Poor experience with Global Blue in Amsterdam – Eurostar travellers caveat

[Skywalker]

Afternoon all

First time travelling to Amsterdam via Eurostar, bought one or two things – not especially expensive in Amsterdam, had my receipt stamped at checkout as is the normal process.

Took the receipt to Schiphol Airport for customs validation, and the customs official refused to stamp it, stating that the last point of exit was in fact France on Eurostar, and that I should take the receipt to Eurostar.

Eurostar, predictably shook their heads and said that no such process exists, since, unless a valid exit ticket is present for Paris, people generally cannot alight from the trains between Amsterdam and London. The customs official at Eurostar said “We are not “douane”” – so who knows.

I was irked, but not entirely annoyed, since it was only a few Euros, but in front of me at Schiphol Airport, I noted a young lady very visibly upset, since her tax free shopping exercise was similarly thwarted by customs in Schiphol airport refusing to stamp her receipts. Her liability appeared to in the several hundred Euros, since she had a few high end designer shopping bags with her.

Schiphol airport customs/douane seemed frustrated/indifferent and from a customer perspective, there really does appear to be a lack of cohesion between the Dutch side of Eurostar/Customs/Global Blue process – (or maybe I don’t understand the process enough)

I sent my comments to Global Blue, who only then informed me of a convoluted ‘regularization’ process, whereby I need to head to the French embassy and give them everything including my inside leg size to claim back these Euros.

On the Global Blue site, there is also nothing to suggest that there is an issue with Eurostar travellers shopping tax free in the Netherlands. The regularisation process does not appear to be listed on their site (or at least, it isn’t very accessible to me if it is there), and you don’t appear to be able to find any of this out unless you have been through the negative experience first.

So, caveat Eurostar Travellers 🙂

[PeteM]

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

[Ant M]

I’d imagine it might also apply to other travel methods on trips where you enter the EU in one country and exit via another since that seems to be the issue

[Thegasman]

I’m slightly confused by your mention of Eurostar & Schiphol Airport. You normally have to present the goods to Customs/agent at your departure point so they can be assured they are leaving the country. Was it at Eurostar at Centraal Station?

I agrée it seems unreasonable to say France is your point of exit if you can’t actually exit the train there.

I assume the woman was also going to declare her designer haul to customs in London…

[Skywalker]

@Thegasman – the only customs office (landside) that is listed on the Global Blue app for validation is Schiphol airport – so that’s where I went to validate. I was then told by customs to go to Centraal. So it’s both.

@Ant M – yes it seems so – something I didn’t give any consideration to!

[Skywalker]

Some more info on this on the Europa.eu website:

Be careful if you leave the EU by train!

You may be able to get the VAT refund documents stamped at certain train stations of the departure. However, you might as well need to get off the train at the last station within the EU to get this stamp. Other methods could also apply (e.g. a customs officer might be boarding the train) .

This depends on the trains’ route and the internal arrangements in each EU country.

We therefore strongly advise you to consult in advance the national authorities or your refund company on the arrangements applicable in our concrete route.

Too late for me now, but it it might be of use to someone else 🙂