Readers of this blog will know that I’m a Brit living in German. Well, since Brexit only half a Brit, as I’m now a dual national. In the good old pre-Brexit days, I could buy books, have books sent as presents from friend and relatives, and receive review copies from publishers from the UK without any problems. Sometimes they took a long time getting here but they did get here. Since Brexit this has all changed. I have been charged custom’s duty on books that should have been duty free and discovered that there is virtually no way to get my money reimbursed. I have had a Dutch publisher refuse to send me a review copy because their warehouse is in the UK, and they don’t/can’t send books to the EU anymore! In that case the author sent me one of his personal copies. I’ve had one publisher only supply me with a digital copy, ignoring the personal requests of the author to please send me a dead tree copy. In the end, I read and reviewed the digital copy against my better judgement because the book was important to me. Once again, the author trumped up with a personal copy. However, the latest saga of a book sent from the UK to Germany really takes the biscuit, so I have decided to relate the whole sorry affair step by step for your amusement.
Before I start the background:
Aviva Rothman is Associate Professor of History at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a historian of science who focuses on the early modern period and is the author of the highly praised author of Harmony: Kepler on Cosmos, Confession and Community (Chicago University Press, 2017), which is on my infinite reading list. Some time back, I can’t remember exactly when, she contacted me and asked me if I would cast my jaundiced eye over something she had written. People do this you know; I don’t understand why but I’m mostly willing to undertake the task and did so in this case.
This summer Aviva was in Germany with her family and also visited Nürnberg. She asked me if I would do my infamous history of astronomy tour of Nürnberg for her, which of course I was quite happy to do. We spent a happy morning walking around the Renaissance city of Nürnberg, talking history of science, and getting to know each other. During lunch, my tour always ends with lunch, she mentioned that her new book, The Dawn of Modern Cosmology: From Copernicus to Newton (Penguin Classics, 2023), a source book, was due to be published soon and we agreed that she would arrange for me to receive a review copy.
Now the saga starts:
On 19 September I received an email from an editor at Penguin Classics with the following:
I’m an editor at Penguin Classics in the UK – I’m sending you a copy of Aviva Rothman’s new book, The Dawn of Modern Cosmology, by courier, but they’re asking for an EORI number. I just wanted to check if you had one that I can pass on to DHL.
I had no idea what an EORI number is, so I googled it:
Die EORI-Nummer (Economic Operators´ Registration and Identification number – Nummer zur Registrierung und Identifizierung von Wirtschaftsbeteiligten) ersetzt als in der gesamten Europäischen Union gültige Beteiligtenidentifikation die deutsche Zollnummer.
I’m not going to translate the whole definition, but an EORI number is basically the customs registration number for commercial businesses. I immediately wrote a reply email back to the editor explaining that I’m a private person and not a business and so I don’t have an EORI number. The email bounced! I tried a second time and it bounced again. Now, I tried sending a fresh email rather than replying and this email also bounced!
What to do now?
I then wrote an email to Aviva:
I got an email from K*** W****** at Penguin Classics yesterday in which he wrote:
“I’m an editor at Penguin Classics in the UK – I’m sending you a copy of Aviva Rothman’s new book, The Dawn of Modern Cosmology, by courier, but they’re asking for an EORI number. I just wanted to check if you had one that I can pass on to DHL”.
I tried to reply to his email twice and it bounced both times, I then tried emailing him directly instead of replying and that also bounced.
If you have contact with him, could you tell him what happened and also tell him that I, as a private person, don’t have and don’t need an EORI, which is a thing for businesses.
She replied:
I actually just got an email from K*** this morning asking for additional contact info for you. Instead, I passed along your message, and I’ll let you know what he replies. I hope it arrives soon, and would love to hear your thoughts once it does!
I now received a new email from the Penguin Classic’s editor via a different email account:
I’m an editor at Penguin Classics.
Aviva mentioned to me that your emails to me have been bouncing back, so I thought I’d get in touch via Gmail.
I’ve informed DHL via our post room that there’s no need for an EORI given that you’re a private citizen – hopefully that will get things moving now.
I replied to this:
thank you for your latest missive. I think my connection with Aviva is cursed.
I communicate via email with hundreds of people all over the world. My emails have only ever bounced from two addresses, yours and Aviva’s university address! [another story]
I assume that Aviva has already given you my postal address.
This produced the reply from Penguin:
I have a feeling that our spam filter at Penguin is overzealous. Apologies for that.
The package (containing a copy of the book) was sent from here in London a week ago, but it’s currently sitting in a warehouse in Leipzig.
I’ve followed up with the post room here so that DHL can contact you by email if absolutely necessary, and I’ve passed on the message about the EORI number.
Hopefully the next stage will be them delivering the thing to you, but if I hear anything more/need any more details, I’ll be in touch via this email address.
Then on the evening of 21 September I got a telephone call from a very nice lady at DHL in Leipzig trying to determine who or what I am, in order to decide the status of the package that was sitting in her office. After a very pleasant conversation, she informed me that she would be sending me an email which I had to answer before she could send me my book. The email arrived almost instantly:
Guten Tag,
vielen Dank für das freudliche Gespräch.
Um Ihre Sendung als eine Geschenksendung abfertigen zu können, benötigen wir ergänzende Informationen/Angaben. Wir können die Sendung erst abfertigen und ausliefern, wenn uns diese Angaben vorliegen:
- eine schriftliche Erklärung, dass es sich um eine Geschenksendung handelt
- eine Angabe zum konkreten Inhalt der Sendung mit einer Einzelauflistung aller Artikel/Gegenstände
- eine Wertangabe (darf auch geschätzt sein) zu den einzelnen Artikeln/Gegenständen
- den vollständigen Vor- und Zunamen des Absenders
- die private Adresse des Absenders für die elektronische Zollanmeldung
Bitte halten Sie gegebenenfalls mit dem Versender Rücksprache, um weitere Informationen über den genauen Inhalt der Sendung zu erhalten.
Vielen Dank.
Thank you for the friendly conversation.
In order to process your package as a gift we require the following supplementary information/declarations. We can first clear and deliver your package when these declarations are available:
- a written explanation that it is a gift parcel.
- a declaration of the actual content of the package with an individual list of all articles.
- a declaration of its value (may also be estimated) of all individual articles.
- the complete forename and surname of the sender
- the private address of the sender for the electronic customs declaration
If necessary, please contact the sender, in order to obtain further information about the exact contents of the package.
Back to Penguin:
Dear K***,
sorry to be a pain but I now need for the German Customs, who have contacted me personally, the exact name and address of the sender as it stands on the parcel. Could you please supply me with this information. I’m going to give up reading books!
They replied:
Dear Karl,
Sorry about this – I blame Brexit, obviously (I’m Irish).
My name is on the label as a contact (K*** W******, Penguin Press)
The sender address is
Penguin Random House UK
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London
SW1V 2SA
My reply:
Thank you and yes it is Brexit!
I’m British born of British parents, in Clacton-on-Sea of all places but I’m now a dual national German/British thank to Brexit.
I now replied to DHL in Leipzig
Die Sendung beinhaltet eine Kopie des Buchs, „The Dawn of Modern Cosmology: From Copernicus to Newton“ herausgegeben von Aviva Rothman und erschienen bei Penguin Classics. Professor Rothman hat den Verlag veranlasst mir das Buch als Geschenk zu schicken, weil ich eine frühe Fassung zur Korrektur gelesen habe. Ich soll es auch rezensieren.
Amazon.co.uk für £14,29 = €16,50, am Amazon.com $25,91 = €24,33
Absender:
Penguin Random House UK
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London
SW1V 2SA
Kontaktperson: K*** W******, Penguin Press
I’ll leave the translation to the reader as an exercise!
I sent this off to DHL and got an almost immediate computer reply acknowledging receipt of my email and informing me that it would be dealt with in due course and please don’t mail them asking when I would receive my package in the meantime.
We now have the 21 September.
On the 22 September I received the following from Aviva:
K*** passed along your message on Wednesday—did the book ever arrive?
To which I replied:
I haven’t got the book yet which is sitting in Leipzig but I think I’m on the home straight!
The whole thing is developing into a comic opera and I’ve decided I’m going to write a blog post about it, so you’ll just have to wait to get the grisly details.
She replied:
Haha, I look forward to reading it (and I’m sorry it’s been such a lengthy and difficult process!).
Yesterday I got the following from Penguin:
I just wanted to follow up to see if you’ve heard from DHL.
As I was busy, I decided to wait till this afternoon before replying. Then at midday today the book finally arrived! It was posted on 14 September!
The sentence on the label of the package that caused the whole farce was:
SAMPLE DUMMY BOOK NOT FOR RESALE
German customs deduced from this that this was a goods sample and that I was some sort of book dealer!
I informed Aviva that it had arrived:
Just a brief note to say that your wonderful book finally arrived about an hour ago.
The full saga will be appearing on my blog shortly.
She replied:
And the same to penguin:
I put answering your email till this afternoon because I wanted to give a blow by blow account of my exchanges with DHL in Leipzig. However, instead I’m happy to report that Aviva’s book arrived safe and sound in my humble abode about an hour ago!
I have decided to write a blog post detailing every step of this sorry saga and will send you a link when I post it.
The reply:
I’m very glad it arrived.
The moral of this story is that if you send a single book as a present or a review copy from the UK to Germany declare it as a gift on the customs declaration with a value of €20 or less then the customs will let it go through without any problems (probably!).