obviously they weren’t testing every item and it was just another excuse in the long list of excuses Pimax have used for never achieving any date they set themselves. I don’t think they specifically said this was being done in the US though, no.
I got the same 35 shipping also. And i too, thoght to have paid for shipping at the KS campaign.
Hopefully, if the promised stretch goals will be ready sometime, we do not get charged again on those deliveries
Ok thanks for your replies , it looks like I will pay the 35$ then to finally receive the BS and Controllers. Luckily I just received credit codes for the not available 10m cable, so at least I not have to invest new money… . I will ask them regarding the customs value to not get another bad surprise.
There are three reasons we shouldn’t have to pay any extra shipping for these items
We already paid for shipping with the kickstarter - we just swapped the type of controller - there is nothing in addition
If extra shipping was required it should have been included in the Checkout - it was explicitly set to $0. i.e. shipping is included in the price Otherwise we have been misled.
By switching to the index controllers we are actually SAVING Pimax the cost of one shipment. i.e. basestations and controllers can be sent together. If we stuck with the Pimax controllers there would be two sets of shipping for them to pay - one for the basestations (now) and one for the sword sense controllers in 2023 ish.
This is the previous statement I got 13 days ago, which sounded more reasonable for our situation:
Before the Spring Festival, we prepared a large number of bundles to be sent to Europe. However, the 7-day holiday of Spring Festival was the first delay reason, but the main delay reason after the Spring festival was coronavirus, all companies are not allowed to start work before February 10th. the controller and base station which we already prepared will be sent to Marseille, France on February 12th, it will take 5-7 days on the road. Once it reaches our processing center in Marseille, We will send it to you immediately.
We apologize for this long delay and beg your understanding.
If also customs will be applied it slowly develops into a dealbreaker compared to buy directly from Valve…
So maybe we can have an official statement regarding the additional shipping costs and possible customs costs from @PimaxQuorra@PimaxUSA or @SweViver ?
Indeed, if there are even more costs to it, to replace the sense controllers for Valve ones for 179 plus shipping, i will definitly cancel this order and buy from Valve with all the benifits in doing so.
I paid enough for thin air so far.
Same here. I allready paid 35 USD additional shipping costs and now Pimax said it isn’t enough, because the shipping costs are around 60 USD to germany. Also the even lie to me…
On the 6th of january they told me, the Controllers and Basestations are allready on its way to Amazon EU-Warehouse and now 6 weeks later the said they are available to ship next days. I can‘t believe how many mistakes are done from Pimax. Is it possible that this concern will do their job finally???
if you stick with pimax controllers then theres no more shipping to be paid.
Plan F is 179 + shipping (I’m guessing thats the extra fee for handling valve -> pimax)
I have read many times here people who have had Customs tax reimbursed by Pimax after contacting the customer service.
Do you mean Pimax policy has changed and buyers must now be prepared to support Customs taxes ? Even if such customs tax was applied to a free backer stretch goal for example ?
For Europe don’t you use warehouse(s) within Europe (Marseille ? Poland ?) to avoid any customs tax to the final receiver of the package ? (backers/orders)
Also what about replacement after a RMA ? I was told buy Pimax customer service I should send back the faulty HMD to Pimax to a French address, but then the replacement could be sent from China if there was no stock at the French warehouse. Does this mean Customs tax should be expected when the replacement HMD arrives (if sent from China), and Pimax wouldn’t reimburse this customs tax anymore (contrary to what they did before) ?
, it looks like I will pay the 35$ then to finally receive the BS and Controllers. Luckily I just received credit codes for the not available 10m cable, so at least I not have to invest new money… 
. I will ask them regarding the customs value to not get another bad surprise.