Steve Jones wrote:
>>Anyone got experience of this tent or buying from US?
>>
>>thanks for any advice
>>
>>Dean
>
>
> I have a tale of woe to tell and it begins thus: T'was the ides of September 2002. The runes and
> brooding stormclouds foretold of a harsh, cruel winter ahead. There came to pass a lowly traveller
> afoot who thought he'd better get himself a cosy, warm down bag lest his old synthetic one expire.
> He went to a local sorceror who spun a web and on that web he found an ME down bag which came
> highly recommended by tramps afoot on the Apalachian Trail. The bag was in a faraway land at only
> 70 guineas, half the best UK price. Then came the carriage - despite the bag weighing less than
> 3lbs, the greedy merchant demanded £20 and would not be haggled down. The bag duly came and the
> waistrel was much pleased with it, but later came a demand from Her Majestty's Excise Men for
> Import duty and VAT of £42 under pain of flogging. At the outset the poor soul had felt quite smug
> at the savings achieved, but in the end his net saving was less than a tenner for all the hassle I
> went through - not worth it. The poor soul later located an identical bag on E-Bay for a similar
> price on and had he waited, and bought one as a 'Private Sale', could have saved all the import
> duties. So the moral of the tale is the next time ye pass a lowly beggar on the street sitting in
> a nice down bag, please give generously, it could be me!
>
> Steve 'broke' Jones
I can't reply as eloquently as that, but my only imports ever from US were:
1. my camera, accidentally left behind and posted on by the friendly souls in the company I was
visting. It cost me a packet in UK carriage and lots of hassle with excise demanding original
receipts which were never returned.
2. a set of two shaft encoders for measuring where a big telescope was pointing. $160 inc carriage
in US, but £160 by the time we had paid import duty, VAT, import handling agencies, UK postage,
post office special fees for 'recipient pays' etc. More bills kept on coming in just when you
thought it was done. That was in about 1994 when the pound was strong too. Mind you, we did save
state taxes!
Shudder!
Phil Brady