WilliamOptics . com

[Keiran]

Hi all,

just a quick question... has any of you in the UK ever ordered from William Optics.com.

What was the services like, as the give free postage to the UK?

Did you get stung with import tax... etc?

Cheers

keiran

[johninderby]

I've had a couple of things in the past from their eBay shop when the exchange rate was better, but now it's just so much more expensive than buying it from a UK dealer. You will get stung with the import duties and taxes and clearing fess.

For example an SPL eyepiece from their eBay shop would cost about £110.00 delivered to the UK and you could get it for £68.00 from FLO. Even if you could get one of their scopes at the auction starting price that would still be close to what you could buy it here for anyway.

Their service and shipping were very good though.

John

[Keiran]

its just i noticed a clearence area on there site, and i have seen things on there for much cheaper... what is the duties and taxes? how much?

thanks again

[russ]

21% plus a clearance fee. The last item i got clobbered on cost $59 including shipping, so i paid $13 import tax/VAT and then a whopping £18 handling fee from UPS. In the end i saved a whole £1 on the UK price.

[Keiran]

lol... Ill have to keep an eye on that... It shouldnt be allowed.

Im going to new york in the new year, so i might wait and buy the stuff then.

[TopHouse]

There are ways round it, not all stuff gets charged duty anyway as they actually only hit a percentage, I've had stuff where i've been hit with it and stuff where i haven't.

OR, you get a friend to buy stuff in the US and send it to you.

OR, some US dealers will, if asked nicely, mark the parcel as a 'gift' and wrap accordingly.

there is another dodge which i don't know the finer points of but a US supplier i used to use a lot used to put a handful of toffees in with my parts. Don't ask, i don't know either but i never got spanked with ANY of their parcels. and my daughter used to love the sweets