Buying dilemma for UK customers

[RMerlin]

the problem is that the vat and import duty is calculated on the shipping as well.

There's been the beginning of a debate here in Canada in recent months. Import duties are calculated differently on online orders versus driving across the border to buy stuff (different limit on the allowed value of your purchases before you have to pay import duties), and consumers are starting to complain. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this is going anywhere so far, and it's not very publicly discussed.

This is a fairly touchy subject these days where ordering online from anywhere in the world is very easy, and countries are trying to protect their local businesses.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I just wanted to thank all of you for your suggestions and advice. I considered them all carefully.

In the end I took the easy route and purchased an RT-A68U/A2 as it was 40% off with the option of returning it.

So far it seems up to the job

 

[sfx2000]

Import duties are calculated differently on online orders versus driving across the border to buy stuff (different limit on the allowed value of your purchases before you have to pay import duties), and consumers are starting to complain. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this is going anywhere so far, and it's not very publicly discussed.

This is a fairly touchy subject these days where ordering online from anywhere in the world is very easy, and countries are trying to protect their local businesses.

Sidebar - a few years ago - I was flying thru Toronto, doing some work with Bell (I was on the vendor side), and had 4 test devices and two laptops - and they made me pay duties for three of the devices and one of the laptops - and they don't take checks... maybe I just had a customs officer on a bad day perhaps...

 

[System Error Message]

Sidebar - a few years ago - I was flying thru Toronto, doing some work with Bell (I was on the vendor side), and had 4 test devices and two laptops - and they made me pay duties for three of the devices and one of the laptops - and they don't take checks... maybe I just had a customs officer on a bad day perhaps...

yeah customs or even security dont understand those who work in a field that requires multiple computer/computer parts.

 

[willsy]

I just wanted to thank all of you for your suggestions and advice. I considered them all carefully.

In the end I took the easy route and purchased an RT-A68U/A2 as it was 40% off with the option of returning it.

So far it seems up to the job

Not much use to you now... But I just got a revision E1 68U from Amazon in the UK. Thought it might be useful for other people though. Sure there is very little difference between the two anyway!

Cheers

Will

 

[sfx2000]

yeah customs or even security dont understand those who work in a field that requires multiple computer/computer parts.

Not just Canada (they're actually not that bad) - Latin America - esp. Mexico and Brazil... at the time, Mexico was flat-out corruption, as a $20USD bill discretely folded between the pages pretty much cleared the way...

Brazil was esp. painful - a few year back, we had a local dev team in Sao Paulo - I was scheduled to go down and do a merge/update (they did maint builds, we did primary dev) on the code base and update the team down there - thought it would be an easy thing, but ended up having to get the Brazilian equivalent of a US L-Series Visa (background check, letter of invite, etc) - if it were just a one day business meeting, it would be one thing, but going down there for two weeks, I was "working"...

Seems that the US got caught in a scuffle between Brazil and Canada regarding airplance - Embraer vs. Bombardier - and what some might refer to as the banana war because of NAFTA...​

Even going thru customs/immigration in Brazil - when they saw my Canada entry stamps on my passport... was worse than having my Israeli stamps going thru passport control in Abu Dhabi...

Folks over in the EU Schengen zone - wonder what going to happen post-Brexit for our UK forum members...