Play 247 changing things/Covering their a**e?

Thats a bit weird, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Importers (for example cars) tend to deal with this before posting a price, so a customer knows for sure what they are paying. It seems to me that Play are making a slightly hamfisted job of covering their arse.
 
Even stranger. I've just been back to double check it, and it didn't appear this time. Hmmmmmmm.
I ordered my R1 disc as normal. Strange goings on methinks.
 
Very worring

i thought the whole idea of £17.99 maximum for R1 discs (box sets not included) and each item shipped individually was to avoid customs tax :confused:

Paul
 
perhaps some of their disks will be shipped direct from North America instead of from the Euro zone.

That might explain why the message only comes up when you order certain disks....


Just an idea
 
thats crazy, might aswell buy from the states, if they're gonna do that!!
 
I checked this out when the General posted this,and tried to order `The Others` & `From Hell`and they both came up with that "you may have to pay duty" baloney so I left it alone,been back to check it out and all traces have disapeared??? Oh yeah,something you may find intresting,one of my friends works for a distribution outfit - cd & dvd and they supply Play big time - 20,000/40,000 copies of any one title at busy times,now comes the intresting bit - the packages are addresed to Jersey but are sent to Peterborough - :rolleyes: is this a way around the vat???Hmmm!!!;)
 
I've been back a couple of times to order but get the disclaimer. So I've sent them an unhappy email and am switching my orders to Movietyme for now, maybe permanately, depending on their reply.
 
Which titles were they General,and was it today or yesterday as I too was considering the swap to Movietyme,but as I said they seem to have disapeared,maybe they have been sent to many angry e-mails
 
Hey General,just ordered `From Hell/`Monsters`/and `The Others` and the warning did not come up - very strange:confused: seems they must have gotten two many complaints and seen their pre-orders take a big nose dive,but as you say must try Movietyme:D
 
Originally posted by General Skanky
Anyone seen this yet...http://194.193.248.133/play247.asp?...e=0&id=0&adudisc=y&cpage=4&duty=100886&sent=2
I went to order a disc and this disclaimer popped up. I do worry.:blush:

Play ship most R1 titles from Canada (they couldn't pre-pay customs charges), they used to refund any customs charges that occured when the dvds were over £18. But since Sept 11th customs have been a lot more aggressive with their checks which has led to a massive increase in packages being hit with customs charges. Play were one of the only companies that refunded customs charges (some others try to avoid charges by breaking the law by putting down incorrect customs value on the package etc.)

Due to the increase in amount of packages being hit by customs play are no longer able to keep refunding charges (of 21% VAT&Import + £4 Consignia Admin fee)

It's only R1 dvds that are over £18 that will be at risk from customs charges, Play only show the warning with discs over £18.

Their R2 dvds are still shipped from Jersey, play use royal mails pre-pay charges option so they cover all customs charges (their R2 titles over £18 include all charges thats why they tend to be higher than other stores). You are not at risk of charges with R2 titles over £18
 
Originally posted by General Skanky
If they are an importer, then they have to take responsibility for their services. I remember when I imported LaserDiscs. A much smaller market, but the company involved laid everything out clearly, stated 'No extra charges to pay' and I accepted it for what it was. If Play came out and said....'£1 extra per disc to cover customs' (for example), at least we'd know why. But it's business, they know we can just pop along to the competition who quite happily provide the same service with no disclaimer!

Not good enough IMO. They are simply doing a blanket cover on all imports. I've always been an advocate of Play, if this disclaimer goes for good I'll be happy, but not right now.

How can they take responsibility if they don't know what will get a charge and what will not?
I have ordered hundreds of discs from Play and DVD Box Office and I've only paid import duty once and that was for the season 4 box set of the X-Files (which Play paid back to me :) ). Ordered the other three sets via Play and never paid any customs charge!

How happy would we all be if play just upped their prices saying it was to cover import duty and then when the postie turns up at your door with a nice new package from Play and asks you for £9.81 for import duty. It's impossible for Play to know what package will get charged and what will not.

I think the new disclaimer is to say to confused customers that there is a possibility that you might get charged import duty when buying region 1 DVD's. Maybe if they worded their warning a little better it might help.

As for MovieTyme. I ordered Training Day from them last Tuesday when they informed us via this forum that it was in stock, but I've still to recieve any word from them.
I ordered a copy from Play on Thursday lunchtime for my brother and it came on Saturday! What might make it worse is if I get a customs charge on the disk from MovieTyme.

I'm sticking with Play for now as they are by far the best cheap priced retailer on the net for DVD's/Games and CD's.
 
You will not get hit by customs charges using Movietyme.
As they repost in the UK, they pay any customs charges due on an item and the price quoted is what you pay, no customs risk. This used to be why they were more expensive for boxsets than Play (as they had paid the VAT and import duty on your behalf), now have similar prices so why take the risk with Play.
They have now switched wholesaler for boxsets eg Beverley Hills Cop and Juarssic Park which is cheaper so even with the customs charges they are now similar price to Play. Only down side on new release boxsets is they don't arrive early, unlike standard disks which they get upto 3 weeks before official release date.

Play are similar to Amazon US in that they ship via Europe (Play - Belgium, Amazon - Germany) and therefore you are liable for any UK customs charges if your order is stopped. However in my experience you are always caught with Amazon over the £17.99 limit possibly because customs have heard of them so look out for their packages. The only time I heard Play getting caught was with the Die Hard boxsets but customs are now definitely taking more interest as stated above. Seen this with my Australian orders
 
just orderd the Die Hard boxset from DVDboxoffice and no customs so im a happy bunny.

Also, Id forgotten just how good the first movie was.
 
Re: Play.com, I ordered R2 'East is East' (£6.49) last Thursday, it arrived Saturday. Ordered R1 'Moulin Rouge (£16.99) Monday and it arrived today. Ordered R1 'The Fast and the Furious' (£15.99)last night and will expect it Thursday or Friday. That is what I call SERVICE! All prices including post and packing.
 
Originally posted by malcy

Play are similar to Amazon US in that they ship via Europe (Play - Belgium, Amazon - Germany) and therefore you are liable for any UK customs charges if your order is stopped. However in my experience you are always caught with Amazon over the £17.99 limit possibly because customs have heard of them so look out for their packages. The only time I heard Play getting caught was with the Die Hard boxsets but customs are now definitely taking more interest as stated above. Seen this with my Australian orders

I cannot understand what you are trying to say ... DUTY and VAT becomes due at the point of entry into the EU (which includes Ireland, UK, Germany, Belgium, etc.) so if what you say about Amazon shipping via Germany is true then VAT must be paid in Germany and British Customs do not have the right to charge VAT on entry into the UK. In case you are not aware you can purchase from anywhere within the EU and the goods will not be stopped by Customs (unless they believe you to be a Drugs Dealer).

If goods are delivered from outside the EU and they are sent by courier the courier company must declare them so you will be charged VAT 100% of the time. If the goods are delivered by Mail a very small number is selected at random (the number of packages in the postal system is very large and the number of staff available to inspect is very small) so over an extended period there should not be a pattern other than that most packages will get to you without any charges.
 
I agree with Delta and the others who are singing Plays praises.
I've had nothing but excellent service from Play - good prices, speedy delivery and any emails to them are answered promptly :D
 
I am another advocate of Play. Ordered 100 odd items from them and never had a problem. Good price, good delivery, good service. Haven't had the disclaimer about duty yet. I have noticed that they don't use special delivery on all items now but haven't worked out what criteria they use to determine this.
 
Play use Recorded Delivery for R2 DVD's sent from Jersey but not for R1 DVD's which are shipped from Belgium.

I once pointed out to Play the bad press they were receiving on some forums, mainly about delays and wrong items being shipped at a time when they were moving premises. They replied with grateful thanks and deep concern and I know from experience that they do take customers complaints very seriously. They can only afford to provide DVD's at such excellent prices because they DO provide a good service. However even the best of us get things wrong at times...
 
i think it's very good of play to put a warning on their site about customs. i can't think of another company that gives you such an obvious warning about the possibility of customs charges.
the warning should be written better to inform customers that if the disc is under 18 quid they have no risk but other than that top marks to them.
and they are an excellent company. i think i've spent about 700 pounds with them and only ever had problems twice. both times the problems were sorted very quickly, and you can;t really ask for more than that.
 
Originally posted by infomatique


I cannot understand what you are trying to say ... DUTY and VAT becomes due at the point of entry into the EU (which includes Ireland, UK, Germany, Belgium, etc.) so if what you say about Amazon shipping via Germany is true then VAT must be paid in Germany and British Customs do not have the right to charge VAT on entry into the UK. In case you are not aware you can purchase from anywhere within the EU and the goods will not be stopped by Customs (unless they believe you to be a Drugs Dealer).

If goods are delivered from outside the EU and they are sent by courier the courier company must declare them so you will be charged VAT 100% of the time. If the goods are delivered by Mail a very small number is selected at random (the number of packages in the postal system is very large and the number of staff available to inspect is very small) so over an extended period there should not be a pattern other than that most packages will get to you without any charges.

infomatique what I was trying to say is that both Play and Amazon do not ship direct to the UK from North America. My orders from Amazon have labels for Germany on them and I have seen other posts to say all European orders are sent via there. For Play they ship via Brussels airport according to their labels anyway. In both cases they air freight in bulk to a "offshore" address in Europe ie demeed to be before customs in the EU and then mail on, so they are NOT liable to customs charges at that point, only when they enter the UK, so you can not escape Consigna (Royal Mail) charging you on customs behalf. When I order from Amazon I am always caught if over £17.99, probably because even for 1 DVD they use a massive box with Amazon plastered over it in massive text, so it sticks out for customs. I have never been caught for Play but I very rarely buy anything over £17.99 from them but postings on other Forums show people have been and it is becoming more common.
 
even after all this security hoo-lah settles down we might see prolonged customs activity when they start to realise the extra revenue they can cop.
 

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