Ordering from US - Logistics and issues?

Krieg

Ok I was recently pointed to the following site -
http://www.myus.com/

A remailing service that can be used for ordering US (only) goods, ie; Newegg stuff can be bought, sent to Myus who then send it to you
Now I realise that this kind of service has been around for a while, but its only recently I thought about how useful it could be. Myus do charge quite a bit for handling and service, its $20 up front + handling costs + size + delivery.
So, ordering 1 or 2 components is not viable, but a full system perhaps?

Going to use alienware as a benchmark
The alx sli is their most expensive system

US: 5000$ = 3420 euro
IE: 4309 euro

Quite a difference, assuming that the total cost of US delivery to be 220$ (complete guess) including the use of Myus and the irish delivery is 120 euro
that makes -

Ordering from US = 3560
Ordering from Ireland = 4430
Saving 870+ euro, if ordering from US


So, What am I missing here?
I thought PS would be an issue but a mate of mine informed me that many of the newer PS have auto-sense voltage and correct, making them possible to use anywhere with a power output.
Customs? Ive seen threads and threads complaining about customs here on boards but im unfamiliar with it. Ok it would def be subject, but would customs charge so much that it would make the whole thing unviable?


(Mod: Apologys if this is in the wrong forum, but I posted it here in the interest that someone may know of some technical aspect in computers that I may have missed)

Creamy Goodness

VAT and customs duty charges normally around 25% on the shipped price of the item which will be a dead cert of being charged

unklerosco

Then theres warranty n that... some companys do worldwide warrantys others do it by region...

Stev_o

I might be the only one to think that your a bit mad paying that much for a system when the average high end systems cost at average 1500 euro. Chances are that what you will buy off them will be worth considerably less and by that i mean a 2000 euro difference in terms of performance against systems bought in January for the average price i mentioned

Krieg

Cremo wrote: »

VAT and customs duty charges normally around 25% on the shipped price of the item which will be a dead cert of being charged

Ah, well that kind of screws it up.
The price would then be about 4395 euro ordering from the US. Resulting in no real saving. I guess I should see if there is a way around customs?
Perhaps there is a remailing service in the UK which would take the Myus shipment and send it here. Ive ordered large and expensive things from the Uk and never had any custom duty on them. Then again, Uk customs may perform a swift kick in the balls when recieving from america

unklerosco wrote: »

Then theres warranty n that... some companys do worldwide warrantys others do it by region...

Aye, the likes of newegg only provide warranty for american region I believe. But Id take the risk if it meant it was several hundred euro cheaper

Stev_o wrote: »

I might be the only one to think that your a bit mad paying that much for a system when the average high end systems cost at average 1500 euro. Chances are that what you will buy off them will be worth considerably less and by that i mean a 2000 euro difference in terms of performance against systems bought in January for the average price i mentioned

Yeah I was just using alienware as a benchmark, I have quite a good computer atm and I dont think I would Ever get an alienware, let alone pay that kind of price.
But if the idea worked out, then it might be worth trying for other computer assembling companies in the future when im buying my next system.

PogMoThoin

Alienware are now owned by Dell Btw, be better off shoppin on Dell.ie

Why not use Komplett prebuilt, or put a shopping list together & build it yourself

Lord Deco

Build it Asbad....

You could build a monster for €2000.....

4500 euros is madness,what are the specs?

Those alienware pc's probably have the same crippled chipsets as the xps range,paying 1 grand for a top intel is stupid when you can get the same performance off a €220 chip when overclocked....

Lord Deco

Komplett pre built isnt too bad...

Below pc is €938

Gigabyte Triton 180 Black
Thermaltake Toughpower 850W, Modular,
Asus P5N-E SLI, nForce-650i SLI, ATX,
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4 DDR2, 2048MB CL4,
Gigabyte GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2,
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7200 IDE Black OEM,
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng

Put in 2 512mb gts's for for €530,overclock the cpu to 3.0ghz or more and you have a beast for €1500 pre built....

http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4TZ4&CategorySelectedId=11021&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11021&InMerch=1

Maybe add a high def drive too for 100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-000-TS&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Krieg

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Alienware are now owned by Dell Btw, be better off shoppin on Dell.ie

Why not use Komplett prebuilt, or put a shopping list together & build it yourself

Well I actually love dell, I found them great to deal with and good prices depsite what a lot of people may think. I now however, do not buy dell computers due to the fact that they use non-standard components and can be difficult to upgrade.
Komplett prebuilt systems? I dont like them. I had a look now, but their systems still dont appeal to me. Their prices arent the worst but still very expensive.
Yes, building the computer itself is the best option, even though im still researching ways of justifying the purchase of an american pre-built system due to cheapness.

Lord Deco wrote: »

Build it Asbad....

You could build a monster for €2000.....

4500 euros is madness,what are the specs?

Those alienware pc's probably have the same crippled chipsets as the xps range,paying 1 grand for a top intel is stupid when you can get the same performance off a €220 chip when overclocked....

I have indeed built a monster for 2k , which is currently the system I use and adore. If I was a bit more well-off and slightly more insane I would buy a computer for 5k.
Specs for the siad system are here -
http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_detail_Pages/area-51_alx_sli/area-51_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-EU-A51-ALX-R6&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

I agree with you on the crippled chipsets



Again, I would like to stress that this is just theoretical research. Trying to find justification (if any) in purchasing from the US (or possibly asia) for the cheapness. I recon my current system will last another 4 years with a little upgrading sometime. So it will be sometime until I build/purchase a new computer
Ive looked at the threads on custom duty and its true that buying a system from america would incur custom duty tax and vat. Which basically make it much more expensive then buying it here at home. I learned that even trying a remailing service from US > UK > Eire, would mean that customs in the UK would pick up the custom duty tax. There are of course ways around customs but for obvious reasons I wont be publishing them here
Im still going to dig around and see if its still possible, perhaps turning the tax evasion to avoision

Thanks for replys

Gadgetman496

I wanted to purchase a particular model 4 port Dual monitor VGA KVM switch earlier this year & the only place I could source it was in the U.S.A.

I eventually found a company who would both accept an Irish credit card & ship to Ireland (That in itself was no mean achievement)

The Product cost €200 and when it arrived I had to pay €50 customs fees, so the previous poster is correct when he said the charge would be Approx 25%.

In my case I was aware of it & didn't mind because it was something I really wanted.

Unless you can't get it anywhere more local I would suggest that purchasing from the states is more of a logistical nightmare then it's worth.


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PogMoThoin

What you dont realise is that by buying from Dell/Alienware you get a one year warranty on all the parts in the case. You've gotta pay extra for a longer warranty. If you bought the same parts off komplett, even in a prebuilt, you would get the full warranty of each component. Most components have a min of 3 years, hard drives 5-10 yrs, ram lifetime, gpu lifetime, intel chip 3 yrs.

You would have saved a load of money if you self built a pc of similar specs as that alienware and there are better value choices than the components they choose, ie, I've got my q6600 running @ 3.3Ghz, not bad at less than quarter the price of the qx6850

SeanW

Asbad, thanks for the "heads up," but it would probably not make much sense to do that unless you needed something from a particular mail-order shop that does not ship outside the U.S.

Still, it's a good thing to know it exists and some of us may well find use for it at some point.

Krieg

Ok thought id sum this up

It is not viable to order full systems from the US or countries outside the EU.
The amount of hassel involved doesnt really make it worth while. If you did order a system, custom duty would almost def be put on it @ 25% (There is of course a slight chance you can avoid customs but not bulletproof). Another option I explored was travelling to america, purchasing and then returning home with it. Again customs could find it and charge
Apparently you could travel to america and declare a PC in your luggage (crappy pc) then buy the new pc and declare it on the way home, but this is a lot of hassel.
There are other options but they are not worth talking about

Stephen

The only thing I'd use the above technique for is a laptop.