Mail order West Marine US

Hello Ken,

Cannot speak from personal experience as a buyer, but I knew a chap last year here in Gosport who purchased about £10K worth of gear from them. All arrived on time & no problems.
I fitted a lot of the gear for him.
No problem with customs, but he did import using a Company name and address.
Cant remember the exact figures now but he saved himself about £4K.
 
May I suggest you try Defender Marine. They are v popular over here and have excellent service etc. They are generally mail order but have a HUGE store in Connecticut. Manager's name is Ken Morse and couldnt be more helpful to cruisers (was to us when passing through). Prices are generally best in US and they ship abroad. (We are currently in Bahamas and just got a part shipped out). That said, JG Tech in old Blighty have beaten all prices and will ship duty free. Service from them in the past was excellent too.

Hope its useful.

Patrick
www.yachtfoxglove.com
 
West Marine provide an excellent service I have used them a number of times latest being earlier this month when I bought a Raymarine Sounder module.

If I were you I would assume you will be paying VAT although I know for lower cost purchases this is not always the case.

Most items are shipped Fedex and you will likely get an invoice from Fedex for the VAT element. It is they that will chase you for this element if applied not HMCE.

Give the price differential I have found this to be a useful option but only tend to by items with worldwide warranty.
 
I used them a few years ago and they were excellent. The kind people at customs didn't bother to unwrap or otherwise inspect my purchase :-)

I would certainly buy from them again if I couldnt source the parts locally
 
I've bought loads from West when in the USA and also had stuff delivered here. I placed one order on a Friday and it arrived the following Tuesday.

It is luck of the draw if VAT is charged, there seems to be a value below which they lose interest? Otherwise if it comes by Fedex they will bill the VAT separately.

As someone else said, make sure of a worldwide warranty on electronics. I bought a Navman 5600 for less than half the UK price but the warranty was not covered by Navman Europe. I actually took this up with Navman as surely an item intended for navigation anywhere should be covered everywhere. Navman said it was local importers who insisted on local warranties presumably to stop internet grey imports but they gave me a letter covering mine worldwide as a gesture!
 
Bought from West Marine piece of Raymarine kit couple of years ago, no probs, quick delivery, saved money. I did contact then prior to purchase on a freephone number for tech. query and they put me directly to the Raymarine support engineer who has a desk on site at West Marine! Daft part about the whole thing was that the kit was shipped from Southhampton to USA, sold to me and shipped back to within 65 miles of Southhampton at a cost saving!
 
I've bought from them in person in the past - a couple of Spinlock rope clutches. $75 each in NYC, £99 in Hampshire. This at a time when it was close to $2 = £1. And they're manufactured in Cowes. Go figure!

This time I'm after something which isn't generally available in the UK - only one retailer as far as I can trace - so there is no price competition here. Even with VAT costed in it's about 20% cheaper to buy from West, but I'll also check out the other names suggested.
 
Bought foulies, VHF and GPS. The foulies I had delivered (free) in the US, then posted on. So far no taxes
A local guy bought a few sail kits from Sailrite. No taxes either. Not UK but still EU.
A
 
Twister_Ken said:
Anybody in the UK shopped mail order with West Marine in the US? If so, successfully? Did Customs impinge?
Click to expand...

We use West Marine a lot. We ship via a USA mail-forwarding address called Access USA /MyUS. They repackage all goods and put the wholesale value on the customs declaration - saves on the import duty/VAT.
 
While West Marine prices may be good compared to UK prices and their service good you're paying the US high price. I get Port Supply prices (West Marine discounted for dealers) and can easily save lots shopping elsewhere. Defender and Jamestown are 2 of the best if you would like to save more.
 
Twister_Ken said:
Anybody in the UK shopped mail order with West Marine in the US? If so, successfully? Did Customs impinge?
Click to expand...

I bought a HH GPS a few years ago when the exchange rate was much better.

Even with Fedex charging me VAT, as the exchange rate was 2$/£1 I paid a total of 20% less than the UK price.

I don't think it would pay just now.

I do buy quite a few things from HK (led's etc) those days and don't seem to be charged VAT. All very low value however.
 
Changes of Late

Great company to deal with fast service & good item tracking Exellent prices with dollar exchange rate .But UK customs seem lately to pick up on every item we have ordered in the last 12-18 Mths.Prior to this it was onlythe occasional package that incured the duty ,now its every one & the tax is on delivery cost as well

John Keen Delivery Skipper

www.keenmarine.co.uk
 
JSK said:
Great company to deal with fast service & good item tracking Exellent prices with dollar exchange rate .But UK customs seem lately to pick up on every item we have ordered in the last 12-18 Mths.Prior to this it was onlythe occasional package that incured the duty ,now its every one & the tax is on delivery cost as well

John Keen Delivery Skipper

www.keenmarine.co.uk
Click to expand...

It is, perhaps, worth noting that it is illegal to avoid import duty; those who do so may find themselves paying substantial fines. I have ordered goods (not boaty) from the States in the past, and found that there was no saving over retail prices in the UK when the goods were shipped by a carrier who enforced customs regulations - in this case (for a small packet), the Post Office. Such carriers normally also charge a swingeing handling charge. As a result, I only order from the States in the case of goods unavailable in this country.
 
Yes - I bought the material for wrapping round a propshaft in a stuffing box. Very prompt andd a good product.
Cost about £7.00 - but they posted it FEDEX and cost an extra £60.00. My request to the contrary was ignored.
An expensive mistake !
I have not dealt with them since.
ken
 
As a general rule, convert the dollar price to sterling at the rate you will actually get from your credit card company or PayPal, and add 42%. If the price still looks good it probably is. This allows for freight, handling charges, duty and tax.

If the item is very heavy, large or longer than 3' the freight charges will be higher, sometimes substantially so, than average, so allow for this extra cost.

Others have already mentioned the need to be cautious regarding warranties, cost of returning goods and suitability of electronic/electrical items.
 
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