I just had a curious experience at a shop in Barcelona. In past travels I've usually made one (or two. ;) ) big purchases and mailed them home, with the shop waiving the VAT or shipping fees. I found a set of champagne glasses that I really love and decided would be my trip splurge. The shop had three "global shipping" signs posted in the immediate vicinity of the doorway, and I verified with the shopkeeper that the ship to the US before asking her to take down the glasses. She confirmed that they did. They were busy, so she asked if minded waiting a few minutes, which I didn't, so after paying, I wandered the shop a bit.
When I went back to the counter, she and her assistant had boxed up the package and filled out all the VAT stuff and handed me the bag. I reminded her that I had asked to ship it, and she said she couldn't. Her English wasn't great and my Spanish is worse, so she called her boss over. To make a very long story short (seriously, I was there for close to an hour, I felt terrible monopolizing all the staff), I was told that they can no longer wave the VAT in exchange for shipping fees, as, at least in my experience, is extremely common among tourist-oriented shops (which this was), and that I couldn't claim the VAT as well as ship it. When I asked for an explanation, the boss said that the rules had changed, but I couldn't tell if she meant Spanish or EU rules, or just the company's rules. I believe they were honest (they lost a lot of business dealing with me for so long and it seemed a lot of trouble to go to over 40 euros), but I still think I am missing something.
Apologies for the long post, but can anybody shed any light on this? I did some quick googling, and actually RS' take on VAT was the second thing that came up. He said you can even claim VAT on something you've shipped, though it may not be worth it.
Caroline