Customs-friendly places

Zin5ki

Zin5ki

Railgun
Old forum threads and the occasional rumour lead me to believe that some R1 online retailers used to perform several tricks to help their customers' orders pass through customs without incurring charges.
I know that Yesasia overtly claim to pay any such fees, but from peoples' experiences are there any other customs-friendly stores out there any more?
The last order I made with PlayUSA was labelled as a gift on the packaging (even though it was a penny under the £18 limit anyway) but I can't say if that's normally the case.
 
PlayUSA aren't customs-friendly. Recently I ordered a £23 item that incurred an £11 charge, £8 of which was the obscene Royal Mail "handling fee".

AxelMusic pay the VAT beforehand. They're a little cheaper than the UK based importers and occasionally run a free shipping promotion.
 
PlayUSA are only good for £17.99 and below items. Their stock list tends to be a bit sparse too, but when they're good, they're good.

Yesasia I only use for R2J, gaming and music things. They're great, but their R1 anime seems really expensive so I haven't tried that.

Axelmusic are good and sometimes cheap. I maintain a wishlist with them and check from time to time for deals.

TRSI (Right Stuf) mark all their prices down for you (everything for $5 usually) on the customs slip and post the invoices separately, which is nice. You have to be patient to get really good bargains through them, though.

For used stuff, nothing beats SecondSpin as they regularly run free shipping sales (no minimum order limit) and you can order in ridiculously small chunks to keep well under the limit. They don't carry any new things though, and their prices for high popularity items are about the same as new anyway.

R
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
PlayUSA aren't customs-friendly. Recently I ordered a £23 item that incurred an £11 charge, £8 of which was the obscene Royal Mail "handling fee".
Click to expand...

Ye, I tried playUSA the other day aswell. Got a £17 item though within a couple of days, no customs fees. Bought a £24 item on the same day, arrived about 2-3 weeks later (but was posted first) and had £11 charge on it, again £8 being the royal mail fee. ¬.¬
 
Rui said:
TRSI (Right Stuf) mark all their prices down for you (everything for $5 usually) on the customs slip and post the invoices separately, which is nice. You have to be patient to get really good bargains through them, though.
Click to expand...
I didn't know Rightstuf did that sort of thing. Alas the fact that they (and many others) no longer accept paypal makes it extremely difficult for Maestro-only folk like myself to shop with them.
 
Zin5ki said:
Rui said:
TRSI (Right Stuf) mark all their prices down for you (everything for $5 usually) on the customs slip and post the invoices separately, which is nice. You have to be patient to get really good bargains through them, though.
Click to expand...
I didn't know Rightstuf did that sort of thing. Alas the fact that they (and many others) no longer accept paypal makes it extremely difficult for Maestro-only folk like myself to shop with them.
Click to expand...

I got upgraded to visa about a month ago, it makes things so much easier, you really should get one if at all possible.
 
megagold5 said:
I got upgraded to visa about a month ago, it makes things so much easier, you really should get one if at all possible.
Click to expand...
I'm with Natwest. They've no interest in introducing visa debit. The only way I can get a Visa is by getting a credit card.
On an unrelated note, I've heard mixed opinions about a site called dvdpacific. Has anyone here had any particularly good or bad experiences with them?
 
Zin5ki said:
megagold5 said:
I got upgraded to visa about a month ago, it makes things so much easier, you really should get one if at all possible.
Click to expand...
I'm with Natwest. They've no interest in introducing visa debit. The only way I can get a Visa is by getting a credit card.
On an unrelated note, I've heard mixed opinions about a site called dvdpacific. Has anyone here had any particularly good or bad experiences with them?
Click to expand...

I've been lucky with them, never been charged once, but apparently it's a matter of pot luck. A few years back RM had a crackdown on DVDPacific parcels and everything got caught.
 
I've sort of given up with trying to get stuff cheap from the US at the moment with the pound dollar exchange. More often than not if playusa can do something for under £18 they will and there are some bargains to be had like this as often stuff is cheaper than in the US at that price, also most of their single discs are cheaper than most places. The only problem with playusa at the moment seems to be they are not getting every new show. Anything I am sure I will get hit for duty on I get from otaku.co.uk or up1.co.uk at the moment because they have just about priced most things to come in just under what you would pay bringing it in direct and paying the duty and royal mail charge. I am waiting for the exchange rate to get better then I will probably go back to using deepdiscount.com in the US as they were my favourite before but it did take a little work sometimes to make sure everything got sent separate or expensive bits got sent together so you only had to pay the royal mail fee once.
 
Zin5ki said:
On an unrelated note, I've heard mixed opinions about a site called dvdpacific. Has anyone here had any particularly good or bad experiences with them?
Click to expand...

DVD Pacific are great. They have had some bad periods (their database security was breached a long time ago which understandably pissed off quite a lot of customers) but they had a full security redesign and are a really nice bunch, who will answer questions and support foreign users very well.

They have (or had - not ordered from them in a while due to the dollar) an option to ship by a few different carriers; at one point I think Swedish Post parcels were sneaking by customs more often than not. But as JPT says, sometimes the folks at customs get bored and start checking everything strictly so you can never be sure.

R
 
I've never had a customs charge...even from PlayUSA. This is including boxsets around £30, packages of clothes, packages of CDs, whatever. I guess I've just been lucky. =/
 
Zin5ki said:
megagold5 said:
I got upgraded to visa about a month ago, it makes things so much easier, you really should get one if at all possible.
Click to expand...
I'm with Natwest. They've no interest in introducing visa debit. The only way I can get a Visa is by getting a credit card.
On an unrelated note, I've heard mixed opinions about a site called dvdpacific. Has anyone here had any particularly good or bad experiences with them?
Click to expand...

HSBC FTW!

As for DVDPacific, I remember looking at them a while back, but decided not to order from them as they were not particularly cheap and something about their site turned me away.

Also, and I forgot to metion this before, but Amazon Marketplace, and in particular Caiman have NEVER caused me any import charges and I have ordered quite alot of stuff through them.
 
DVD Pacific not cheap? They discount everything by about 40%, and their inernational shipping prices aren't bad. But the exchange rate means that anything you buy in US dollars has increased in price quite considerably in recent months.
 
megagold5 said:
Also, and I forgot to metion this before, but Amazon Marketplace, and in particular Caiman have NEVER caused me any import charges and I have ordered quite alot of stuff through them.
Click to expand...
I've noticed that. Things like this seem to be very tempting. The problem is, there's always risks when shopping on the Marketplace.
Natwest gave me a railcard. It allows me to go on trains for cheap.
 
megagold5 said:
Also, and I forgot to metion this before, but Amazon Marketplace, and in particular Caiman have NEVER caused me any import charges and I have ordered quite alot of stuff through them.
Click to expand...

I was just about to mention this. I've ordered quite a number of stuff from Caiman US, and have never had any trouble.
 
has anyone had a problem with customs with amazon?
just thought i'd ask cause most of the sellers on there you can buy throught the UK one, but they ship from America
 
Zin5ki said:
megagold5 said:
Also, and I forgot to metion this before, but Amazon Marketplace, and in particular Caiman have NEVER caused me any import charges and I have ordered quite alot of stuff through them.
Click to expand...
I've noticed that. Things like this seem to be very tempting. The problem is, there's always risks when shopping on the Marketplace.
Click to expand...

I have ordered from both supermoviedeals and supermart before, both came through with no problems. Also, im pretty sure that Amazon will refund your money if you have problems.

Zin5ki said:
Natwest gave me a railcard. It allows me to go on trains for cheap.
Click to expand...

Well lar-dee-dar. ¬.¬

Otaku-san said:
has anyone had a problem with customs with amazon?
just thought i'd ask cause most of the sellers on there you can buy throught the UK one, but they ship from America
Click to expand...
No, never.
 
I have had import charges on stuff from Caiman before, along with other Amazon sellers and US Amazon.

But then the customs people look for me by name now, I think.
 
Back
Top