This is a nonsense excuse, they could have switched to fedex whilst retaining local warehouses, they stopped doing local warehouses because it meant THEY were paying the import fees (as per the kickstarter agreement/rules) they stopped doing that because they felt like it, not because it precluded them from arranging alternative couriers
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The first batch shipped direct. After they started to switch ship methods many fellow canucks paid around $25 to $35 
(of which donāt recall any at that time requesting it be refunded as most were happy at least Backers). And as said they were trying to reduce possible fees as was outlined in thread here about legal ways to do so.
Just another mess. Kickstarter Faq said they were looking into shipping from local distribution points to avoid possible customs issues.
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Donāt try to minimize/twist what is written in the 8K KS FAQ: they donāt say they āwill look intoā, they said it was the plan to import large batches to EXISTING Pimax EU/US warehouses.
āWe CURRENTLY have warehouses in EU/USā
Only for other regions around the world (other than EU/US), where Pimax had no warehouse yet, Pimax was only āmaking people sureā they will find warehouses there too (= only promising Pimax āwill do their bestā to do that).
Escozul seems to live in Grece, this country is part of the EU. As other people from the EU he should have received all the KS rewards from a Pimax EU warehouse (as written in the KS FAQ) and not sent from China using Fedex with the backers being forced to pay the customs bill Pimax doesnāt want to pay anymoreā¦ (Pimax had paid it for thousands of HMDs, thatās an official statement written in this forum, and that was in line with the KS FAQ).
Heliosurge you are often trying to find excuses to Pimax. The fact some (many, it seems) backers have accepted to pay those customs fees is not making other people unlegitimate to NOT accept that.
Backers are legitimate to ask Pimax to respect what is written in the KS description.
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Shipping via a warehouse does not change the fee equation, you seem to be implying this is a method to avoid customs obligations which it isnāt. The goods are still subject to the same fees no matter what form of transportation or storage is utilized.
It does exactly what the team said which is to avoid issues with customs. Avoiding issues does not mean customs collects $0, it means the items pass through at once and you do gain consistency both in the applied value and the transport time.
Another thing I often see is some thing feeās are calculated based on the amount you paid for the item instead itās based on the actual value of the item. i.e. if you pay $1 for a diamond that is worth $10,000 - customs calcs will be not be based on $1.
It doesnāt minimize anything it is black & white with the included link to the thread on looking into legal ways to reduce/eliminate customs fees. I posted the exact pic on shipping.
There was no fee in the first batch shipped due to shipping method used. Pumcy had even warned that I would likely receive a bill later as he had with UPS was used with his m1 test unit. However I did not receive any extra charge.
Did pimax say later about doing something with import charges? Yes but quickly realized it was not do able and was not what was stated in the KS Faq.
@escozul may have something as he mentions receiving an email prior to pledging.
Yes but as @SweViver said in early days as pimax had said they were trying to cover these costs. And it was way too much to be able to keep doing so. Hence the Import coupons(were eventually stopped as well)
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I donāt remember an exchange like that but if it did occur he does not have any involvement with setting or even describing that sort of policy.
Okay will find it for you (later)as memories are often short. And to be fair I think it occurred prior to you joining the team.
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Pimax sold the stuff to Kickstarter pledgers at Kickstarter prices. Many wouldnāt have even considered e.g. an 8kX for $2000.
You can debate how much the 8kX is āworthā.
But afaik for customs it is about sales price to this particular customer. Not what e.g. some scalper might have extracted from a desperate or rich individual in an unrelated sale.
@Heliosurge I remember this post & there were probably other similar ones.
https://community.openmr.ai/t/whats-the-deal-with-taxes/24662/8
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This one kind of goes to that. But still need to do a deeper search. A bit harder as a few pimax accounts were scrubbed/anonymized. And of course some posts were later edited affecting search ability.
Formerly Dallas.
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There is a post where he mentioned pimax paid early VAT.
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I got the invoice from Fedex. As I said I first investigated as for me it sounded too high.
FedEx in Greece rents storage space and they charge for issuing the papers extra.
Itās a FedEx thing.
However, thatās the final charge.
Thatās why I said that if Pimax used their international locations for shipping they would undoubtedly have more consistent and lower costs. I could settle for an extra cost of 40-50$ if they tried that route. I would still say itās not the best solution, or even the fairest ā¦ but I even suggested that in a ticket and I was immediately dismissed.
THEY JUST DONT CARE!!!
Also, I was asking to get the comfort kit as well as the hand tracking IN THE SAME BOX weeks before they shipped. But they never even tried to make it work. They shipped the comfort kit and hand tracking separately a couple of days AFTER shipping the backer rewards.
To meā¦ they just donāt care. Since Iām paying for customs, they could ship each little accessory separately for all they careā¦ Whichever is easier for the employee. Doesnāt matter if I have like 10 emails asking them to make ONE LARGE SHIPMENT.
Bottom lineā¦ a company who doesnāt care for their international buyers should not have international buyers. They should not sell worldwide. They should only sell in China. And we should know about these things beforehand.
They indeed should have shipped in 1 package as they had for others. In theory I would be due at least a $10 
coupon that I paid to have HT shipped during KS(though in this case not concerned; however is principle).
There logistics process is a mess as @Ludiks paid express shipping(only clickable option) for 1 of 2 items. The other item was regular post. Of course took a long time to ship and was not express. The EU store is not even EU compliant as it seems still coming maybe from china as no VAT is charged. 
You seem to be missing the point here.
Itās not about trying to cheat anybody.
I was forced to pay the same amount + taxes and duty for an item that is availavble in Europe for the same price INCLUDING taxes and duty. That item is the Index base stations and controllers! They money I paid for it if you count the upgrade are about the same as it costs to get it from valve. Only if I got it from valve I wouldn;'t have to pay shiping, the VAT would be included and also the Customs.
When I asked Pimax to refund the 160$ from my original pledge to go and buy the index controllers from within the EU they refused. When they asked for 40$ to send the item within the EU I paid for it and thenā¦ they shipped it from shangai and that generated customs!
Talk about a screw over!!!
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Sweviver said pimax paid the vat originally but it was not a way to keep a sustainable business ieā¦ they stopped paying vat
Continuing the discussion from What's the deal with taxes?:
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Yep thatās the post. Pimax should have followed what they had said in the KS faq about trying. Imho the folks whom had real reason to be upset were the Korean Backers whom due to pimax not fulfilling Backers first caused them to have there Import duties calculated at retail price vs KS backed amount.
Donāt twist my words, I have never said anywhere customs should collect 0ā¬.
Iām saying Pimax importing to their EU warehouse(s) before shipping to individual backers means Pimax pays the customs fees (all at once, or at least for each individual imported batch) for importing the KS rewards to the EU.
Everybody living within EU knows he will not have to pay any customs when he buys something from (or just receive goods from) another country within the EU. For exemple in the EU we have Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Italy etc. and we can buy from any of those (who have different prices for the same item) without having to pay any customs fee because EU is a single market.
So when Pimax writes in the KS description Pimax will import large batches to the EU and only then ship to the backers from there, every backer living there understands he will not have to pay any customs fee.
This is the deal hundreds (maybe thousands) of backers living in the EU have signed for when they have decided to fund this project.
Shipping the rewards from within the EU was part of the deal, and it doesnāt requires high school studies to understand how this argument can have weighted in everyoneās decision to give their money to fund this Pimax KS versus a project where Pimax would have written the backers were responsible for paying customs fees.
The latter is even a case for which Kickstarter asks the project creators to make this clear in the description (= make clear backers will be responsible for paying customs fees), and as said just above it is easy to understand why Kickstarter makes this mandatory: because they want the backers to be aware of all the possible costs BEFORE taking their decision to fund a project.
Where is it written in the Pimax 8K KS description that the backers will have to pay customs fees ?
If it had been the case I wouldnāt have backed (as many other backers, most certainly). Because I would have then wondered if Pimax will be able to ship all those promised rewards at once (which was far from certainā¦), and then understood I could have to pay for customs fees several times, so the pledge price could be far from the final price and it could be significantly more expensive in the end after adding all the (unknown) fees.
That would have made the deal much less appealing (given the already existing risk of a pure failure) and then I would have just waited to see if I can buy this from amazon (or any other dealer within EU) once Pimax has shown they can make it real.
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Post# 82. However you also said you understand paying VAT so guessing somewhat separate from import fees. Pic with link to discussion on reducing custom/import fees legally.
Though it would be good if they shipped in 1 package vs many. Especially for those whom requested to wait fir complete package as they had foresight into per package extra fees and wanted the complete experience delivered vs pieces. Unfortunately pimax didnāt seem to remember to wait before shipping headsets out.
Many with KatVR Walk mini? Didnāt realize shipping and import was not included.
Well, actually they finally did both be express.
But I received them 3 weeks after my order.
And it was at least 10 days to be shipped.
So only had express the name.
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