Brexit Bonus

[BeElBeeBub]

Long time no argue!

Hello my brexiter friends!

I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying your sovereignty!

Anyway, I've been off the forum for a while busy with other stuff.

However this came to bite me on the arse today and I thought I'd post.

Backstory:

For several years now I have built and maintained a remote water treatment plant.  The monitoring system is home brewed from various bits of off the shelf electronic equipment and actually works quite well.

Periodically I have replaced or upgraded parts and buy various pressure, level, temperature etc sensors.

Last year I upgraded some sensors and bought the parts from large distributor  I looked up the parts I needed, confirmed the specs, added them to the cart, hit "checkout", paid and the parts appeared a few days later from the various depots they operate.

Last week I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade a tank level monitor.  I had spec'd the part and there were a few options but the best technical fit was an ultrasonic unit.  Not hugely expensive, right size, right comms protocols etc.

I went online, and bought it.  And then spent the last few days updating the software to accommodate the new sensor.

By today, it hadn't arrived so I checked my emails to see if it was out of stock.

Good Afternoon [Beelbeebub],



Thank you for your Online Order from [Supplier]. Unfortunately there is an issue with part on your order, we are unable to sell this part to Personal Customers in your region. This is due to the CE restrictions on this part.


We will be able to supply this part if you are able to provide a valid VAT number if you are ordering on behalf of a Company, otherwise we will have to remove this part from the order, and look into supplying an alternative part that is not similarly restricted.


I look forward to hearing from you and releasing the order.

[Customer Service]

I don't have a VAT number because I'm not a trader and don't get near the threshold anyway.  So now what?

I've double checked, there are no UK stockists of this part.  There are several other European distributors, who i have used before - none have the UK as an option for delivery.

The american manufacturer used to have a UK "store" which I had used for other parts before, but that appears to be shuttered and I have to order via the US store and pay as much in shipping as the part costs.

The alternatives I can (possibly) get hold of are also twice the price, larger and don't use the same comms protocol so would require even more tinkering.

So there we have it.  A textbook Non-Tariff Barrier.  Entirely due to brexit, which has now turned a few swipes on smartphone to an hour or so chasing and a wasted day of coding.

Still, I'm sure one of you will be along to tell me how this is

a) nothing to do with brexit
b) the EU punishing us
c) I should be VAT registered
d) actually less red tape than before
e) worth it for some nebulous reason