Buying from Hong Kong?

[Mick]

Hi all. Just a thought, its probably an old question but Ive decided lifes to short and Ive been saving up for ages and finally have the money for a 1DX. I think what did it was the Osprey shots I did. The MK 4 was excellent to crop and had great reach but I stopped at ISO 1600 due to grain, the weather was bad most of the time. The pro guys did the same so I guess I was in good company. What I wondered is an old question im sure has been posted before, buying from Hong Kong. Prices in the UK are very high. Ive had a look around the net and theres a lot of trading companies in Hong Kong with very good ratings. They pay the import duty but are still cheap. Can anyone recommend a good one. I may be buying an expensive toy but £800 is £800 and if I can save that I will but dont want to get scammed or buy from a iffy company.

 

[dhr90]

I've used both Digital rev and hdew cameras without problems. Digital rev was for my 7D, 24-105 and 12-24 all in one package. It was shipped to me via DHL direct from Hong Kong and on the outside was marked as being worth about £30-£40 to avoided customs opening it, actual value was more like £1600! I bought my 70-200 from hdew and from the box it seems like they shipped it from their UK address.

You could ring them up to settle any questions you have, I did that with hdew. Hdew emailed me to confirm order, that payment had been taken and when it was dispatched so I'd know it would be delivered the next day which was a nice touch I thought.

I'd use both again, by my calculations I've saved about £1k over anything a camera store in the UK could offer.

If you are will having concerns, look up Ian Kerso in Scotland. He seems to be well recommended (although I haven't used him myself), and I think he may actually be selling items with a UK Canon warranty, which the others I have used don't offer, they do provide their own warranties though.

 

[sama]

I've used both Digital rev and hdew cameras without problems. Digital rev was for my 7D, 24-105 and 12-24 all in one package. It was shipped to me via DHL direct from Hong Kong and on the outside was marked as being worth about £30-£40 to avoided customs opening it, actual value was more like £1600! I bought my 70-200 from hdew and from the box it seems like they shipped it from their UK address.

You could ring them up to settle any questions you have, I did that with hdew. Hdew emailed me to confirm order, that payment had been taken and when it was dispatched so I'd know it would be delivered the next day which was a nice touch I thought.

I'd use both again, by my calculations I've saved about £1k over anything a camera store in the UK could offer.

If you are will having concerns, look up Ian Kerso in Scotland. He seems to be well recommended (although I haven't used him myself), and I think he may actually be selling items with a UK Canon warranty, which the others I have used don't offer, they do provide their own warranties though.

Just curious to ask if caught for cheating the customs, who will pay the penalty and if the items are seized/confiscated finally, who will be responsible for it ?

 

[bainsybike]

I bought an EOS M, complete with 22mm and 18-55mm lenses, EF adaptor and flash unit for £423.99 from One Stop Digital - about half UK price. Arrived in a few days via DHL, and they kept me fully informed of progress, including tracking info. I'd certainly use them again.

 

[rs]

Just curious to ask if caught for cheating the customs, who will pay the penalty and if the items are seized/confiscated finally, who will be responsible for it ?

On the DigitalRev site, if you add an item to your basket, on the right below the price it says the following:

[quote author="DigitalRev"]
No Import Tax/Duty to Pay:
Any import tax/duty charged will
be billed directly to us.
[/quote]
Which is contradicted by generic (non UK) wording on the Customs section of their Conditions of Sale page:

[quote author="DigitalRev"]
Any additional charges for customs clearance must be borne by you, unless an Import Handling Charge is included in the price of the goods.
[/quote]
I've not paid any import duty on the items I've ordered from them.

 

[DRR]

Just curious to ask if caught for cheating the customs, who will pay the penalty and if the items are seized/confiscated finally, who will be responsible for it ?

On the DigitalRev site, if you add an item to your basket, on the right below the price it says the following:

[quote author="DigitalRev"]
No Import Tax/Duty to Pay:
Any import tax/duty charged will
be billed directly to us.

Which is contradicted by generic (non UK) wording on the Customs section of their Conditions of Sale page:

[quote author="DigitalRev"]
Any additional charges for customs clearance must be borne by you, unless an Import Handling Charge is included in the price of the goods.
[/quote]
I've not paid any import duty on the items I've ordered from them.
[/quote]

It's not a contradiction. The answer is right in front of you:

"if you add an item to your basket"

What you've done by adding the item to your basket is invoking the clause from the general disclaimer, "unless an Import Handling Charge is included in the price of the goods"

You're adding an item to your cart, that includes the import handling charge.

I suspect that if you add a different item to your cart that doesn't include the import handling charge, it will not have the "Any import tax/duty charged will be billed directly to us" language.

The generic non-UK wording on the Customs section is the blanket disclaimer, which is superseded by your purchase contract for that one particular item.

Make sense?