Hi,
I have not found a really recent topic on this and have a few additional topics that weren’t answered in other topics about importing/buying from abroad. Have been looking into ordering an X-carve from the Netherlands.
There seem to be 2 ways commonly taken;
- Buying directly from inventables
- Buying from Robosavvy in the UK
I found a few people suggesting the second route is about the same priced as the first given all additional cost in the first method.
When I tried ordering online from inventables most parts were shipped seperately thereby increasing shipping cost to a whopping $400+ dollars. Aside from this import duties may apply.
I saw a page for a past promotion of Inventables where free worldwide shipping was included as well as a $100 discount. If this was the case, I suspect the machine was not send in multiple shipments but in one. Does anyone know why it is send separately?
Could you perhaps give some advice as to how to order the machine in Europe cheaper (or at reasonable premium)?
Thank you!
if you’re in Europe, don’t buy from the US. That’s the best advice I can give you. I’m sorry to say this as I rather support the original developers, but the risk is just not worth taking. Import duties happen at random and can easily exceed part cost. Large and expensive packages get checked most of the time because of higher commission percentage.
That’s why I order from within the EU or china. I understand that this is not helping either western economy, but the risk and price difference are just too grand to ignore
I wouldn’t think it would make much difference to Inventables. Obviously, Robosavvy is set up as a European distributor for their products. My guess is specifically to help lower shipping cost through volume. But whether Robosavvy passes that savings along is up to them. Either way it seems Inventables makes a sale.
Hi,
in case it’s useful … I got my xc 1000 via robbosavvy which worked out well for me.
They took care of importing the machine, they do a batch at a time, to the uk.
It arrived at my house in two deliveries, which saved having to wait around.
It was reassuring to have a local contact in case anything went wrong, and they were really helpful when I had a couple of questions during construction.
As far as cost goes, once you add the delivery charges from the US onto the inventable machine price the robbosavvy price seemed close enough for me given that they were taking care of any hassle.
good luck
Antoinette
I meant in general. 
I buy almost everything in china nowadays.
i got my x-carve when they had free shipping and 100$ discount. it still came in 3 parcels… and i got charged 3 sets of import duty’s and fees etc by ups 
i was very disappointed by that. i think i would of saved about 140 euro if it had all came in one parcel or at the same time at least… i think it all works out about the same cost in the end if you get it from inventables or robbosavvy… but at last with robbosavvy you will know the final cost is…
If there is no charge for shipping and of course 100$ discount. Then you have great job. Congrats!
Too bad the wait time is very long. I ordered the X-carve at Robosavvy 15th of february. There is not any sign it will be here soon. They expect it in the UK somewhere in the end of march. Why does this take so long?
i think maybe it depends on how many orders they have and when the shipments from the states arrive. mine took about 4 weeks.
have you contacted them?
When we did the free world wide shipping we shipped in all separate boxes. It’s not due to availability but more due to getting it through the UPS system. UPS has been very hard on our boxes so we were forced to put them in separate boxes to prevent having a significant number of X-Carves destroyed in transit.
We are looking into alternative box solutions right now. We have also shipped on pallets for folks upon request.
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Hope you have better luck collecting on damage then i do. I always get the run around that i did not add enough packing. It never seems to be there fault.
We put the boxes through the UPS testing and got them ISTA -3A certified. Since we did that in advance they are more likely to reimburse but it is a big process.
Here’s a video showing the test they do:
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Nice. Mine would pass all of the test but when they end up with big gouges and big cuts right thru everything into wood there is more to it then that.
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maybe be better if they just didn’t drop them?
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We had a box come back with a softball sized hole in it. One of the guys in our warehouse thinks they drove a fork lift into it.
The other reason we have so many boxes is weight. When we loaded up a single box it gets heavy and even when we pay extra for a two person lift they seem to ignore that despite taking our money. One poor driver is in a position where the box is too heavy, they are on their own, and the box gets abused in transit.
All that being said we are looking at some other options.
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I undewrstand. I ship stuff that weighs from 15 pounds to 70 pounds and the light weigh stuff ussually gets there in good shape but the heavier stuff gets there unharmed about 70% of the time. Then when you turn a claim in it is always my fault because it was not packaged correctly. Never because they backed over it with a truck. I would love to put a camera in a package and just see how they are handled.
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