International Gbax Orders

[Mjlink]

So the one thing that is uncertain is what's going to happen when these units ship to the end user. People here have dealt with Craig's company Gbax for years. What's your story if you ordered from GBax & your order crossed an international border?

Danks & kindness,

Link

EDIT: If you were hit, include details as to what you paid and maybe a dollar amount of what you ordered.

 

[Alpha2]

Most every international order I've ever made (usually getting something like games up to 80 bucks, devices at about a hundred bucks and odds and ends from asia) I've never had to pay anything extra, that is to say all the costs were factored into the final price at the time of purchase. As I understood it with the Pandora I shouldnt have to pay any more than I already have. I've ordered from DealExtreme, from Play-asia, and a couple of other importers I can't remember.

Actually the only extra I've ever had to pay was a credit card tax on foreign orders.

 

[Mjlink]

^
I was more referring to those who've ordered from GBax, since the Pandora will most likely be going out of England through similar means/route.

I've had the same success while dealing with Asia in the past, I imported some high end minidisc recorders and never had an issue. Marking post packages as a gift/demo may help this success out of England perhaps. What they don't know won't hurt them, and we are demo'ing the OS for future development, so technically we aren't liars.

Peace & AFPAK & Master Kush blend,

Link

 

[kingoddball]

There is no way in hell you should have to pay any extra if you have already paid for it.
I would cause such an uproar.

I have ordered items from UK and Germany before with no tax.

 

[Asmo]

Any import fees can't be factored into the purchase price by a foreign (ie not in your home country) seller, the tax/import duty is a fee collected by your government's customs services, not the seller. The seller could advise you of possible fees, many carry a disclaimer that your local customs is something beyond their control.

If the company was importing the goods to a distributor in your country THEN the distributor would deal with these charges and they would end up being factored into the retail price in that location.

Whether you get hit with additional charges will depend on two things: the value of the goods (you'll have to check with your mail/customs service what the threshold value is) and the shipping method.
The large courier services like FedEX and DHL operate on the basis that all their consignments are automatically declared and evaluated, whereas regular mail has a chance of going unnoticed a lot of the time.

 

[gruso]

@kingoddball, the threshold for imports in Australia is around $1000 (rule of thumb). If you ordered a few grand worth of DJ gear or something, you'd get slugged with import duty. Smaller things fly under the radar, thankfully.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Not a GBAX order really, but customs is customs...

I recently got stung by DHL. I ordered a pair of expensive cowboy boots from America for my GF's christmas present. Everything got delivered fine, but in January I got a letter from them stating that I owed them charges.

I have yet to pay it, and it's on the very bottom of my priority list. I was a little peeved at this new system as ordinarily when I've been hit by customs, you have to pay the courier first before they will release your items, giving you a chance to refuse them if you consider the tax too high (once was charged £70 extra for a tiny box of jewellery). Anyway, it's all part of the dance of import, and I will pay them eventually.

I believe DX offer the option of marking your parcel as a gift, and under-declaring the cost of the item inside to avoid charges. Personally I wouldn't go down that road.

 

[NLS]

@kingoddball, the threshold for imports in Australia is around $1000 (rule of thumb). If you ordered a few grand worth of DJ gear or something, you'd get slugged with import duty. Smaller things fly under the radar, thankfully.

Here in Norway, you have to pay customs and then VAT on top of that if you order anything over about 35$
Hopefully craig/ED will write "a gift to my friend Nils, with love from craig/ED" on the package so it just slips by easy

 

[Monk]

Yes, international fraud sounds like the way to go.

 

[taito]

@kingoddball, the threshold for imports in Australia is around $1000 (rule of thumb). If you ordered a few grand worth of DJ gear or something, you'd get slugged with import duty. Smaller things fly under the radar, thankfully.

Here in Norway, you have to pay customs and then VAT on top of that if you order anything over about 35$
Hopefully craig/ED will write "a gift to my friend Nils, with love from craig/ED" on the package so it just slips by easy

If it ships within EU then VAT wont be added(right?), I had heard of people saying it would be around 300$. But I got my list in euro with same numbers. And 1 euro is 1.29 dollars so we have to pay 387~ dollars instead of 300 :/ Plus accessories and shipment ofc

 

[droneb]

as long as they tag it as a prototype or as a full laptop/netpc, i wont get charged
since theres some tax exemption for these.

 

[TaG]

Not a GBAX order really, but customs is customs...

Not really - that's the point. It differs depending on what is sent from where and to where. Incoming to UK is irrelevant to what happends going to USA. That's maybe why the thread was started.

 

[NLS]

@kingoddball, the threshold for imports in Australia is around $1000 (rule of thumb). If you ordered a few grand worth of DJ gear or something, you'd get slugged with import duty. Smaller things fly under the radar, thankfully.

Here in Norway, you have to pay customs and then VAT on top of that if you order anything over about 35$
Hopefully craig/ED will write "a gift to my friend Nils, with love from craig/ED" on the package so it just slips by easy

If it ships within EU then VAT wont be added(right?), I had heard of people saying it would be around 300$. But I got my list in euro with same numbers. And 1 euro is 1.29 dollars so we have to pay 387~ dollars instead of 300 :/ Plus accessories and shipment ofc

Norway is not in EU

 

[WizardStan]

My mom runs an embroidery shop. Last year she bought a new machine off ebay. This was a fairly large $12000 machine (when brand new), used they would go for 8000, but she managed to get this one for only 6000. She and my dad had to go pick it up as it would have cost a lot to have such a large machine shipped.
Anywho, when they crossed the border the guard looked it up and found this same machine for $8000, and despite them having all the paperwork proving they had only paid $6000, the crossing guard deemed it worth $8000 and charged them duty on that.
It's entirely possible that the Pandora will cross and, despite having a price tag of $330, the person handling duty that day might deem it some kind of laptop or something, and actually tax at $600 or more, BECAUSE THEY CAN!
Or it might slip totally under the radar and you pay nothing.

 

[Phawx]

I am kind of afraid what the customs fee will be if it comes to USA. I have never paid a customs fee. What should I expect?

 

[MonkeyChops]

Are there any imported items exempt from import duty?

Some imported items qualify for a duty charge of zero percent, while others are exempted entirely from import duty. Those that are exempted include:

• Household and personal effects.
• Books, instruments, and other professional equipment employed overseas and returned.
• Containers whose contents have been exported and are being returned to the US.<----
• Items exported for repair (although import duty may be charged on the repaired portion of the item).
• Animals (domestic) temporarily exported for pasturage purposes and returned within eight months.
• Other re-imported items which are specifically allowed for.

From this website: http://www.import-duty.com/ referring to us import tax.

It looks like there is a legal way to make the Pandora's exempt from the import tax.

I'm pretty sure this was talked about before but in reverse for the benefit of OP in UK, so I'm not sure this kind of double dipping would work.

It looks like the Pandora could also fall under one of the other exempt categories as well.

 

[verm71]

My mom runs an embroidery shop. Last year she bought a new machine off ebay. This was a fairly large $12000 machine (when brand new), used they would go for 8000, but she managed to get this one for only 6000. When they crossed the border the guard looked it up and found this same machine for $8000, and despite them having all the paperwork proving they had only paid $6000, the crossing guard deemed it worth $8000 and charged them duty on that.
It's entirely possible that the Pandora will cross and, despite having a price tag of $330, the person handling duty that day might deem it some kind of laptop or something, and actually tax at $600 or more, BECAUSE THEY CAN!
Or it might slip totally under the radar and you pay nothing.

They were able to determine the price/value of the machine at $8000 because the item can be looked up, probably on many databases that border inspectors use (if not Google or eBay). It's like if they could look up a used car database. If you cross the border saying "I just got this 2009 Porsche Boxter for $5 - honestly! It was a police auction!"; they won't care how much paperwork you got proving it (paperwork can be forged). You're still going to pay the market value's worth of customs/taxes, etc...

In the case of the Pandora, the best they'll be able to do is determine that its value is $300, if they can find it at all, and tax you accordingly. They can't possibly say "well, based on the OMAP version used, RAM upgrade, touchscreen and these one-of-a-kind nubs, I think it should be worth $600, so I'm going to tax you on $600." The price they come up with has to be documentable.

Edit: Typo, removed useless remark and added an equally useless Edit: remark.

 

[MonkeyChops]

http://www.customs.g...t_purchases.xml

A good read for us importers (us pandora customers)

If I'm interpreting it right, The Pandora would be exempt of most import tax as it will be for personal use, not commercial. It also says that misinformation is of course illegal and that the importer (you) can be fined for it.

It talks about the different choices of shipping and the ramifications of each. It sounds to me like a courier is the best option for us customers mainly because they provide a tracking number and take care of any paper work and taxes that are required and then charge you for it before or at the point of delivery to your door.

I'm pretty sure I picked Royal Mail (because it was cheaper) way back when, which I would assume is a postal service, not a courier. However, I do recall Craig(maybe it was someone else) saying that they (GBAX) always include a tracking number. So, I'm a bit confused. Will US customers who picked Royal mail get a tracking number from a courier? If not, I will probably be changing mine to the UPS option.

[edit] there is a more detailed import information page linked within the above link. Its 211 pages and I don't have time to read it right now (at work h34r: ) but I'm sure it would shine some light on this subject if someone is so inclined to dig through it.

Direct link to the PDF version: http://www.customs.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf

 

[Zotty]

They were able to determine the price/value of the machine at $8000 because the item can be looked up, probably on many databases that border inspectors use (if not Google or eBay). It's like if they could look up a used car database. If you cross the border saying "I just got this 2009 Porsche Boxter for $5 - honestly! It was a police auction!"; they won't care how much paperwork you got proving it (paperwork can be forged). You're still going to pay the market value's worth of customs/taxes, etc...

Don't know how it works over there, but over here they tried this several times and every time I eventually had to pay taxes over the actual amount, not what they wanted. It's a pita, but if you can prove you payed amount x (e.g. copy of CC transaction or something similar), then they have no choice but to back off. It's stealing otherwise. But they try anyway, so be weary!

 

[davidgro]

From what I can make of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, it looks like the Pandora would probably be a 8471.30.0100, "Portable automatic data processing machines, weighing not more than 10 kg, consisting of at least a central processing unit, a keyboard and a display"
Those are free as long as they aren't coming from Cuba or North Korea

I have no experience with this stuff at all, so official word would be really great. (Especially if I'm right)