The cost of shipping to Denmark?

Bung your completed package on the bathroom scales and get a rough idea of the posted weight. Then go into the Parcel Force website and get a ballpark figure of cost as an ordinary parcel. Or visit a Post Office near you with the package for a more accurate weighing and pricing. From past experience I'd make a wild guess between £20 and £30 but can't be sure. Normally it's a 3-4 day service.
The reason so much gear is going to Denmark is because there isn't a real Naim dealer here (as far as I know) and prices are one third more than in the UK for almost every bit of British kit.
I just found out that the only Danish REL dealer wants just over £856 for the black Rel Strata 111 (GB price £700) and doesn't even stock it for demo! Grr!

Nime

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

Sorry Ben I should have mentioned that you should insure your parcel. This is a standard service offered by the Post office (or Parcels Worldwide) for reasonable cost on top of the postage. Use the original packaging and cover with an extra layer of cardboard from the stack in the supermarket to protect it. Or even better, a strong cardboard box that fits nicely over the original Naim packaging.Take the empty Naim box to the supermarket to try it for size. If the box is slightly too big then pack the spaces with polystyrene board scrounged from a white goods or hifi dealer. Use masses of good quality wide plastic parcel tape. I speak from long & bitter experience exchanging parcels with family in the UK over a jumber of years.



Going back to the REL subwoofer prices here. I have since discovered that the black Strata 111 is actually £600 in Brittex in the UK. That means the Danish dealer is putting £256 on top of the British retail price of a £600 product. No doubt a lower wholesale price applies to him too. Driving over the bridge (in Denmark) to the only Danish dealer (in Copenhagen) is £24 each way. That's another £48 + petrol for 300+ kilometres! £900+ for a £600 sub! That's the same price as a tasty wood finish Storm 111!
It would be much cheaper to fly to the UK, buy a sub over the counter and then fly back with the sub on my lap as hand baggage! Only 30 kilos. It would give my brand new (xmas present) sack-trucks a nice day out.
On second thoughts: I wonder whether REL dealers are allowed to sell to customers abroad?

Nime

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

Thanks Nime.

As you wave your plastic in front of their face, I'm sure the last concern on any dealer's mind is your country of origin...

Denmark is in the EEC so, if you can claim tax back on business, you could save the 17.5% VAT as well. Isn't the issue in Denmark one of import tax? I know it is with cars and bikes.

Ben.

In theory it is an open market so no charges are levied between countries. I actually rang the Danish equivalent of customs and excise and they confirmed no charges on EEC goods. The VAT is 25% here but the (EEC only) country of origin VAT is accepted as having been paid on goods brought into Denmark.

Denmark does set savage registration charges on imported vehicles. The minimum used to be £2200 rising dramatically with value. Anybody considering coming here should sell in the UK and buy another car in Denmark.

I have been scanning the REL website in some depth. There is a very odd condition to their 3 year worldwide guarantee. Regarding exporting one of their subs within a given time period of purchase (8weeks!) This has me more than a little worried about buying from the UK. I shall have to do some more homework on this. They could well be protecting their dealer network from cross border purchases. I can get round this by having a member of family buy it for me and sit on it for 8 weeks. But how would REL know whether it had been exported earlier anyway? The "free trade" EEC is a complete sham IMO. Buying over the internet is actively discouraged by this sort of restrictive behavior. Why should a non-UK dealer pocket over half the UK retail price + wholesale price mark-up + VAT without ever opening the box? Is it even legal to deny a guarantee to someone buying a UK product and then moving home within the EEC inside 8 weeks? Many people must buy UK products before leaving the country to work abroad within the EEC. Particularly if they are sitting on the proceeds of their UK house sale. If I bought a REL sub here and then moved back to Britain immediately is my 3 year worldwide guarantee suddenly void?

Nime

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

I'd speak to REL. I had a quick scout and, from what I can see, the last EEC consumer directive requires the same consumer protection throughout the EU, regardless of where you buy a product.

Try this link:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/redress/compl/euroguichet/index_en.htm

Obviously REL will have an agreement with their dealer network to encourage consumeres to buy locally - but your distributors look like they're taking the pi**.

Also, don't forget your credit card protection rights - buy it on plastic and I think they're now required to protect purchases from within the EU.

Good luck,

Ben.

Thanks for the advice Ben.

Forgive my unravelling your thread but a few nerve endings were pricked by these stupid problems. All I wanted was to fulfill a desire to own an active subwoofer from a reputable maker at a reasonable price.
I'm now buying another product. One sale (quite possibly a pair) lost to REL. Do they care? Do I care? Apparently not.

Nime

PS Now I'll have to start a new thread asking for a cheap way of sending a heavy subwoofer to Denmark. Any ideas?

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

Thankyou for the carrier suggestion and the kind offer of help Elvin but I think I have it organised now. No need to ever apologise for trying to help.

Regards
Nime

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

I used to be a student from Belgium buying English and Scottish hi-fi gear in the UK, and am now a lawyer in a firm specializing in EU law. What was obvious, then and now, is that whereas manufacturers of certain equipment can, within very strict conditions, prohibit their dealers to ADVERSTISE in another EU country, they can not prohibit them from selling to customers from another EU country (and the dealer himself, for reasons of EU-wide consumer protection laws, cannot refuse to sell on that basis either). Furthermore,as Nime correctly states, you will pay the VAT applicable in the country of the SELLER and not the VAT of your country (this is meant to be an incentive for all countries to harmonise their VAT rates).

Today, this is more or less accepted. "Then" (when I was a student, and UK gear was at least 40% more expensive in Belgium than in England) the principle of having to accept foreign EU purchasers was already mandatory, BUT a lot of very reputable brands, AND London stores, continued to refuse to do so!! We had to find a U.K. address (a cousin of an aunt of mine...)! Well, luckily those days seem to be over, and (not suprisingly) UK/continental prices have levelled in the meanwhile.