LTT Backpack costs about +83% more to get into Sweden

[vladdeSV]

My backpack arrived in here in Sweden today, and boy did the total cost turn out to be a bit more than I expected. I thought I'd compile down all the costs so other swedes can know what to expect when ordering the backpack.

 

In total, I paid about US$457 (~4950 SEK) to have the backpack sent to Sweden (includes overseas shipping, taxes, and toll; about +83%).

 

I put down this info in a spreadsheet. If anyone of you have bought and received the backpack, it would be cool informative to put it down in the sheet and compare costs per country. Post your costs and I'll add it to the list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D1826kGD-UV1H7HY32noR0c80q8_1oh8izF7TYWmGR8/edit?usp=sharing

 

Breakdown of costs:

• $249.99 LTT Backpack
• $65.98 Shipping to Sweden
• $79 Tax
• -$20 Refund shenanigans. No idea why I got this.
• ~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by vladdeSV
Changed image to not be bonkers big

[DeltaBruggemann]

The sheet is view only at the moment but I’m happy to add my costs for Australia in.

• $249.99 LTT Backpack
• $14.99 LTT Notebook
• $69.98 Shipping
• $33.50 Taxes

Total was $368.46 USD

this was of course with the notebook which shipped as a separate order.

Shipping without the notepad should have been $49.99 and tax is just 10% so $30.00 for a grand total of $329.98 USD

[Spotty]

3 hours ago, vladdeSV said:

Breakdown of costs:

• $249.99 LTT Backpack
• $65.98 Shipping to Sweden
• $79 Tax
• -$20 Refund shenanigans. No idea why I got this.
• ~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

Did you also add a sticker pack to your order? There were some issues with early orders, which yours must be if you've received it, where the "free" sticker pack didn't process properly and got charged as a separate order meaning the free stickers weren't free. LTT partially refunded those orders with the stickers, which might be the $20 refund you received.

 

$161 of that seems to be your local import fees and taxes. Double check that the PostNord Toll you paid isn't just charging the same taxes that you already paid. There have been some reports of issues where people have paid tax and then when it was imported in to the country they were charged the sales tax again and had to prove that they already paid the tax to get it refunded.

[ZeroVelocity]

I ordered from the Netherlands, haven't received any of them yet but this is what I had to pay.

• Ltt backpack $249.99
• (Ltt screwdriver $69.99)
• Shipping $49.99 + ($17.99)
• Taxes $63.00 + ($18.48)

Total of $362.98 ($469.44 with screwdriver)

[Razercake]

5 hours ago, vladdeSV said:

Breakdown of costs:

• $249.99 LTT Backpack
• $65.98 Shipping to Sweden
• $79 Tax
• -$20 Refund shenanigans. No idea why I got this.
• ~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

Postnord is rough(I live in Denmark) their 20$ customs/toll handling fee is insane, you can owe 1$ for the toll & have to pay 21$ I cry every time I order something from outside EU 

[vladdeSV]

On 9/19/2022 at 6:44 PM, ZeroVelocity said:

I ordered from the Netherlands, haven't received any of them yet but this is what I had to pay.

• Ltt backpack $249.99
• (Ltt screwdriver $69.99)
• Shipping $49.99 + ($17.99)
• Taxes $63.00 + ($18.48)

Total of $362.98 ($469.44 with screwdriver)

Do you think you'll have to pay extra fees once it enters the country?

 

On 9/19/2022 at 6:28 PM, Spotty said:

Did you also add a sticker pack to your order? There were some issues with early orders, which yours must be if you've received it, where the "free" sticker pack didn't process properly and got charged as a separate order meaning the free stickers weren't free. LTT partially refunded those orders with the stickers, which might be the $20 refund you received.

 

$161 of that seems to be your local import fees and taxes. Double check that the PostNord Toll you paid isn't just charging the same taxes that you already paid. There have been some reports of issues where people have paid tax and then when it was imported in to the country they were charged the sales tax again and had to prove that they already paid the tax to get it refunded.

The stickers might be the culprit! I did get those.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll call up PostNord and double check 

 

On 9/19/2022 at 8:10 PM, Razercake said:

Postnord is rough(I live in Denmark) their 20$ customs/toll handling fee is insane, you can owe 1$ for the toll & have to pay 21$ I cry every time I order something from outside EU 

Agreed. AFAIK, the insane fee was put in place to country mass orders from sites like Wish.com. Because of the fee, people don't mass order from China anymore, but the fee still remains ;(

[ZeroVelocity]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:50 PM, vladdeSV said:

Do you think you'll have to pay extra fees once it enters the country?

Taxes should include import fees so no. I am not 100% certain though.

[DaveMath]

why not get an MOS blackpack for way less and way more features? 

 

prices on LTT are redonculous. I bought the mat to support them as it wasn't ridiculously overpriced, but no chance i buy their backpack or screwdriver.

 

[Vishera]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:52 PM, vladdeSV said:

~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

That's shady, there is no just reason to why you have to pay this "toll".

[AstroZombie1]

My bag just hit UK customs and has been held so we'll see if it goes through smoothly will update once it's in hand. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by AstroZombie1

[AstroZombie1]

So my backpack is now being held at the delivery depot awaiting an unknown amount in customs payments. 

 

Breakdown so far is:

 

Backpack $249.99

Shipping to UK: $65.98

Taxes (20%): $63.20

Sticker Snafu Refund - $19.19

Total: $359.98

 

Which as of today at least is around £322.50 with customs charges still to be paid. 

[Chiyawa]

$249 for a backpack? That's kinda expensive. But guess it's LTT branded backpack so I guess that's the appeal...

 

Anyway, yeah, shipping cost is quite horrendous, and that's not including tax and whatever fee they're going to charge. I remember buying a very hard to find battery for my camcorder and the price of the battery is about USD69, and imagine my surprise on the shipping and import tax fee. In short, the total cost is close to USD150! So yeah, buying something from overseas is difficult.

[Antonio Ruiz]

I tried to buy a backpack and a screwdriver to Spain. Basically I would end up paying double the price, which is crazy.

 

I guess we're not a very important market, but it'd be awesome if they got a distribution center for Europe... or, I don't know, maybe selling in Europe through Amazon at higher prices would still be cheaper than paying delivery + taxes + tolls 

[Neroon]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:25 AM, DaveMath said:

why not get an MOS blackpack for way less and way more features? 

 

prices on LTT are redonculous. I bought the mat to support them as it wasn't ridiculously overpriced, but no chance i buy their backpack or screwdriver.

 

It's not overpriced, it's expensive to make. Big difference.

[voyager_]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:25 PM, DaveMath said:

why not get an MOS blackpack for way less and way more features? 

 

prices on LTT are redonculous. I bought the mat to support them as it wasn't ridiculously overpriced, but no chance i buy their backpack or screwdriver.

 

The price really isn't that bad, I can't justify the back back at this point but that is only because I don't use them. My work gives us one but it has set in my desk since we got them. I have ordered my screwdriver though, the price seems reasonable for the quality. Project Farm and Jay gave it a positive review and the price is perfectly reasonable for a quality screwdriver. While I could easily get something cheaper and it won't replace my ifixit kit good tools cost money and often end up being cheaper long term. Cheap tools typically end up being disposable and don't hold up long term. Tools i only need once I may go harbor freight or an amazon special, others I would rather cry once and pay once. 

 

I haven't seen anything they sell that isn't a fair price. The water bottles are better than others that I have bought in the same price range (especially the larger ones) and shirts are cheaper than some sold by other creators and about the same as good plain shirts. 

[Timmyfox]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:52 PM, vladdeSV said:

• ~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

That seems really high. The toll rate for bags (including backpacks) appears to be 3.7% in Sweden which puts it around $11.

 

Here's the estimated breakdown from the calculator on Tullverket's (Swedish Customs Agency) website, not including the administration fee:

 

On 9/19/2022 at 8:54 PM, vladdeSV said:

Agreed. AFAIK, the insane fee was put in place to country mass orders from sites like Wish.com. Because of the fee, people don't mass order from China anymore, but the fee still remains ;(

Actually this is false. Every courier charges some sort of fee like this, the reasoning has changed slightly over time but typically the argument is that the fee covers them filing all the paperwork in your place to get it through customs faster, it's not at all anything new and predates wish.com by many many years. It's not even just Sweden, but many countries in Europe you'll get similar fees as well on import packages.

 

Honestly, unless it's changed in recent years, Postnord's fee is lower than that of couriers like DHL and UPS and before people was mass-ordering from China it used to be higher. What happened was that they changed the way the fee was applied, introducing a lower fee for low-cost packages (valued below iirc 1300 or 1400 SEK at the time—the limit should be higher now). Packages valued higher than that still get the higher fee, the backpack will but not the screwdriver. It's just that no one really talked about the admin fee before the whole wish craze started and then as they updated their handling procedure with an updated fee structure all the news started reporting on it as if the fee was a new thing.

 

Afaik it's even worse for Canadians getting stuff imported from the US as they have to be very careful because there can sometimes be some really high fees to get packages across the border depending on the courier. Although that might be outdated information as it's been several years since I heard about it (any Canadians feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

 

 

[Imbadatnames]

Tbh with the reports of them breaking and customer service being none existent I don’t see why anyone would buy one 

[AstroZombie1]

So I just got my letter for my import fee/customs to pay in the UK it was £68.46!

 

Definitely won't be doing this again that's a hard pill to swallow. 

 

Full Final Breakdown: (USD)

Backpack $249.99

Shipping to UK: $65.98

Taxes (20%): $63.20

UK Import Fees: $74.34

- $19.19 Sticker Snafu

Total: $434.32

[DeltaBruggemann]

26 minutes ago, AstroZombie1 said:

So I just got my letter for my import fee/customs to pay in the UK it was £68.46!

 

Definitely won't be doing this again that's a hard pill to swallow. 

 

Full Final Breakdown: (USD)

Backpack $249.99

Shipping to UK: $65.98

Taxes (20%): $63.20

UK Import Fees: $74.34

Total: $453.51

I’m assuming that your order contained extra items? Shipping for the backpack was capped at $49.99 USD

[AstroZombie1]

10 minutes ago, DeltaBruggemann said:

I’m assuming that your order contained extra items? Shipping for the backpack was capped at $49.99 USD

Yes sticker snafu amended the total. 

[liquidbase]

Currently breakdown of costs:

• SUBTOTAL: $249.99 USD
• SHIPPING (14 - 28 Day Delivery): $55.98 USD
• TAX (Standard 19.0%): $58.14 USD
• TOTAL: $364.11 USD

The listing is directly from the store. So far, the backpack has not yet been shipped which should happen only to 10.10.2022. 
The backpack will be shipped to Germany and it will then be seen whether the German customs will charge extra fees.

 

Currently, the dollar figures can still be converted 1:1 into euros.
As soon as the backpack has arrived I can say more whether additional taxes have been incurred or not.

[Antonio Ruiz]

One (crazy) workaround could be if someone from the US or Canada visits your country, and they would agree to buy the merchandise on your behalf and send it to you locally. I would gladly pay them extra to compensate their time and generosity, instead of paying it to delivery agencies and random country tolls 

[Just that Mario]

On 9/21/2022 at 2:05 AM, Vishera said:

That's shady, there is no just reason to why you have to pay this "toll".

It's not shady and it is legit. All goods imported into EU market must pay VAT and import fees depending on the total cost and type of product. You can find more information from https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/buying-goods-online-coming-non-european-union-country_en and similar websites.

If anyone bought the backpack and paid VAT at checkout and then paid VAT again locally, you're eligible for VAT refund from LTT.


I don't get OP's point. Did he just make this post to flex about how much he paid for the backpack or what? It's known that transport and import will be expensive. OP had no issues to pay the original ridiculous 250 bucks, didn't even check if he paid the VAT twice, didn't bother to run rough total cost estimates before ordering. A grown man decided to buy an expensive product from other side of the world and then wanted to complain on forums that it is expensive?

 

On 9/25/2022 at 1:22 PM, liquidbase said:

Currently breakdown of costs:

• SUBTOTAL: $249.99 USD
• SHIPPING (14 - 28 Day Delivery): $55.98 USD
• TAX (Standard 19.0%): $58.14 USD
• TOTAL: $364.11 USD

The listing is directly from the store. So far, the backpack has not yet been shipped which should happen only to 10.10.2022. 
The backpack will be shipped to Germany and it will then be seen whether the German customs will charge extra fees.

 

Currently, the dollar figures can still be converted 1:1 into euros.
As soon as the backpack has arrived I can say more whether additional taxes have been incurred or not.

 

19% being the VAT? The 249.99 is pre-tax?

 

On 9/24/2022 at 3:37 AM, Timmyfox said:

That seems really high. The toll rate for bags (including backpacks) appears to be 3.7% in Sweden which puts it around $11.

 

Here's the estimated breakdown from the calculator on Tullverket's (Swedish Customs Agency) website, not including the administration fee:

 

Actually this is false. Every courier charges some sort of fee like this, the reasoning has changed slightly over time but typically the argument is that the fee covers them filing all the paperwork in your place to get it through customs faster, it's not at all anything new and predates wish.com by many many years. It's not even just Sweden, but many countries in Europe you'll get similar fees as well on import packages.

 

Honestly, unless it's changed in recent years, Postnord's fee is lower than that of couriers like DHL and UPS and before people was mass-ordering from China it used to be higher. What happened was that they changed the way the fee was applied, introducing a lower fee for low-cost packages (valued below iirc 1300 or 1400 SEK at the time—the limit should be higher now). Packages valued higher than that still get the higher fee, the backpack will but not the screwdriver. It's just that no one really talked about the admin fee before the whole wish craze started and then as they updated their handling procedure with an updated fee structure all the news started reporting on it as if the fee was a new thing.

 

Afaik it's even worse for Canadians getting stuff imported from the US as they have to be very careful because there can sometimes be some really high fees to get packages across the border depending on the courier. Although that might be outdated information as it's been several years since I heard about it (any Canadians feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

 

 

The 82 is probably the VAT, which was double charged as LTT has IOSS issues. The import fee taxes (VAT, customs) are EU global thing and it indeed was adjusted to combat people buying from outside of EU. EU wasn't gaining any income from goods bought from outside the market.

[Vishera]

7 minutes ago, Just that Mario said:

It's not shady and it is legit. All goods imported into EU market must pay VAT and import fees depending on the total cost and type of product. You can find more information from https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/buying-goods-online-coming-non-european-union-country_en and similar websites.

If anyone bought the backpack and paid VAT at checkout and then paid VAT again locally, you're eligible for VAT refund from LTT.


I don't get OP's point. Did he just make this post to flex about how much he paid for the backpack or what? It's known that transport and import will be expensive. OP had no issues to pay the original ridiculous 250 bucks, didn't even check if he paid the VAT twice, didn't bother to run rough total cost estimates before ordering. A grown man decided to buy an expensive product from other side of the world and then wanted to complain on forums that it is expensive?

The "toll fee" is not VAT, OP already paid for VAT and shipping so that $82 "toll fee" is shady.

[Omni-Owl]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:52 PM, vladdeSV said:

My backpack arrived in here in Sweden today, and boy did the total cost turn out to be a bit more than I expected. I thought I'd compile down all the costs so other swedes can know what to expect when ordering the backpack.

 

In total, I paid about US$457 (~4950 SEK) to have the backpack sent to Sweden (includes overseas shipping, taxes, and toll; about +83%).

 

I put down this info in a spreadsheet. If anyone of you have bought and received the backpack, it would be cool informative to put it down in the sheet and compare costs per country. Post your costs and I'll add it to the list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D1826kGD-UV1H7HY32noR0c80q8_1oh8izF7TYWmGR8/edit?usp=sharing

 

Breakdown of costs:

• $249.99 LTT Backpack
• $65.98 Shipping to Sweden
• $79 Tax
• -$20 Refund shenanigans. No idea why I got this.
• ~$82 Toll (PostNord, SEK 980)

 

Ah, a damn swede! (<3)

I'm from Denmark and we can at least come together in hating PostNord (or PostLort as we tend to call them here some times).

 

I haven't received my backpack yet. Though I haven't even received a mail about it being sent, despite being in First Wave yet, so I guess we'll see when it arrives