I know Charlton Life is usually very good at these sorts of life-advice questions so I'd be interested to know what you think of this case. I'm looking to buy a new camera. The one I want costs best part of £3k, so it's no small investment. I have found a company online (Grandy's Camera) who are giving a lens adapter with the camera and still manage to undercut the competition by several hundred pounds. I've checked Trust Pilot and they average 4.8 stars from 166 reviews, so that looks legit to me. I've spoken to the company (online) and they have assured me that it's a brand new boxed product, that they'll ship using FedEX and expect delivery within 5-7 business days. This all sounds good to me.
What I'm baulking at is that when I clicked on the shopping basket there was an additional product in the basket at £85 - Shipping Protection. I can afford the extra and it still leaves this company's price cheaper than the competition. However, I've now got that disappointed feeling I have when booking with a bucket airline and start getting charged extra for baggage and the like. What I really don't know is how necessary this Shipping Protection is. I would normally expect my goods to arrive in good condition and wouldn't give a thought to such matters. Isn't it the seller's responsibility to ensure that nothing goes missing or gets broken.
So my question to you is, what should I do?:
- Suck up the extra £85 and feel safe in the knowledge that I'm covered for any eventuality.
- Buy the camera but not the shipping cover, it's not necessary.
- Pay the extra and buy it on Amazon, you already trust them to do everything except pay their taxes.
Comments
The Grandys Camera FAQs kinda says as much too "We are shipping goods either from Hong Kong, Thailand or Bristol."
Not sure if the £85 gets you out of any import duty? If I was buying something for £3k though then I'd probably likely pay an extra few hundred and buy from the UK
BUT, as @Leeds_Addick has suggested above, you really need to check the Ts&Cs to see if you are liable for any import VAT/duties if the items are coming from overseas. There should be something on their website that makes this clear.
If it's your responsibility then the VAT alone you're liable to pay will be 20% of the purchase price, and that's before import duty is taken into account (although there's not always import duty on everything).
Buying from overseas may APPEAR very attractive because the base cost is cheaper, but it's stuff like this that can make it more expensive in the long run.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/nothing-to-declare-coleen-is-collared-by-uk-customs-535119.html
I don't know if this is true, but would be wary of spending a large sum based on Trust Pilot reviews.