The All Purpose Mobile Suit Gundam Thread

The angle I've always worked from is that it's illegal for Royal Mail to withold post from you .

The most nugget of wisdom I've happened across is that you're obliged by law to pay VAT and customs charges.

Royal Mail, according to a number of people I've asked about this, don't have any legal right to levy a handling fee. Getting an explanation as to why that is the hard part. Natch.

So, either the people who tell me this are blowing smoke, or the facts are hard to find.

My investigations continue...
 
HdE said:
The angle I've always worked from is that it's illegal for Royal Mail to withold post from you .

The most nugget of wisdom I've happened across is that you're obliged by law to pay VAT and customs charges.

Royal Mail, according to a number of people I've asked about this, don't have any legal right to levy a handling fee. Getting an explanation as to why that is the hard part. Natch.

So, either the people who tell me this are blowing smoke, or the facts are hard to find.

My investigations continue...
Click to expand...
If you pay the VAT (in advance) you don't get the service charge, it just gets delivered to your door.

They've payed the VAT for you and are charging a handeling fee for having done so, at a bloody extorsionate rate.
 
Best thing for everyone would be if everything was sent as a gift and didn't include a receipt or a sender's address. No tax, no paper trail, no proof anything less than legal has occurred. Hooray for the grey market.
 
Three words: Bring it on.

You could just put the address of an abandoned building, and the value doesn't matter if it's a gift, does it? If it does, you could just mark it as second hand. No VAT on second hand goods.
 
ayase said:
Three words: Bring it on.

You could just put the address of an abandoned building, and the value doesn't matter if it's a gift, does it? If it does, you could just mark it as second hand. No VAT on second hand goods.
Click to expand...
Gifts just have double the limit, still need to declare value.
Also perish the thought it gets damaged in the post and you need to claim on the insurance, or you need to return it as incorect item, faulty etc.

Best to except the VAT as given , but try to avoid getting as big a handeling charge by using another courier.
 
HdE said:
The angle I've always worked from is that it's illegal for Royal Mail to withold post from you .

The most nugget of wisdom I've happened across is that you're obliged by law to pay VAT and customs charges.

Royal Mail, according to a number of people I've asked about this, don't have any legal right to levy a handling fee. Getting an explanation as to why that is the hard part. Natch.

So, either the people who tell me this are blowing smoke, or the facts are hard to find.

My investigations continue...
Click to expand...
As Reaper says, someone needs to pay the VAT, and the delivering company does this for you, that's the service... you can set up an account or whatever with FedEx or whoever you use so that they can bill you directly for the charges and then you don't get their service charge, no idea how you would do this with Royal Mail, but then you get the "hidden bonus" that sometimes stuff does get away with customs when sent via RM.

Again, to back up Reaper, this is why I quite like DHL - not as reliable time-wise as FedEx or UPS (can sometimes take a day longer for stuff from Japan than it should), and the boxes get knocked around a bit (although I've basically never had an issue with the actually goods being damaged), but they only charge £1.75 handling fee, so my real problem is how RM can justify charging £8.50 (I think) and ParcelForce something like £12!
 
Reaper gI said:
ayase said:
Three words: Bring it on.

You could just put the address of an abandoned building, and the value doesn't matter if it's a gift, does it? If it does, you could just mark it as second hand. No VAT on second hand goods.
Click to expand...
Gifts just have double the limit, still need to declare value.
Also perish the thought it gets damaged in the post and you need to claim on the insurance, or you need to return it as incorect item, faulty etc.

Best to except the VAT as given , but try to avoid getting as big a handeling charge by using another courier.
Click to expand...

True on the gift VAT.

ilmaestro said:
HdE said:
The angle I've always worked from is that it's illegal for Royal Mail to withold post from you .

The most nugget of wisdom I've happened across is that you're obliged by law to pay VAT and customs charges.

Royal Mail, according to a number of people I've asked about this, don't have any legal right to levy a handling fee. Getting an explanation as to why that is the hard part. Natch.

So, either the people who tell me this are blowing smoke, or the facts are hard to find.

My investigations continue...
Click to expand...

As Reaper says, someone needs to pay the VAT, and the delivering company does this for you, that's the service... you can set up an account or whatever with FedEx or whoever you use so that they can bill you directly for the charges and then you don't get their service charge, no idea how you would do this with Royal Mail, but then you get the "hidden bonus" that sometimes stuff does get away with customs when sent via RM.

Again, to back up Reaper, this is why I quite like DHL - not as reliable time-wise as FedEx or UPS (can sometimes take a day longer for stuff from Japan than it should), and the boxes get knocked around a bit (although I've basically never had an issue with the actually goods being damaged), but they only charge £1.75 handling fee, so my real problem is how RM can justify charging £8.50 (I think) and ParcelForce something like £12!
Click to expand...

I complained to the Postal Ombudsman or equivalent when Royal Mail put up their charge from about £4 to £8. All they could tell me was they were not very happy about such a large jump but there was nothing they could do beyond ask them to explain such a big increase as they were entitled to charge for the service of collecting and paying VAT and Duty.

The biggest surprise I had was from UPS which was something like a £16 fee on top of the VAT/Duty on a big order that had been sent through them not the normal mail.

I think the only real way around paying anymore than you need to is have the company / person sending the package pay any VAT/Duty up front. But I don't really know how you would go about it, although I seem to remember a few places I ordered from in the past could do it.
 
Dracos said:
I think the only real way around paying anymore than you need to is have the company / person sending the package pay any VAT/Duty up front. But I don't really know how you would go about it, although I seem to remember a few places I ordered from in the past could do it.
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If they're VAT registered in the EU they can prepay, otherwise you have to do it.
That means going to HM Customs and Revenue yourself, and filling in the paperwork. You have to do it on orders over £1000 (might be higher), I assume it's a right pain in the arse.
 
Totally unrelated to what we were just talking about (and on topic, nyuk nyuk!) I have a new Gundam dilemma:

I just CANNOT accept the ending of Zeta. I need to see ZZ Gundam now. Streaming isn't an option for me, mind.

How can I go about obtaining that legally?
 
HdE said:
Totally unrelated to what we were just talking about (and on topic, nyuk nyuk!) I have a new Gundam dilemma:

I just CANNOT accept the ending of Zeta. I need to see ZZ Gundam now. Streaming isn't an option for me, mind.

How can I go about obtaining that legally?
Click to expand...
Import the BDs from Japan, it's unlicensed.
blurays are ~40k yen on Amazon
 
Blu ray I have not. It's DVD or bust for me, sadly.

Now, if I actually manage to get hold of those from Japan, will they be subtitled in English?
 
HdE said:
Blu ray I have not. It's DVD or bust for me, sadly.

Now, if I actually manage to get hold of those from Japan, will they be subtitled in English?
Click to expand...
No, Japanese only or nothing.
Buying the bluray player is cheaper than the difference between DVD and BD. Surely you can get a decent one for under £200 (it's 20k yen more for dvd)
 
That's money I don't have. Unfortunate, but there it is.

So - no option to watch ZZ Gundam and actually undersatnd a word that's being said? That makes it a skip for me.

UK release, please, Mr. Bandai.
 
Watched Gundam Unicorn 2 yesterday and i have to say, it is damned nice. I'm now feeling pushed to finish of Zeta and get ZZ out of the way though, since i have a feeling i should've done that in the first place, hah. I'm liking Banagher a lot as well even though for some reason, i do get vibes of previous UC protagonists from him. Just small bits though. I'll give a better opinion on it later when i'm not stuck in the middle of notes and notes for uni.
 
HdE said:
Totally unrelated to what we were just talking about (and on topic, nyuk nyuk!) I have a new Gundam dilemma:

I just CANNOT accept the ending of Zeta. I need to see ZZ Gundam now. Streaming isn't an option for me, mind.

How can I go about obtaining that legally?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure Gundam ZZ is actually the answers to Gundam Z. As far as I'm aware, it's a completely different story and it's also meant to be ****. If you're wanting a definite conclusion to the Amuro-Char narrative, you probably want the movie Char's Counterattack.

*goes off to watch Gundam Unicorn 2, which has been sitting around for quite a whiel waiting to be watched*
 
The first part of ZZ is ****, yes, way too much toy marketing. It did get better/ darker latter on though.
Amuro is barely in Zeta, that narative isn't there that much.

If he does want to know wtf happened in the last episode of Zeta and all those cliffhangers he wil need to watch ZZ.
Also Unicorn assumes you've seen ZZ, it being an imediate sequel and sharing some characters.
 
Incidentally, I have Char's Counterattack on my pile.

Watched 10 minutesof it, gave up. The complete lack of any opening exposition at all just did my head in. I'll try again over my upcoming holiday.

What I really want is some closure on Kamille. I know from Wikipedia what goes down with the character, but I'd like to see it play out on screen for myself.

UK DVD release, please. And whoever's reading and in a position to make that happen, let's have Victory, X and whatever else you've got, too. Pleeeease!

I enjoyed Zeta quite a bit. but given how repetitive the formula of the show was, I was pretty angry that it didn't have a clearer ending. And honestly, what is the point of the Universal Century part of the franchise being released in the west in bits and pieces? All the while it's missing chunks like ZZ, it really looks less attractive.
 
I would agree, ZZ is way too kiddy super robot at first, but some of the characters are great and the series comes together a lot more as it goes on. Still essential watching for any UC fan.
 
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