Delivery times/extra charges for South Africa?

#1

For any South African Huelers out there…

can anyone share the typical delivery time they see? As in – if you place an order from the UK for processing on a Monday, do you usually receive the package that week? Or early the next week? Or later?

And, do you have extra fees to pay for the delivery? Import / customs / anything else, because you are importing food worth more than the “gift” limit?

For example, if you order Huel plus delivery of GBP 100, does that arrive at your door with a request for ZAR 1000? Or just with a smile?

Obviously, mileage will vary, and maybe sometimes there are charges and sometimes there are not; the FAQ correctly punts on it; but if there are “sample” or “typical” times/rates, it’d be nice to know what to expect.

Thanks

#2

Not from SA but will share my experience of getting delivered to Malasysia – the customs people here are ‘special’ to put it mildly. If I order powdered food, it usually does not attract any duty although it confuses the hell out of them. RTD drinks on the other hand do get duty here and that levy depends on the prevailing mood of the customs officer on the day. Its ranged from 9% to 120% for the same delivery and changes every month.

I find that if my deliveries are despatched from Fengate on a Monday they usually arrive at the local DHL depot by the Wednesday evening then spend 2 days (powders) in customs or 5 days (RTD) while they decide what duty they will use that day. Obviously, the delivery schedules also depends on the routing hubs of the courier – Malaysian deliveries are serviced by DHL who are flaky at the best of times.

#3

Thanks for that info. It sounds like it’s a lovely lottery to see how much this delivery will end up costing you! And the randomness makes it hard to know whether customs is nominally due on “goods price” or “goods+delivery price”.

In case it is interesting to anyone else – in Ireland, if I order for Monday I will (typically) have it in my hands on Thursday, with no extra “handling fees” introduced.

Cheers,

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#4

Good luck - if you decide to go for it, let us know how it goes. I am a Saffer living in the USA, BTW, but I have some family and friends in Joburg that may want to try Huel sometime soon.

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#5

Did you get a resolution here? I’d love to order and made contact with Huel today but I’m a little worried about the current climate and the general useless nature of our customs :smiley:

#6

Im not sure if the people at Huel would know the current customs/excise situation in SA. Since this thread started, the International deliveries are now being serviced by FedEx - so perhaps you might get a clearer answer contacting your local FedEx office to ask them on the current tariffs for food imports and the limits set for ‘personal use’

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#7

Hey I’m also interested in an order to CT, did you manage to do it?
I’m thinking it might be easier to just go to England for it! (When COVID allows, of course…)

#8

I did manage! It was really quick actually - think it took about a week in total. YMMV but it seems pretty simple to manage.

I still have enough for a month or so and then it’s on for the next one!

#9

Thanks… May I ask how it was with customs? Only part I’m worried about… !

#10

It was pretty simple - Fedex contacted me and asked for my ID number (or importers code), sent me an invoice and it was done.

So the total cost for me was:
85 GBP (1 x Chocolate, 1 x Vanilla) (50 GBP cost, 35 GBP delivery :expressionless:) (1892.64 ZAR)
Fedex Charges:

  1. Customs VAT: 292.05 ZAR
  2. Customs Duty: 295.85 ZAR
  3. ROD Fee (?): 150.00 ZAR
  4. Clearing Charges: 198.29 ZAR
    Total: 936.19 ZAR

So the total to bring 2 bags into the country was 2828,83 ZAR - obviously, a big chunk of that is the customs charges and the delivery. Maybe we should set up a SA bulk shipping thing. Can just courier it internally.

#11

Blimey. Those are some expensive meals, hope you enjoy them. :slight_smile:

#12

Holy shit.
I’ve just placed an order for 16 bags, it comes to 418. (I had a 10% NHS voucher)
I’ve actually contacted them (Huel) about a bigger order, because 16 bags of black is 24.48 kg in shipping, which means theres room for three more bags but they wouldnt sell it to me.
Now I have to order my H&S seperately, 16 bags.
I’ve also tried to see if they’d like a local distributor, but no luck. Oh well!

#13

Welcome to the wonderful world of being soooooooo far away from everything

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#14

Next time I go to England I’m just going to bring it in myself!

#15

So 2025 at this rate?

#16

So extrapolating, that should be:
~ 8652.04 ZAR order total

So:

  1. Customs VAT: 1297.80
  2. Customs Duty: 1349.71
  3. ROD Fee: 150
  4. Clearing Charges: 198.29
    Total: 2995.8
    Grandish total of: 11647.80 for 16 bags?
#17

since the changes in rates here, I basically pay 25% of the total commercial value plus shipping in duty and taxes plus Fedex’s ‘handling’ fees (total license to print money as the Fedex CSR’s here are barely functional and you end up spoon feeding their job to them) but I have found oddly that the duty and tax doesn’t necessarily increase proportionally with the amount of bags I buy. You should be careful about very large orders though, when the customs may start questioning if its actually for personal use.

#18

Ergh… yup…

I will update you here when it arrives with what the final costs are and if I proceed with my H&S order (or not).

#19

Hey! I have a follow up if you dont mind…
My order was split into two packages. One was held at customs for a week, just released. the other is due to arrive today.
I havent received any invoice for customs… do you know when this is due to come through? Do I pay on delivery or did I get lucky and theres no fee?
I ask because my wife is going to be receiving the order not me, and I just want to make sure that it’s all organised for her…

#20

Well that sounds amazing - usually, they invoice you before they even start to process it at customs. So you may end up not paying for it sounds like :slight_smile:

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