Im seeing signs on sites saying they can no longer ship to the US. Just curious about how this is affecting business, any update from the suppliers or anyone on the other side of the pond who’s tried to get an order? More Nazi inteference. EDIT: I should have said not able to process credit card orders

Ummm, dont know. Maybe it has something to do with some BS biill the US is trying to pass because poor ol New York ( state with the highest tobacco tax ) is crying and complaining that they are losing 1 Billion dollars a year in " smuggled " tobacco from online sites. read about it here. http://www.snuson.com/viewtopic.php?t=4928

sorry, I have no clue how to make links work on here,

I know. Never thought in this era " Tobacco Smugglers " would even be a term , lol

USPS and other delivery services can’t let tobacco products go through their systems? So this means those in the US won’t be able to order Toque anymore?

somewhat on topic - a bill was just passed for washington state that prohibits tobacco from being ordered by phone or online. The kicker is that it applies to all tobacco EXCEPT large cigars. Wouldn’t want to interfere with the fat cats and their leisure.

No more Toque would make me cry.

One way around this is to go to your local tobacconist and ask if any of their distributors carry snuff. I know a cigar shop about 30 mins from me in columbus Ga their distributor carries Wilsons snuff although their shop has none in stock.

Just to clarify, the sign on the Wilsons site says that it cant accept credit card orders, sorry guys i was a bit inaccurate, I guess you could still send money orders. Have alook at the Wilsons website.

Still though… that link may signify the end to overseas orders.

Ok two issues here. One is the credit card business, that I don’t know what to do about it. The more serious matter is the Senate bill. I just read the bill. I don’t like it. I just wrote to one of my senators in regards to it. The one that’s on the commitee. I suggest you do the same. I will start a new thread in regards to this.

Maybe this is more of that “change” we kept hearing about. Seriously though, I just hope none of this prevents us(me) as an American from getting imported snuffs. If all I could have was scotches, I think I’d just quit it all.

This sucks for you guys. I hope you manage to get the bill repealed

Welcome to the British way of doing things. That is all Labour/Conservatives/Lib Dems have been doing to us for years, we now have an orwellian big brother society. We have more CCTV than anywhere in the world, Government logging phonecalls emails etc. all thanks to EU data sharing laws. God knows what the future will bring but goodbye freedom. Stefan

In addition to the impending fear of the s.1147 legislation, I was hit with a surprise by my credit card company recently. I’ve been making overseas purchases since January when I found snus on the Northerner. Then I got into ordering snuff as well from overseas vendors. I guess since I pay my card off every month, my carrier saw at least some way to make money off me. Back in May they sent me a letter stating my new credit card changes. While most of them didn’t bother me, they added an overseas purchase surcharge. It’s not exceptionally high, but it’s the principal of the matter that pisses me off. Now that I personally have stock in these companies, since I pay US taxes, this just royally chaps my hide. Welcome to the New World Order!

anything that they can get away with charging you for they will.

Many of them have been doing that for some time. I’ve been doing international transactions for several years (not snuff related.) In fact I have to travel overseas quite a bit, and use my card in other countries. I finally found a bank that lets me have a few a month for no charge. I think I’m limited to 4 a month. Its actually a debit card with a small overdraft credit limit. Being desperate as they are these days, they will pinch whatever they can from you.

ack! trying to save their own greedy tails more likely. Greed got us into the mess. Greed will get us out, right?

Not only does the customer have to pay a fee for an international cc transaction, the merchant also has to pay a hefty fee for it.

If this thing comes in, do you have any way of countering it? Money orders etc?

Too early to tell. Have to wait for the final.

As long as the US distros can get imported snuffs, I am fine with sending a MO.

There is a certain substance that some head shops sell, that is consumable, but they market it as incense…maybe something like that…market it as not for human consumption…

Yes, exactly like that!

@Carol I’m judging by your icon that you are quite familiar with those shops

I’ve been to a couple.

Just re-open as a collectables website maybe? For those who want to collect snuff tins, with lots of sternly worded garbage about any snuff found clinging to your collectors piece should be immediately dealt with by men in NRBC suits? Along the lines of carols point, headshops in the UK sell various natural products as for ‘botanical study’ Seriously, could you find a way of trading offshore or abroad? All payments made to an address in Canada or somthing? I think the collective mind should be put to solving this.

Auyervedic Inscense Powders.

Why can’t vendors just sell e-gift certificates (like Amazon or Ebay)? You get your totals and shipping costs then select the “purchase a gift card” option. You then use your credit card to purchase the e-gift card not the tobacco. The card is sent to your email address with a redemption code. Enter the redemption code during checkout and wala- Snuff without a credit card/tobacco transaction.

That’s actually pretty clever … but probably also incredibly illegal.

We must be careful…the men in black suits may be reading our posts.

slartie wrote: “That’s actually pretty clever … but probably also incredibly illegal” I don’t know how it could be. This is a credit card processing company decision (not a government restriction). Some processing companies have decided not to process tobacco transaction. Buy an e-gift card and no tobacco transaction has been made. What you do with the gift card is your business, especially if the vendor sells non-tobacco products like hankies, spoons, t-shirts, bullets (for spices of course), and etc…

I have three ideas on the paying subject: I think we can easily use Western Union there might be a way to send money at a low cost. Once you have an account set up with them is very easy. Or the Snuff Shop or others can open a USA bank account and we can pay to there. Or they can use Paypal. I don’t think they are affected by the changes.

Paypal has been against tobacco related transactions since forever. Gift certificates sound reasonable and legal since it’s a credit card company decision and not a law.

IMO, International Money Order, I think would be simple and effective way. Just mail it like a check/MO.

lets just start our own credit union or co-op or something and screw corpos that want to dictate policy to us.

Yep, screw 'em. I Just got my first overseas transaction fee. Bastards charged me .55 for a $20 dollar toque purchase. I know it’s a miniscule amount, but it still irks me.

heh, at least they told you about it. Lots of times they’ll just include it in the conversion to foreign currency.

@snifs Although this sounds like a great idea from the consumer viewpoint, how would a vendor advertise his products if internet/mail order sales become illegal? We could not have a web site. We could not have a mail order catalog. Offshore sites are out of the question as the product is still in the US. Even if internet sales remain legal, but are heavily regulated, it will make it virtually impossible, from a monetary standpoint, for the snuff retailer to remain in business. The taxes are killing us already. Imposing more restriction means more $$$ out of pocket to remain in business. If you think that there is much profit in selling snuff, you would be mistaken. Using your example of an ‘e-gc’, how do I know, as a vendor, that you are a legitimate customer, and not a fed running a ‘sting’ operation? Same goes for all the other suggestions. Let’s all remain calm. Write/call your representatives, let them know how you feel about the issue, and let’s see how all this ‘shakes out’. As with most pieces of legislation, the final bill usually varies greatly from it’s initial writing. On a personal note, and I’ve said this before, I for one, am sick and tired of the govt. legislating how I wish to live my life. Govt. is out of control. It wont be long before you’ll need permission to 'take a p***!

Tom, I think the gift card idea was to get around the CC company not allowing tobacco purchases, not to get around the internet /mail ban.

Yes, but similar ideas have also been proposed as a way to get around the proposed laws concerning selling of tobacco on the internet. As far as the cc companies go, unless you tell them, or your ‘business name’ implies that you are selling a tobacco product, they have no way of knowing what you are selling, and, they have no idea what the consumer is purchasing. ps. I probably should have posted in the ‘senate bill’ thread but there seems to be some overlap amongst the two threads and I was asked to respond here.

Tom thank you for your response (I had whispered Tom and asked him to comment for us on my post #35. I wanted a merchant’s insight on the matter). This affects us all but it really affects our friends here on the forum who make their living bringing us great snuff. I think the more we understand about what they are up against the more likely we might find a solution (or at least understand why a solution is hard to come by). Tom thank you for your insights and I agree let’s all keep calm and see how it shakes out.

Yes…It’s just that the snuff is what keeps us calm.