As per forum rules, no suppliers, vendors, sellers, or websites will be named in this topic. Since the vendor in question recently stopped selling, I also cannot help you via PM with that. The goal of this topic is to explain my experiences exporting SN legally from the US to Europe. With legally I mean following regulations, honest customs declarations and not breaking any laws.
I do have SN from a European source and while I don't doubt the quality of that is good (based on reports on this forum), it would ease my mind having a reliable, US product. I wanted to try to get this product at home. As most people know, there are no shipping options to Europe, but I've done a few attempts to get it here anyway. The product I've ordered comes from that a very well-known site and as I just said they recently stopped selling, I think many people know which product I'm talking about ;-)
Reshipping service
My first attempt was through a reshipping service. This was a bad experience. For those who are not aware, with a reshipping service you get a US address you can use when there is no shipping option available to your country. You use this address to order, and once it arrives they will ship it to your country.
However, all of these services refuse to ship chemicals. When the product arrived at their warehouse, I was offered several payment options, ranging from $30 to $100, for shipping. I chose one of the cheapest one and about 15 minutes after payment, they sent me a message they cannot ship this product because it's a chemical and included a photo of it as proof. Turns out they open all packages to check what's inside. When I asked for a refund because I paid for shipping which they refuse to do, I was told that is not possible and I should have read the terms and conditions. After a discussion and threatening them with a chargeback, they refunded me anyway.
I have seen people on this forum claiming they managed to get it shipped to Europe using such reshipping service. I guess it might be a matter of luck.
Conclusion: Be careful with these services! They let me pay expensive shipping, right after that they told me they couldn't ship it and could not refund me. Since they charged up to $100 for the shipping, it's an easy way for them to get money.
Marketplaces
By lack of a better word, there are many websites on the internet that basically buy products on other websites and sell it to you for inflated prices. I did try to use one, but an hour after ordering I received a message they could not ship the product as it's a chemical. They refunded me immediately.
So why can these websites not ship SN to Europe? Well, first I thought it was just illegal to export SN from the US, but that's not the case at all. It's 100% legal to do so. However, since it's a chemical, there are strict regulations for air transport and the seller needs a special license from the courier, which they probably don't have.
Another user gave me a tip: a similar website, which I will not name here as per forum rules, actually used it to successfully purchase SN from the US and ship it to Europe. I decided to order from that website and yes, they accepted my order. It took a few days before the product arrived at their warehouse (as I explained, they just buy if from other websites for you) and after a few days, they started the shipping using DHL. To be clear, for an unknown reason they do not seem to ship to every EU country.
Customs
When it arrived, according to the tracking, at the US airport, it went wrong. My parcel was suddenly "on hold". I called DHL and there was an issue with "dangerous goods" which needed furher investigation by another department and they needed to contact their US co-workers. Luckily, I was given the phone number of that department and they were really helpful.
They explained to me the parcel was stuck at customs. It wasn't being seized, exporting SN was not an issue at all, but there was an issue with the paperwork. It was either missing, filled in wrongly or the seller did not have a licence from DHL to ship chemicals. I thought I was screwed and asked what would happen is the seller didn't have that licence. The package wouldn't be seized by customs in that case, but would just be returned to the seller.
After a few days of calling DHL and the customer service of that website, my package was suddenly processed. I still don't know what was wrong, the DHL employee couldn't see it in the system, but apparently they fixed the issue, whatever it was. The next day, it arrived in the EU, where it got stuck at customs for another day. The next day, it was processed and yes, a few hours later it got delivered at home.
Since all legal procedures had been followed, it arrived in a big box (a bottle of 100g SN is very small) full of warning labels. The product name was listed at several places and the paperwork was attached to the box. I have attached a few photo's of the packaging and paperwork, with sensitive information removed.
Note 1: As you can see, it mentions "nitrate" instead of "nitrite" everywhere. I think they just don't know the difference, but what I've ordered is really "nitrite".
Note 2: That company name on the box just sells boxes. It has nothing to do with the vendor or seller.
This big box was full of paper to protect the product and yes, in the middle of it was that small bottle of SN.
Conclusion: It is possible to buy SN in the EU from the US. However, it's absolutely not discrete, quite expensive and strict regulations need to to be followed. It's quite a lot of work figuring out how to actually get it shipped, but it is possible.
Advantages:
- Since these products are manufactured in the US, you can be 100% sure about it's reliability
- It's 100% legal (*)
- When it is not possible to buy SN in the EU (at this time it still is, but it might change some day), this could be a good alternative for EU citizens to buy SN.
*: it's legal to export from the US, but you need to check if it is legal to import in your country as well. I know there are a lot of UK people on this forum. I have no idea whether UK customs would also allow this. The product name was written several times on the package and these papers with product details are attached to the box, so customs will immediately see what you're importing.
Disadvantages:
- It's hard to find a seller who holds such licence and is willing to ship to the EU
- It's way more expensive. The charge was about $60. Ofcourse, this is because next to the product, you also pay administrative fees, express shipping and customs charges. I think I was charged extra for the paperwork needed for customs
- It's not discrete at all, as you can see
I hope this information helps out some users. Again, the vendor recently stopped selling SN, but there surely will be other vendors to buy from, at least at this moment, if you do enough research. Right now, I do not believe it's the best way to get SN for EU citizens as there are cheaper options within the EU available, but availability can always change, so it might be helpful in the future, or it might be helpful for people like me who eases their mind knowing the product is manufactured in the US.
I do have SN from a European source and while I don't doubt the quality of that is good (based on reports on this forum), it would ease my mind having a reliable, US product. I wanted to try to get this product at home. As most people know, there are no shipping options to Europe, but I've done a few attempts to get it here anyway. The product I've ordered comes from that a very well-known site and as I just said they recently stopped selling, I think many people know which product I'm talking about ;-)
Reshipping service
My first attempt was through a reshipping service. This was a bad experience. For those who are not aware, with a reshipping service you get a US address you can use when there is no shipping option available to your country. You use this address to order, and once it arrives they will ship it to your country.
However, all of these services refuse to ship chemicals. When the product arrived at their warehouse, I was offered several payment options, ranging from $30 to $100, for shipping. I chose one of the cheapest one and about 15 minutes after payment, they sent me a message they cannot ship this product because it's a chemical and included a photo of it as proof. Turns out they open all packages to check what's inside. When I asked for a refund because I paid for shipping which they refuse to do, I was told that is not possible and I should have read the terms and conditions. After a discussion and threatening them with a chargeback, they refunded me anyway.
I have seen people on this forum claiming they managed to get it shipped to Europe using such reshipping service. I guess it might be a matter of luck.
Conclusion: Be careful with these services! They let me pay expensive shipping, right after that they told me they couldn't ship it and could not refund me. Since they charged up to $100 for the shipping, it's an easy way for them to get money.
Marketplaces
By lack of a better word, there are many websites on the internet that basically buy products on other websites and sell it to you for inflated prices. I did try to use one, but an hour after ordering I received a message they could not ship the product as it's a chemical. They refunded me immediately.
So why can these websites not ship SN to Europe? Well, first I thought it was just illegal to export SN from the US, but that's not the case at all. It's 100% legal to do so. However, since it's a chemical, there are strict regulations for air transport and the seller needs a special license from the courier, which they probably don't have.
Another user gave me a tip: a similar website, which I will not name here as per forum rules, actually used it to successfully purchase SN from the US and ship it to Europe. I decided to order from that website and yes, they accepted my order. It took a few days before the product arrived at their warehouse (as I explained, they just buy if from other websites for you) and after a few days, they started the shipping using DHL. To be clear, for an unknown reason they do not seem to ship to every EU country.
Customs
When it arrived, according to the tracking, at the US airport, it went wrong. My parcel was suddenly "on hold". I called DHL and there was an issue with "dangerous goods" which needed furher investigation by another department and they needed to contact their US co-workers. Luckily, I was given the phone number of that department and they were really helpful.
They explained to me the parcel was stuck at customs. It wasn't being seized, exporting SN was not an issue at all, but there was an issue with the paperwork. It was either missing, filled in wrongly or the seller did not have a licence from DHL to ship chemicals. I thought I was screwed and asked what would happen is the seller didn't have that licence. The package wouldn't be seized by customs in that case, but would just be returned to the seller.
After a few days of calling DHL and the customer service of that website, my package was suddenly processed. I still don't know what was wrong, the DHL employee couldn't see it in the system, but apparently they fixed the issue, whatever it was. The next day, it arrived in the EU, where it got stuck at customs for another day. The next day, it was processed and yes, a few hours later it got delivered at home.
Since all legal procedures had been followed, it arrived in a big box (a bottle of 100g SN is very small) full of warning labels. The product name was listed at several places and the paperwork was attached to the box. I have attached a few photo's of the packaging and paperwork, with sensitive information removed.
Note 1: As you can see, it mentions "nitrate" instead of "nitrite" everywhere. I think they just don't know the difference, but what I've ordered is really "nitrite".
Note 2: That company name on the box just sells boxes. It has nothing to do with the vendor or seller.
This big box was full of paper to protect the product and yes, in the middle of it was that small bottle of SN.
Conclusion: It is possible to buy SN in the EU from the US. However, it's absolutely not discrete, quite expensive and strict regulations need to to be followed. It's quite a lot of work figuring out how to actually get it shipped, but it is possible.
Advantages:
- Since these products are manufactured in the US, you can be 100% sure about it's reliability
- It's 100% legal (*)
- When it is not possible to buy SN in the EU (at this time it still is, but it might change some day), this could be a good alternative for EU citizens to buy SN.
*: it's legal to export from the US, but you need to check if it is legal to import in your country as well. I know there are a lot of UK people on this forum. I have no idea whether UK customs would also allow this. The product name was written several times on the package and these papers with product details are attached to the box, so customs will immediately see what you're importing.
Disadvantages:
- It's hard to find a seller who holds such licence and is willing to ship to the EU
- It's way more expensive. The charge was about $60. Ofcourse, this is because next to the product, you also pay administrative fees, express shipping and customs charges. I think I was charged extra for the paperwork needed for customs
- It's not discrete at all, as you can see
I hope this information helps out some users. Again, the vendor recently stopped selling SN, but there surely will be other vendors to buy from, at least at this moment, if you do enough research. Right now, I do not believe it's the best way to get SN for EU citizens as there are cheaper options within the EU available, but availability can always change, so it might be helpful in the future, or it might be helpful for people like me who eases their mind knowing the product is manufactured in the US.
Attachments
Last edited:
