ChessBaron Bait-and-Switch WARNING


And for this I thank you! Your cute little straw man has precisely nothing to do with a customer ordering a product (misrepresented to be in stock) then declining to be railroaded. Perhaps you know nothing about customers who decline to be railroaded?

I hope to save enough to buy a nice chess set!
Another dirty trick is insisting it's the same so they can say refund is possible but returning fee is on your own cost. They know how expensive that is so they force you in a sneaky way just to accept it. For European that's totally f*cked up because they won't reimburse the VAT + Duties on top of the shipping fee for returning the set. They know exactly what they're doing.
Well, you didn't pay your VAT + Duties to the retailer, so of course, the retailer is not going to reimburse them. You pay VAT + Duties to your national Tax Authorities, and this is where you can reclaim the VAT + Duties (though you have to do some paper work to prove that you exports the goods).
For example, see this page of the Dutch Tax Authorities (it's in English).

yeah I've been there and done that. No use to reclaim anything at the Dutch Tax Authorities, they simply reject your claim after months of letting you wait. This was for when a seller didn't declare the shipping fee on the custom form, so the customs charged me for the max shipping fee.
Oh, that blows. I guess I was lucky then--I prepaid duties and VAT upfront during shipping selection when purchasing at Chess House, and they worked with FedEx to reimburse me. Even so, I was still wrong in my comment--you don't directly pay to the Tax Authorities, but you are typically invoiced by the transport company. As such, you should probably work with them to get a refund on the invoice. (Probably easier if they also handle the return shipping, but that is just a guess.)

I found the best way is buy via ebay or esty that way your covered + paypal , As it seems alot can go south theses days / Good luck dealing with Fed Ex has to be the worst - The rudeness - Demands to pay taxs with short notice + wrong delivery times

@mr Aernout yes I tried that first with FedEx but they said all they can do for me is providing me the paperwork for that shipment and with that I need to claim at the authorities myself. I even got the shipping cost on paper from the seller, with all that they still reject my claim. For a set that cost 200 USD something they charged me 92 euro for it.
That's Dutch government entities for you...they don't give a sh*t about anything lol
Hahaha, that's rich! So the carvers can match the Ami Elizabeth knight but somehow are incapable of matching the Sinead? Uh, so sorry, that's just BS.