Buying Internationally - The Netherlands

Hello,
I am wondering whether people have experience purchasing items from international sellers? I have been looking everywhere for a Pikolino boot in my size. Of course I found it online in The Netherlands and TopShoe. The website will not let me purchase and enter a US address.

I contacted the info@ email, and they sent me a Routing number and account number to deposit money into their bank account. They also said they contacted the store that carried them and put them on hold for me. Super nice! Unfortunately, I went to Western Union and they could not do this because they only transfer cash to personal accounts. My credit union also does not do international transfers.

They the company told me that I could try calling the store to ask them about credit cards over the phone. I called, and the first woman said she didn't know how to do this, and she had heard that I was going to be calling. She went to ask a co-worker and he got on the phone and told me they sold the boot yesterday. It's still on their website :-/

Any suggestions? I can't believe how difficult this has been to figure out. I'm hoping they are just still available at another location. My next thought was sending an international money order.

Yes, I sound obsessed! I am.

Thanks for any thoughts!

10 years ago

Diana

Veteran

Hmm, maybe ask if they accept paypal?

So I don't know if this will work in the Netherlands, but I have friends from abroad who will sometimes use their foreign credit card to purchase a US Visa gift card for the amount they need, and then use that to purchase the item they want. If there is something analogous to the Visa gift card in the Netherlands you might be able to do that.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

The use of bank routing seems more common in (continental) Europe and almost unheard of here in North America, with international credit cards being the other way around. I tried to buy some Dutch sewing pattern magazines from the Netherlands and they were the same, would do routing numbers but not accept my US credit card, and at the time they didn't offer paypal either.

Sorry about the shoes - maybe they will turn up on another site or on ebay?

abc

Which pikolinos are you looking for?

UmmLila (Lisa)

You know the company has their own website, right?

Buying across borders is indeed difficult because of credit card fraud alerts, duties and everything else.

Kristine

Active Member

Thank you all.

Diana, they do have the PayPal logo on their website, but said they don't accept it.

abc, I am looking for the Pikolinos Hamilton W2E-8644AA. I first found the Lead color on Zappos, but I need a size 42. The Pikolinos website also does not have my size. And then I found them on TopShoe in the navy blue in 42, which is even better.

UmmLilia, yes they do have a website, and I searched for reviews to see whether it was legit. I was thinking that maybe they don't take credit cards over the phone because of fraud issues.

I think the pikolinos web store is based in Florida for US purchasers

It's hard when we get our heart set on one thing and it's not easy to find.

A couple of suggestions
I believe pikolinos is a brand from spain, if you're willing to order from the Netherlands it may be worth a call to the mother ship to see if they can help you locate some
Mexico has a good connection to Spain and this brand is found in standalone stores here as well as in larger department stores. If I go back to the USA in Jan I can see if I can find them locally for you and bring them to the USA and ship them to you. Thing is I've found Mexico is ahead of the USA in terms of models being more updated here vs USA so if you're looking for an older model you may not have luck finding it in Mexico.

Try Amazon and eBay and all other sources and try searching without the code behind it as some sellers don't have this info or are lazy and don't use it so if you're searching with the code you may exclude some possible results

I know sometimes they use the same last (?) meaning the heel, arch, basically the entire bottom is the same so you may find a very close match in another model by the same brand in the case you can't locate exactly this shoe

Hope this helps.

Wow, abc! That is such a generous offer. Thank you.

I am trying some of your suggestions. I had emailed the USA contact for Pikolinos, but they said nothing in my size, so I have now emailed the main company email.

I have found out that it is part of the 2015 winter collection. I have also been going through the Pikolinos store locator for Mexico, but not much luck finding ones with websites.

And the hunt continues....

I have found other brands of boots that I like a lot, but why is it so difficult to find a size 42 in the US. Crazy.

gryffin

Kristine - saw zappos has them in a deep green (kind of a neutral greige imho) in your size. They also had some slightly different hamilton stylings. No you want exactly what you want, but I thought I'd mention in case you had not seen. Good luck!!

Thanks, Gryffin!
I did order the green to be sure this works for my stubborn feet. Just not really a green gal :-/

They are pretty dark though so I will wait to return them until I exhaust all other options.

You guys are all so great. You understand the rare find that speaks to you!

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