Its expensive. It takes over a week before we get this on the tracking info:
“Your item could not be delivered on March 1, 2018 UNITED KINGDOM due to payment of charges. It is being held while the addressee is notified.” So now I will have an extra VAT charge, which is OK, but there will be yet another £10 added by the post office. All because a Guildford based company can’t be bothered to bulk ship it’s UK designed products to its UK customers, or to pre-pay tax like Mouser and Digikey do.
Which in my case, means I will not only end up paying about 40% more than US people do but I also will not see it for another week, so UK enthusiasts supporting a UK company have to pay an extra 20% above the tax for a delivery that takes a week longer. Its’ not right, it’s bad marketing and it damages the brand.
It’s funny how smart people think it costs nothing to have local stock sitting in a warehouse or to run a reseller business.
The Airspy HF+ was designed by a small team in EU. They do not have any infrastructure for manufacturing or selling, so they are outsourcing it to a Chinese company.
Airspy HF+ purchased from manufacturer in China: USD 199
Airspy HF+ purchased from EU reseller: EUR 259
That’s a 60% increase in price. And that’s from a re-seller who already has the infrastructure in place.
I don’t think it costs nothing. I just object to UK companies favouring US customers over UK ones and setting up their distribution in the US when they could equally have done this in the UK or EU. It’s no wonder we are falling ever down the high tech league tables and failing to get young people interested in technology in high enough numbers when stuff costs 40-60% more in Europe than it does elsewhere
Indeed and there are many other factors to consider, not least of which that Crowd Supply handle logistics and operate global distribution. If this were moved to the UK it would be disconnected from sales and, I’m sure, we’d then have people not happy that it wasn’t in the US.
I can understand the frustration with customs and shipping, and as someone also based in the UK and who frequently purchases items from around the world, I too wish things were much simpler. However, we’re very much a global community and it would be difficult to please everyone in this respect.
In Hungary, there is some “gambling” feeling with ordering anything outside from EU -if the customs catch your package, it will cost you +3-5% custom fee + custom handling +27% VAT. If doesn’t - you have luck - if not, you must pay + in that case (…if something looks like high-end technology stuff without casing, etc.) you got some question, like “wtf is this?!? why do you need that?” etc.), and shipping time extends…
Letter has finally arrived. I have £23.05 extra to pay - that’s about $32. Not sure how this is worked out as there is no information given on the calculation and if it includes or not the £8 post office fee. Letter is dated 1st March but it took quite a lot longer than that to arrive.
