Ordering beers from Belgium

I have ordered many, many times both directly from the man in your avatar (Struise Webshop) as well as from Etre Gourmet. I live in MA and have never had any issue.

In the old forums there were a few folks who posted that their package was seized by customs (in which case you lose, Etre makes you acknowledge this when you order now), but I believe these were boxes on the "larger" size and they were seized in a NYC customs office if memory serves.

 

I recently ordered from both Etre and Belgiuminabox and both arrived just fine. Prices and shipping costs were similar. The only real difference was that Belgiuminabox took about 2 weeks longer to ship.

 

I've ordered from both BelgianShop.com and Etre Gourmet (ordered with them most recently this past December) before and didn't have issues with either one (and I had to go to the Post Office to pick up both boxes). But I'm in Ohio so I don't know if that helps much. Also, the shipping with Etre Gourmet was quicker by a week or 2 compared to the shipping through BelgianShop.com.

 

Thanks for the help! And yea, Urbain was a cool dude to hang out with. Met him at the Festival in Worcester and talked for like half an hour and he kept feeding me beer. Good time

 

How long did it take you to get yours? I ordered a box back in December and the status is still "In Customs" Your right though, the shipping cost more then the beer...

 

If I remember correctly, close to 2 months.

 

Etre Gourmet Question, to follow my experience thus far

I just placed my first order this week. and was looking to get a little info based on my experience thus far

1. placed order tuesday (no mention of payment when placing order) email them to ask about payment
2. Get invoice from them on wednesday morning, with errors, email them back they fix it and i pay
3. wednesday night get a call from credit card fraud protection to verify my last 3 transactions

When i log onto the site, they don't give you an order history, which would be nice.

So does this timing follow other peoples? when should I expect to get a tracking number? and roughly how long from placing order to arrival is the norm?

thanks in advance

 

Umm - none of that sounds good at all.

When you order on Etre, you pay immediately via PayPal. You also immediately get an order confirmation emailed to you, and your order history is definitely stored on the site.

I don't mean to freak you out, but this sounds eerily familiar to what happened with the Struise Web Shop 2 years ago (and I was one of the people scammed there).

What is the email address they sent you an invoice from? (Feel free to BM if you don't want to discuss publicly)

 

When I've ordered from Etre, I have found that some operating systems don't work with their automated payment system. My Windows 7 works, but my XP doesn't. I normally pay via Paypal. I always get a order confirmation. Sometimes I get a shipment notification. The order history on their web site never has real time info. ship times very from 7 day to 18 days. Never have had a broken bottle.

 

I met Kurt (the owner of belgiuminabox.com) while on vacation in Belgium this past November. He drove me up to St. Sixtus abbey and helped me procure my 2 cases of Westy 12 (he even took me to Cantillon and I met Jean Van Roy). I paid 93 euros per box (3 boxes) for him to ship the 2 cases of Westy 12 (plus some other stuff I bought from him) back to South Carolina, but I didn't have to do any of the packing myself or rent a car to go to St. Sixtus abbey so overall I was extremely pleased. Kurt is an awesome guy and I think the shipping prices that he charges are very fair; I was with him when he dropped the boxes off at BePost (Belgium's post office) and believe me, he's not making a profit off the shipping. It took about 3 weeks from the time we dropped the boxes off to the time they arrived at my front door. He did tell me that some times boxes do get stuck at customs and that certain states are worse than others. Overall I highly recommend belgiuminabox.com and Kurt is an awesome guy.

 

I second that. He does seem like a really cool guy, although I've never met him. I ordered from belgiuminabox.com recently. Kurt informed me that he just happened to be taking a trip to Cantillon in a day or two after I first contacted him by email with a couple of questions. He asked me if I wanted a Cantillon hooded sweatshirt and/or a Cantillon decanter added to my order since he was heading there anyhow. I jumped at the offer, as I've wanted both for a while. He included the sweatshirt at the same price that Cantillon is now selling them in the new E-store and it seemed he only charged me cost for the decanter as well. When I unpacked my recent order, I also discovered he included a new lambic basket at no cost. Very cool, indeed.

 

bringing this back to life.... Anyone in So Cal want to split a Etregourmet or Belgiuminabox order? Save some cash on shipping and get some epic beers. I am in the Temecula area, so IE, OC, SD counties would be preferable.

 

I just received an order from Struiss. 4 out of 12 bottles were damaged. The box was a nasty mess. Broken Westy 8 and Pannepot. I probably should have gone with UPS shipping, but it was significantly more expensive. Customs also had the box for 5 days.

I've never had a bad experience with Etre, though.

 

Yeah, everything arrived in great condition from belgiuminabox.com as well.

 

I just placed my 1st order with Etre Gourmet. Everything seemed to go fine except that when I paid I did not get billed for shipping. What did I do wrong? Help!

 

I'm thinking about ordering from Etre myself and I just went on their site to start an order. One thing I noticed, during the checkout process they give you three options for delivery. One is in store pickup, one is ship later, and the other is ship to the US. The first two options are 0 Euros. I had to specifically select one of the three options. Maybe you missed the shipping selection step? It looks like it would be easy to miss, it isn't very clear that you need to select one.

I'd try the "contact us" link and see if they can fix your order.

 

Yo

You are correct, I somehow selected ship later. I contacted them to try to get this changed to ship now.

Thanks for your help.

 

Kurt from Belgianinabox has some unbelievable customer service! Love me some Fou Fonne!

 

Update: Robert from Etre Gourmet emailed me right back, I paid for shipping. Problem solved.
Great customer service.

 

That's good news. Glad it worked out. I think I may pull the trigger myself.