UK Postage hit

[Wavetop]

I had ordered another game product from a different company in the US a few weeks ago and it arrived as a similar small packet, post paid in the US, with no extra charge. The only difference that I could see was the Customs Declaration on the first packet gave the contents value as $10 (slight understatement). Perhaps it was the higher declared value of the KE/Shrapnel product which attracted attention. What hurt most was that the additional handling charge resulted in me having to go to the post office to reclaim the packet, the only thing they handled was my money.

I also could not see a 'purchase by download' option in the online shop, although the download had been announced. This is not a complaint as I was happy to go for the boxed version, the above was just a little added surprise.

[Straha]

I used to order cds, DVDs, books etc from outside the European Union for many many years without problems - until suddenly things began to happen like Wavetop described above. In Germany, in addition to making you pick up your stuff at customs and let you pay a percentage of (value of item PLUS shipping cost) they always open your package, go through your things and treat you like a borderline-criminal. At least this is what they do at my "local" customs office (which is located about 25 miles away). That's why I eventually stopped ordering things outside the European Union completely. However, I now make happy use of buying *downloads* - I hope this will not be made illegal or monitored by customs one day too.