Anyone bought from Hong Kong?

[Don]

Specifically I'm looking at the firm that guarantees a price and will pay any duty...

Anyone done it?

DigitalRev on eBay...

[monkeyhanger]

Yep.

I had great service, got the VAT / Duty back.

No doubt someone will have had a bad experience though.

[_dobbo_]

Got a lens from HK, no vat and duty to pay as it was marked as a "sample".

[406]

I got a Nikon 80-400 VR lens that was marked as a sample. Got it from the urgalaxy off of Ebay for about £780 as opposed to £1450 in the high street.

HTH

Dave

406

[chim_knee]

406 said:

I got a Nikon 80-400 VR lens that was marked as a sample. Got it from the urgalaxy off of Ebay for about £780 as opposed to £1450 in the high street. HTH Dave 406

Ooo, I'm thinking about getting this lens - what is your opinon on it? Had you looked at the Sigma equivalent?

Sorry for the hi-jack.

PS I bought a memory card from HK and it was marked "gift"... small-fry compared to a lens I know but just another example of it working. I suspect, however, that we'll have a limited time to enjoy this with HMCE getting a bit strict on stuff from HK.

[406]

chim_knee said:

Ooo, I'm thinking about getting this lens - what is your opinon on it? Had you looked at the Sigma equivalent?

I think it is a great lens, and will use it in anger at Castle Donington on Sunday. I never looked at the Sigma version as the price difference from HK was negligable. I will post pics on Monday

HTH

Dave

[Don]

Thanks for that guys. I have two purchses I am considering. One is that very 80-400VR lens.

I have a very, very bad case of NAS at the moment and I have been attempting to RESIST...



...But the prices DigitalRev and URGalaxy seem able to offer are so attractive in comparison to UK shops...



If the business does me a nice quarter and servicing the toys doesn't get overly pricey...then...

[GetCarter]

Also bougt from HK including the 80-400 VR.

No problems here.

[gopher]

I used keaphoto for my 28-300, it was marked as used lensgift, no tax to pay, but they don't pay it if you do. They've got 5000+ 100% feedback so I thought it worth the risk and it was worth it.

Cheers

Paul

[zhastaph]

Got a Sigma Macro lense from Hong Kong - a guy called Etefore

He was super professional, very fast {less than a week} and I paid no duty

[crmcatee]

I've just bought a 24-70 from Digital Rev.

Shipping details etc came throught straight away. Delivered as scheduled via UPS.

My package got inspected and therefor was subject to the customs tax - I scanned the receipt and sent it to them and in the next day or so it should be hitting my bank account.

No problems here.

[Don]

What is the level of duty payable?

[crmcatee]

It's based on the valuation of the item.

Mines was about £750 for the item of which payable customs (including charges) was £45.

[_dobbo_]

crmcatee said:

It's based on the valuation of the item. Mines was about £750 for the item of which payable customs (including charges) was £45.

that means customs got your for duty but not VAT? I thought they usually spanked for both - did the receipt say second hand? (even if it wasn't)

[simpo two]

As I understand it, it's:

Import Duty: approx £20
VAT: 17.5% of declared value
£8 courier handling charge.

If you refuse to pay, they keep it for a while then return to sender. I boght a macro lens from Canada for about £200 and the fool declared the value. I calculated it would have been cheaper to refuse the parcel, let them return it and ask the seller to resend as 'gift'! So flying it 8,000 miles is cheaper than Customs duty!

[beanbag]

Saved a fortune from HK! Bought myself a wired trigger and remote for my EOS 300D.

Paid £15 for both. Bargain since the combined cost of both at Jessops was more than £50!

[crmcatee]

Just to clarify it..

The invoice said Camera Lens with a total invoice price of HK$1480 (you can check the conversion rates yourself but I think you'll find that it's way under what it should be)...

The invoice for customs etc said
Import VAT 23.91
Duties 8.11
Brokerage 11.00

Total 43.02