Bongo - order from US website - US address?

travel_freak

Hi,

I'm trying to source some car parts which are difficult to find here. I've found a US website which says it will deliver to the UK but when you click on the "find info" bit it links to a site called Bongo.

Bongo seems to suggest you have to pay $5 to "buy" a US address and your goods are then delivered to the US address before being "forwarded" to your UK address.

Has anyone any experience of this as it seems extremely strange to me and not sure why it is necessary?

Not sure if I am allowed to post a link but I will try to put the link to the page below. If anyone can say if they've used this and it's legitimate (or not) I'd be very grateful.

Many thanks in advance.

http://www.carpartswholesale.com/bongo/index.html?intcmpid=M1234605172W499694741590f

hippey

Its a post / parcel forwarding company, which you have to pay for anyway.

Some US companies do not deliver outside the US, or those that do charge a lot for postage, this service acts as if you have a US address, not sure how the CC billing would work though.

Personally, I'm a bit doubtful about the process, but I will ask around as someone I deal with must know about it.

travel_freak

Thank you very much Hippey - I look forward to hearing from you if you do manage to find anything out.

I must admit it sounds a bit strange to me and never come across anything like it. But am tempted only because they have the car parts we need and they are miles cheaper than equivalent ones I can find in the UK.

If anyone has used this please post and say whether it worked out okay for you.

Many thanks.

CrazyIndianZA

Someone from my wife's office has used a service with 100% success in the past to get stuff fowarded to the UK. I can't remember which service but I think you had several options including
- waiting until you had a certain quantity of stuff
- getting it repacking to avoid customs

hippey

I can't find anyone who has used it, but a contact at HMRC has given me a bit more info.

These 'reposters' are very common apparently, some are scams others are not (he would not tell me much more about who are scammers) you get cheaper postage costs as well as taking advantage of cheaper prices and sales tax. However it also seems some of these reposters are used to avoid customs fee's as they are sent as gift's.

I would treat with caution.

travel_freak

Thank you Hippey for your time and detective work!

Sadly I think I'll have to give it a miss unless the company will agree to post directly to me as I don't like the idea of paying for something on my credit card and having it send to an intermediary and am not looking to fraudulently avoid tax and land myself in hot water either!