Working for the Yankee Dollar - US Chandlery prices

[Tranona]

Not sure - but the CI's don't do VAT. I was thinking of all those South Coast sailors ordering their lovely US gadgets, sailing to Guernsey stapling them onto their boats and sailing home again. As I said a whiff of smuggler, maybe, but cheap stuff and a nice trip thrown in - just that last niggling doubt it feels a bit, erm, illegal?

Would just need a bloke on Jersey who would take delivery and meet you at the Quayside.

Do you think customs are not aware of this possibility and just ignore it?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I think USPS is a better option than UPS, WE once had 'gifts' sent to UK from USA family that UPS IN The UK charged for customs clearance and VAT on, cost more than the gift was worth. We send 'gifts' by usps frequently to the UK and as far as I know nobody yet has got charged on receipt but they were always listed as gifts and given low or even $0 value put on the customs declaration label. I sent $100 worth of marine bits to my son for an outboard via USPS ( post not UPS) and he wasn't charged. Luck of the draw maybe applies, Caveat emptor.

No reputable company will falsify a customs declaration. In fact, that's one of the ways I'd define a reputable company. But in any case, if they get caught, they are likely to be fined fairly steeply.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Did a very quick check and the cheapest I can find is £299. Still pretty good. If you want less, phoning around the bucket shops is your best chance of getting something.


Kuwait Airways

6th Feb : Depart flight15:30 LHR–18:30 JFK Direct 8h
Return flight
21:00 JFK–09:00LHRDirect 7h (+1)
Total price
£299

Beaten me. Best I could do was £318, with a change in Amsterdam in both directions.

Even so, for something like an all-singing, all-dancing autopilot it might make sense.

 

[Robin]

No reputable company will falsify a customs declaration. In fact, that's one of the ways I'd define a reputable company. But in any case, if they get caught, they are likely to be fined fairly steeply.

Not what I suggested, just by way of explanation, because when we mail gifts from the USA we often put a zero value on them simply because they might well have that value to us (a pack of 'Twinkies' for example that SWMBO just mailed to a UK friend or even the Marmite same friend mailed the other way to us)

I agree that a reputable company would be unlikely to put a false value on customs paperwork on package, especially as their invoice or receipt is likely to be inside anyway. WE ship odd stuff like aforesaid Twinkies (disgusting plastic cake lookalikes) and Reeses peanut butter sweets to to equally odd people who got to like them from their own visits to the US. SWMBO reminds me we too had a customs/VAT charge applied by ParcelFArce to a Xmas gift box sent to us in the UK from her sister in the US. I had several deliveries however from West marine California to UK valued around 100 pounds value that arrived without extra fees I'm no fan of UPS because they have 'lost' several items shipped from Amazon US to us in the US and they have often left stuff outside our door without bothering to even knock and see if we are home when we were , USPS people however never just leave stuff like that. FedEx seem very reliable too but a tad more pricey

 

[Ravi]

No reputable company will falsify a customs declaration. In fact, that's one of the ways I'd define a reputable company. But in any case, if they get caught, they are likely to be fined fairly steeply.

Ah, I see. I was not aware that the vendor had to put a customs declaration on the outside of the package. Naively, I thought that anything that came through the normal post was randomly checked by customs and that only courier companies like UPS (who I am sure make a bit of cash out of their customs handling charges) had processes in place to record the contents of all packages monitor and report customs payments to HMRC.

You live and learn.

It looks more and more like I will be buying the AutoTiller in Europe. Unless I can find a good deal in Greece (Corfu, ideally), my local swindler will be getting his last pound of flesh from me before I head off to the Med!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Ah, I see. I was not aware that the vendor had to put a customs declaration on the outside of the package. Naively, I thought that anything that came through the normal post was randomly checked by customs and that only courier companies like UPS (who I am sure make a bit of cash out of their customs handling charges) had processes in place to record the contents of all packages monitor and report customs payments to HMRC.

You live and learn.

It looks more and more like I will be buying the AutoTiller in Europe. Unless I can find a good deal in Greece (Corfu, ideally), my local swindler will be getting his last pound of flesh from me before I head off to the Med!

This (http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P20_1785) may be helpful!

 

[Keen_Ed]

MacD.

Thanks for the info and very helpful link.

Using a handy calculator for Customs tax (http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/) I have worked out that the bit of kit (£275 in USD) that I want is still cheaper to import with duty / vat added (£386) than to buy in the UK (£450).
It is debatable whether the £65 saving (after shipping and VAT) is worth the hassle but, if you were buying a bit more kit, it might be worth getting a cheap £250 flight across the pond and bringing it back in a suitcase.

I would be astonished if you couldn't haggle the price down from £450.

 

[Ravi]

I would be astonished if you couldn't haggle the price down from £450.

I am painfully aware that I am completely useless at haggling. I must be the only mug in the world who has bought a boat for the full asking price (last week). My meek attempts at haggling lasted about 30 seconds before I caved in to the "Well, there are plenty of other people looking at this boat", line.

Oh well. A fool and his monsy and all that. ;-)

 

[Swanrad2]

Do you think customs are not aware of this possibility and just ignore it?

I didn't say I'd thought about it!

How would they police this then? Didnt someone somewhere get away with it for years with a ship just outside UK waters selling booze? Again not suggesting it is practical, just exploring the possible.

 

[mrming]

I am painfully aware that I am completely useless at haggling. I must be the only mug in the world who has bought a boat for the full asking price (last week). My meek attempts at haggling lasted about 30 seconds before I caved in to the "Well, there are plenty of other people looking at this boat", line.

Oh well. A fool and his monsy and all that. ;-)

If it makes you feel any better, I know someone who, in the current market, paid a broker over the asking price for a boat that had been on the market for a long time, falling for the classic "another bloke has offered the asking price". Needless to say, he's not the sort of bloke who listens to advice.

 

[DoubleEnder]

Is it a TP22? I just went through the same process, but bought in the UK in the end. £420 with a haggle, you need to find someone who's actually got it in stock

 

[cliff]

<snip> but, if you were buying a bit more kit, it might be worth getting a cheap £250 flight across the pond and bringing it back in a suitcase.

Be aware that ALL suitcases are routinely x-rayed upon arrival in the UK before hitting the carousel (or so a friend in HMRC told me so a suitcase of electronic goodies will raise a few flags and as you walk through the green a wee man will politely ask you if you have anything to declare and do you know your allowances then take you through the red and you get done.
Some countries are more open about it - when you pick up your suitcase there is a BIG electronic tag attached to your case and you cannot get out of the recleim area without going through a baggage search channel where they will remove the tag and search your bags (and fine you for being a naughty boy (or girl))

 

[Robin]

Be aware that ALL suitcases are routinely x-rayed upon arrival in the UK before hitting the carousel (or so a friend in HMRC told me so a suitcase of electronic goodies will raise a few flags and as you walk through the green a wee man will politely ask you if you have anything to declare and do you know your allowances then take you through the red and you get done.
Some countries are more open about it - when you pick up your suitcase there is a BIG electronic tag attached to your case and you cannot get out of the recleim area without going through a baggage search channel where they will remove the tag and search your bags (and fine you for being a naughty boy (or girl))

I brought a Navman plotter back a few years ago in my case without a problem n customs,bought it at a big discount plus a $100 extra mail in rebate but only if you had a USA address to mail it to (we did) I had to argue with Navman mind to get a written confirmation that the warranty would apply worldwide ( a plotter is something surely that is going to 'travel' by it's very nature.

 

[Ravi]

Customs tales - The old, chestnut about how to get stuff through customs.

A couple of chaps are going across the border from West to East Germany carrying a dismantled bicycle are apprehended by a customs official.
Official - "Do you have a permit to import that bicycle?"
Chap A - "I am not importing a bicycle, I only have these two wheels."
Chap B - "And all I have is this bicycle frame".
Official - "OK, those are not on my list. Go on through"

 

[AndrewB]

I am painfully aware that I am completely useless at haggling.

I always haggle on more expensive gear, and in the UK, always get a reduction. You've done your homework, you know you can get this thing with a bit of effort for £386. Just tell the manager that. He'll offer £420: if he doesn't, try elsewhere.