buying online from USA
Posted by: j8hn on 14 May 2005
I'm tempted by the prices that Etymotic headphones are going for on e-bay. Postage rates differ from £4.50-£15.00!! A bit of research has also shown me that an administration fee of around £6.00 is charged by the carrier. Then there's the lottery of whether duty and/or VAT wil be liable too.
So what starts off at £55 could end up costing more like £95 to cross your thereshold, and they're available for that by careful UK shopping.
Anyone bought and "got away with it" is/was it worth it?
Posted on: 14 May 2005 by TomK
I've bought a fair amount of stuff from the US over the years, mainly stuff not available in the UK. I've been stung for VAT and import duty way over the value of the item on a few occasions but I had no choice but to accept it. I wrote to the customs folk to get them to justify their charge of about 20 quid import duty, 10 quid VAT, plus handling charge on an item that I couldn't buy in the UK, that cost 30 bucks in the US, and the answer was "We do it because we can". Not their words obviously but it's what they meant. You have to make that choice for yourself. There's no way to guarantee you can get round it.
Posted on: 15 May 2005 by Nime
The charges for imported items are fixed.
US dollar dealer price + 4.5% EEC import tax + freight charges + national VAT on top of everything.
There is often an extra charge by the freight company in the region of £10 for clearing the papers through customs where an item is imported properly.
You can't cheat by having the package marked as a gift because there is a rather low gift allowance.(£36?) (presently under review)
The thorny subject of buying online is covered by an almost endless series of threads on fora covering a range of subject interests. Dollar/pound parity charges (+ all the other charges) by UK dealers is one particularly area of contention.
Remember American voltages when buying goods from the US. Expect to have to send items back to the original US dealer for repairs under guarantee. You will usually get no support at all from UK dealers. It's how they ensure their (often outrageous) prices are protected.
Posted on: 15 May 2005 by Steve Bull
I was after some ER6i phones last year and went through exactly the same thoughts as you. After looking into the costs of importing I ended up buying on eBay from the delightfully-named
wetspot01. Arrived within a couple of days, no trouble at all to deal with.
S.
Posted on: 16 May 2005 by Matthew T
As a moderately regular visitor to the US on business I get stuff delivered to the offices over there and bring back with me, though have to be careful of the £130 (I think) allowance to bring stuff in.
I think that for a number of items we are seriously ripped off in the UK, others are good value, but the advent of internet shopping has certainly produced more of a level playing field.
Do your sums before ordering though, if you can get the sender to prepay duty etc then you might not get stung but the charges, but very few are prepared to do this.
Matthew
Posted on: 16 May 2005 by long-time-dead
Was the personal allowance not upped to £1k by the last budget ?
Posted on: 16 May 2005 by Tam
Surely if the item is second hand then vat doesn't apply.
Mind you, it would all be so much simpler if we had proper free trade.......
regards,
Tam
Posted on: 16 May 2005 by Derek Wright
