B&H & UPS

[ATJ]

Delivery time is quoted as 3-5 days

From what I'm reading, you ordered Sunday and received on Friday, smack bang on the 3-5 day deadline.

If you had actually read all my comments you will see that I said:

You are right that getting the parcel on Friday is not too bad.

My complaints were more about the fact that the parcel sat doing nothing for 24 hours and that they don't update the tracking information so I know where the parcel may be - in fact from my previous experience they don't actually know where the parcel is which is not very reassuring.

Just maintaining service levels is fine but if that's all you care about you won't have many happy customers.

Oh, and my previous UPS shipment was "Worldwide Express" which is 2-3 business days and it was also ordered on Sunday and arrive last thing Friday afternoon. They missed that service level.

[Grev]

I hope the lightstands, swivels and other misc stuff I ordered from Adorama would be better...

[Grev]

I have had my first package from Adorama which came in 4 working days, and the next package should arrive today but delayed due to the holiday period.

[who]

I just received an order from B&H via UPS.

1 week exactly from NY to regional Tasmania - came in via AAE.

Order total inc. postage was about $AUD1050 - no worries.

I also did the redirect via webform that was posted up recently elsewhere on the forum.

A big tick - very well packaged and no problems.

[Dprime]

I just got stung by UPS, not very happy about it either.

Nikon 14-24 from BH, just over $1900AU. Ordered it on the Tuesday arvo, and received a phone call saying you must pay us $250.00 for us to deliver your package... it arrived Friday morning. Their postage times are always excellent, but I'm not very impressed with their fee's this time.

GST PAID TO CUSTOMS: $187.84
CUSTOMS ENTRY FEE: $54.20 (what a joke)
"SECURITY FEE": $9.95

All up cost me around 2100-2200, and I could of got it from DD for $2009. I'll be adding a few extra hundred dollars to my prices from BH from now on and looking else where to see if I can get it cheaper.

[gstark]

All up cost me around 2100-2200, and I could of got it from DD for $2009. I'll be adding a few extra hundred dollars to my prices from BH from now on and looking else where to see if I can get it cheaper.

Which is exactly what we always advise people to do, regardless of from where they purchase.

What has happened here is an expected outcome given the amount you have spent, and it has been discussed here frequently.

The GST seems to be reasonable considering that you are expected to pay this on all imports greater than PP1K. As noted above, we actively encourage everyone who orders through our facilities to make provision for this. Once you involve the payment of GST, UPS charges you for their handling costs in this matter. Whether that's a reasonable charge or not is open to debate, (I personally don't think it is) but it should be noted that I don't believe that it's gone up in at least three years, and it's a part of the cost of doing business this way.

The security fee? I have no idea of what that might be, but it's less than a half percent of your total charges here ...

Now, you say that the cost from DD was PP2K, but your initial cost from B&H was just over PP1900. In all honesty, this not a major saving, and given the certainly that you were going to be charged GST, I think I would have been using DD, but might I also suggest that you're making the wrong comparison here?

In every case, you need to assess the risks of catching a GST charge (100% when purchasing goods valued at > PP1000 from the USA) as against the price when purchasing locally sourced items. In this case, you therefore need to look at what the cost of a local, non-grey item would be, and that is where you need assess your savings.

Bottom line would be that you probably saved PP100 less than you might otherwise have saved, but you're probably still PP300 or so better off than had you purchased local stock.

[Chaase]

This is the main reason I purchase from Photobuff (Note I have no link with them) just find them comparable to import prices even HK Supplies etc (handy coz they are near home too). But don't have the worry of being hit with import dutey/GST costs etc.

I learn t the hard way a few years ago when I brought a trumpet in from USA.

[ATJ]

CUSTOMS ENTRY FEE: $54.20 (what a joke)

This is actually a fee that Australian Customs force UPS (and other importers) to pay to submit the paperwork for the GST calculation, etc. If you were to have the goods sent by Post, you'd have to fill out the forms and pay this fee (maybe a tad less) to Customs.

[who]

And that is why I'll be heading back to B&H soon for more bits.

In the first recent RRS group buy post by Moz in For Sale Forum -- I did some research and found the rules & the application by the ATO (re. GST) on imports.

In short - they only levy GST if the AUD value excluding shipping is >$1,000.

But if they do - its all in - and at "their" exchange rate. And they can substitute the declared value for whatever they deem is market if they so desire (ie if a "gift" sent is undervalued).

And also - For <$2300 you could have had Aus stock from ECS on the 14-24 -> I'm a lookin but haven't the moolah after buying Gitzo/RRS.....