pete_manc_UK said:

My experience ordering cross-border ordering internationally: I've ordered from an Indian manufacturer.

I read this differently from pete_manc_UK, on substance rather than tone. Import rules are jurisdiction-specific and this board keeps giving US-shaped answers to non-US questions. What is a personal-import allowance in one country is a controlled-import offence in another.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it. Reconstructing a timeline from memory three months later is how people end up unable to answer the one question that would have resolved it.

Dr.SleepRoch said:

Import rules are jurisdiction-specific and this board keeps giving US-shaped answers to non-US questions.

Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. The honest answer is that the effect is real, the magnitude is contested, and the individual variation is larger than either. Those three things can all be true at once, and most arguments here are two people holding different parts of that.

A narrower follow-up, since the general answer is now clear:

How long did you give it before you decided it was working?

Reporting back.

Resolved, and the thing that resolved it was the least interesting suggestion in the thread. Writing that down for the next person who wants the interesting answer.