Buying from the US?

ankaragucu

Has anyone purchased a telescope and/or accessories from a US source?Most everything seems to be cheaper, even allowing for the current exchange rate.Even Amazon.com works out cheaper than Amazon.co.uk for most things I've looked at.
I guess the drawback would be if there was a problem with your purchase and it had to be returned.

namloc1980

Also depending on the postage method you can get hit with customs and VAT. In my experience items sent by way of the US postal service usually get through. Stuff sent by way of the likes of DHL/UPS/FedEx get caught for these things. This can add 20%+ to the final amount.

rolion

In most cases, all items coming from US unless marked or proved as been gift it will attract the VAT rate charges here !
Also, the delay from the delivery, Customs, payment and again delivery !
Is not worth the hassle...

If you need to buy few more parts, you can ask for a discount on any UK or EU astroshops.
Check with Steven here from Ktech and seek his advice before splashing your hard earned cash !

Good luck...

Thargor

dollar is very strong and the euro is in the toilet at the minute aswell...

dbran

The danger of your scope not arriving in one piece if you use dhl/ups/fedex is significant even if you take out their so called insurance. I have head of a guy whose brand new act scope arrived with a smashed corrector plate having to fight the courier company for years while they argued and argued as to why it was not their fault.

Dbran

ps200306

I looked into this extensively a few years ago, but am afraid I've forgotten some of the details. Some US companies will not ship to Ireland at all, e.g. Celestron will not bypass their UK/Ireland distributors. So you will need a USA postal address for starters. You can get one from a forwarding service such as myus.com in Florida. Now you can order your scope, pay in dollars, and get it forwarded to you. Shipping cost may depend on both weight and dimensions. Unfortunately my package was a heavy telescope with mount and counter weights

You have an immediate problem with insurance, unless you are prepared to underwrite the cost yourself if the thing arrives in smithereens. You may be able to pay for insurance with the shipping agent. Can't remember the details but the shipping plus insurance ran to many, many hundreds of euro. Do NOT accept anybody's default cover, or their promise that your goods are covered -- companies like FedEx may claim your goods are insured but have a maximum cover of some derisory amount per pound (weight) of equipment.

Next you need to worry about VAT and Customs. You will pay both, and the VAT amount is on the total after customs duty is added. For the appropriate customs rate, you need to look up the EU TARIC database on line, and find the appropriate TARIC code for optical equipment. Can't remember the details, but the customs rate was something like 4% or 7% or some such. Then add 23% VAT on top.

Now, after all this and with everything above board, I found that it was still cheaper to ship from the US. So I went to a retailer here, showed them the numbers, and they instantly dropped their price to what I had calculated. The big advantage of this, obviously, is that you have a warranty that you can use in Ireland -- if you ship from the US, what are you going to do if something goes wrong after a week? Even if you can return it, the shipping could cost hundreds.

The item I was looking at was about $2900 in the US and after all costs and currency conversion came to about €3,500. Painful ... but a lot less painful than the completely insane price the Irish retailer was initially quoting. However, the exchange rate was almost USD 1.40 to the euro at the time. I shudder to think what it would cost now, with the euro in the toilet.

Bottom line? Calculate your US costs based on currency conversion, shipping, insurance, customs, and VAT. If there is a big difference from the Irish retail price, try haggling with the retailer. If there is still a large gap, and you fully understand the insurance and warranty implications, consider shipping from US as a last resort.

ankaragucu

ps200306 wrote: »

I looked into this extensively a few years ago, but am afraid I've forgotten some of the details. Some US companies will not ship to Ireland at all, e.g. Celestron will not bypass their UK/Ireland distributors. So you will need a USA postal address for starters. You can get one from a forwarding service such as myus.com in Florida. Now you can order your scope, pay in dollars, and get it forwarded to you. Shipping cost may depend on both weight and dimensions. Unfortunately my package was a heavy telescope with mount and counter weights

You have an immediate problem with insurance, unless you are prepared to underwrite the cost yourself if the thing arrives in smithereens. You may be able to pay for insurance with the shipping agent. Can't remember the details but the shipping plus insurance ran to many, many hundreds of euro. Do NOT accept anybody's default cover, or their promise that your goods are covered -- companies like FedEx may claim your goods are insured but have a maximum cover of some derisory amount per pound (weight) of equipment.

Next you need to worry about VAT and Customs. You will pay both, and the VAT amount is on the total after customs duty is added. For the appropriate customs rate, you need to look up the EU TARIC database on line, and find the appropriate TARIC code for optical equipment. Can't remember the details, but the customs rate was something like 4% or 7% or some such. Then add 23% VAT on top.

Now, after all this and with everything above board, I found that it was still cheaper to ship from the US. So I went to a retailer here, showed them the numbers, and they instantly dropped their price to what I had calculated. The big advantage of this, obviously, is that you have a warranty that you can use in Ireland -- if you ship from the US, what are you going to do if something goes wrong after a week? Even if you can return it, the shipping could cost hundreds.

The item I was looking at was about $2900 in the US and after all costs and currency conversion came to about €3,500. Painful ... but a lot less painful than the completely insane price the Irish retailer was initially quoting. However, the exchange rate was almost USD 1.40 to the euro at the time. I shudder to think what it would cost now, with the euro in the toilet.

Bottom line? Calculate your US costs based on currency conversion, shipping, insurance, customs, and VAT. If there is a big difference from the Irish retail price, try haggling with the retailer. If there is still a large gap, and you fully understand the insurance and warranty implications, consider shipping from US as a last resort.

Thanks for that, very informative.