For me the main point is how the carrier behaves.
Long time ago, Correos (spanish postal service) used to send a message to you warning your items were at the customs. Then you asked them for the documentation, they gave it to you, then you were able to do that paperwork and VAT payment online in some 5 minutes.
Last year, the item I bought from the US arrived to my city without any warning, then at the post office I was told that, to do the paperwork myself, item would have to be returned to customs first (probably a lie), so I paid their 20 euro fee.
This week, at the same postal office, I asked about the situation after July, 1st, the said to me that, should the parcel arrive to the office, I would have to pay the fee anyway. They don't have a clue about sending any warnings when the parcel is at customs, and don't seem to care about, frankly.
Things are already much worse with private carriers. Two months ago, TNT/FedEx fucked me bad. After I asked them for the documentation, they splitted my shipment in three, never gave to me any list of goods included in each of these three saparated shipments, declared fake weights so to deduce these list was impossible, declared an unknown country of origin in the third shipment... so to have it all passing through customs has been a more-than-45-days nightmare. Goods were released from customs, 10 kms from my door, past Monday, yet they have to be delivered to me. Very fine people in TNT/FedEx. Really.
So, for me, it's going to be "wait and see". I'm quite upset with the carriers right now. So much that I could even pray for them to get a Vlad Tepes treatment.