Customs

[mobily]

Hey all,

I'm thinking of buying Lost on DVD but am aware if you spend over a certain amount you may get stung for custom charges. Any advice anyone can give to reduce the risk of this happening and what the maximum spend is?

Thanks

[MDX]

If its over £18 you have the chance of getting charged import tax, www.movietyme.com are selling it for £29.99 inc del and they are custom safe

I think what they do is ship it to the UK and then ship it from there UK address to your address so you get no charges at all.

Where were you thinking of getting it from ?

[Greg]

Moving to the DVD suppliers forum.

If you look here you will find my sticky on Customs which details all about the charges, limits etc.

[mobily]

I was thinking maybe cdwow or playusa.com

I'm not sure which retailers are customs safe and which ones aren't

[NoEntry2k]

cdwow is safe, playusa is not.

[LV426]

cdwow isn't really safe, is it? Hong Kong? Unless they lie about values.

Playusa definitely not safe. Mailed from Canada.

Movietyme have said, on this forum, that if you do get charged, they will refund it, and I have no reason to disbelieve them.

Of course you could always buy it from somewhere in the UK. It'll cost more, but that includes any taxes. eg www.dvdslimited.com (in stock, first class inland post away).

[MDX]

CDWOW are safe, i have never had 1 problem with them and i have ordered things over the value of £40 per item, never been charged once.

Saying that i have never been charged with PlayUSA either, some of there products are sent from Jersey (as Play.com), some from Belgium etc.

I have never had anything sent from Cannada though :|

[LV426]

If something is

a) mailed directly from Hong Kong
b) worth more than GBP18

then, if you haven't paid duty and VAT, you have been lucky.

[MDX]

Well i got a few of the Kill Bill Vol 2 sets from there that were priced at £30 and not one of them got charged, they all had a Customs Declaration thing on the back of the Boxes saying that item was *Other* from the choice of Gift,Commercial Sample or Documents.

Then in the Detail box its classed as DVD, it was declared for £29.99 and had that on the front and the back of the box.

I know many others that also got this set from cd-wow and never got charged once.

It also has a UKVAT - 43440883, so i am guessing cd-wow pay for the Vat ?

EDIT: Just found this on cd-wow's site

Items over the UK HM Customs & Excise VAT Personal Import allowances Orders containing items over the UK Customs & Excise VAT personal import allowance are sent via Hong Kong Post, our postal agent. Hong Kong Post arranges the payment of VAT and or any other taxes and duties which may apply to UK H M Customs and Excise on your behalf FROM THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID. You will not be asked to pay any additional sums upon delivery / collection

Also just having another look at the box it does say HKP Import VAT Prepaid.

So cd-wow are 100% Customs Safe

[Seth Gecko]

*Personal comment*

If you buy from the EU, you won't get customs charges. I've bought recently the La Femme Nikita Season 3 boxset from Axel Music which was £40 (the Nikita box sets, like Profiler, aren't cheap) and it arrived in a few days without any customs issues. I've also had one boxset go "walkies" from Axel and they've re-sent it to me without any fuss, so personally, I can't complain with that.

[cosmokramer]

Originally Posted by LV426

cdwow isn't really safe, is it? Hong Kong? Unless they lie about values.

Playusa definitely not safe. Mailed from Canada.

Movietyme have said, on this forum, that if you do get charged, they will refund it, and I have no reason to disbelieve them.

I've been stung with all the big names - CD-WOW, Play, DVD-Soon and Amazon.com. The best in my experience is www.dvdfromkorea.com, who will print a downvalued invoice, print a downvalued customs slip and pretty much withstand all interogation by customs to get you off the hook! although obviously that's for R3 titles primarily. The 2 times I've had the pleasure of being a movietyme.com customer I've had no problems, although each time the title has been shipped from within the UK.. From their site they apparently don't refund customs/import duty charges though? :

(http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/faq.php)
"Q: Are shipments Liable To Tax & Duty?
A: Yes as a rule all items over £18 in value are liable for Customs Tax & Duty.
Customers of this site are responsible for paying local countries import taxes / duty and are none refundable by us."

[MDX]

Originally Posted by cosmokramer

I've been stung with all the big names - CD-WOW, Play, DVD-Soon and Amazon.com. The best in my experience is www.dvdfromkorea.com, who will print a downvalued invoice, print a downvalued customs slip and pretty much withstand all interogation by customs to get you off the hook! although obviously that's for R3 titles primarily. The 2 times I've had the pleasure of being a movietyme.com customer I've had no problems, although each time the title has been shipped from within the UK.. From their site they apparently don't refund customs/import duty charges though? :

(http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/faq.php)
"Q: Are shipments Liable To Tax & Duty?
A: Yes as a rule all items over £18 in value are liable for Customs Tax & Duty.
Customers of this site are responsible for paying local countries import taxes / duty and are none refundable by us."

Craig from Movietyme has confirmed on these forums they are custom free, also if you have been stung buy all the major sites then i would complain as cd-wow clearly state you will not get charged, Play.com have no charges at all!!

[burgeruk]

i got my copy of lost season1 boxset last week from dvd import,no customs charges-the customs declaration stated the value as $18, i've never been stung for customs charges when getting stuff from them