US not necessarily cheaper than UK

[obbm]

I wanted a Badass II for Pinky.

UK prices seem to be around £54 inc postage but cheaper from the USA, so i ordered one from bestbassgear in the US - £47.03 inc shipping.

Today I got an invoice from Parcel Farce for £21.18 for VAT and clearance.

Total cost of bridge - £68.21. Might as well bought at home and saved myself £14.00.

[Waldo]

Yeah, things seem a lot cheaper until they arrive and Parcelfarce tell you that you have to pay £10 handling and £10 clearing and £10 VAT e.t.c on top of all the money you've already paid for the shipping. They charged me £18 handling for a pickup!

[BigRedX]

Because of shipping charges and the way import duty/VAT and its associated handling charges work there's a gap between the duty exempt price (around £36 for items marked as gift - less if not) and about £70 where self importing doesn't work out cheaper. As a rule of thumb I try and avoid buying items costing between £30 and £70 from the US because of this. Remember that VAT etc is added to the total cost including postage. Also handling fees vary from carrier to carrier. Normal post-office handling charge is cheaper than Parcel Force (which is normally the least good VFM when you consider the amount of time it takes them to get your package through customs - sometimes being able to track the progress of a package isn't such a good idea for carriers when you can see it busily going nowhere).

[Roady]

as far as im aware, I think this is how you work it out...

•Theres a [b]3.5%[/b] Customs Duty charge on the total cost (Item Cost [b]AND [/b]Postage)
•You are then charged [b]17.5%[/b] VAT on the new total cost (Item Cost, Postage [b]AND [/b]Customs Duty)
•Finally, you are charged a Clearance Fee for "handling and administration". This is [b]£13.50[/b] for express parcels (delivered via Parcelforce), and [b]£8.00[/b] for all other parcels (delivered via Royal Mail. This used to be £4.00 but was recently increased...).

The equation:
( ( Item Cost [b]+[/b] Postage ) [b]x[/b] 1.035 ) [b]x[/b] 1.175 ) [b]+[/b] £13.50 [b]or[/b] £8.00 [b]=[/b] Final Cost

Im not 100% certain this is accurate, but im pretty sure... Anyone feel free to correct

[bumnote]

For a small package, if you make sure your shipper uses USPS air parcel post and does not insure and track it, it will generally come through the post office and not parcel force. If there is a tracking sevice, you will always get to pay the clearance charges and customs duty.
Royal Mail [post office] is not the same as parcel force. and generally it seems that they dont bother with relatively low value parcels.
I have avoided duty on virtually every hardware package sent that way in the past

[Veils]

Everything I have bought from the states, I have been stung somewhere along the line

[Muppet]

I have bought loads of stuff from Basspartsresource.com and they always send them USPS and I have never been charged any duty at all (touch wood). They mark their shipments 'guitar parts for repair', if that makes any difference??

[P-T-P]

I've never been stung buying from the US, but the important thing is to do your homework before ordering and make sure you know what the worst case scenario is going to be. Like muppet I've also bought from basspartresource.com and paid no duty/tax at all. I get my strings from the US too and so far have not paid any duty/tax either but I always make sure to order sufficient that if I did have to pay it, I'm still making a saving over purchasing in the EU.

[obbm]

Well I guess those of you who have paid nothing have been lucky.

The package was sent USPS Express Mail.

It was described "guitar repair part"

Value $60.00
Postage $28.06

I didn't get charged any duty just VAT and the dreaded clearance fee.

I've recently bought some string from the US for $62.40 and they just whistled through.

Edited May 29, 2007 by obbm

[Spikyhedgehog]

I really don't know how I get so lucky.

I've [b]never[/b] been hit by import charges, and I've had a fair few valuble items from the states/hong kong/singapore etc.

Odd.