Need advice on purchasing watch from USA

maniac886

I really want to buy this watch from ebay. The item is shipped from the USA.
Here it is

My question to you guys is if customs get me on this item how much extra will i be charged on top of the £59.99 price for taxes etc.

This watch retails at £125 in the UK so is worth it buying it from the USA.

Thanks for your help in advance!

LULUBELLE_2

It says that the watch location is in UK, the seller is registered in France and the postage is in English. What made you think it was in the USA?

soolin

Seller is registered in France and shipping from US, that looks like a dropshipping and if he is dropshipping he should say so on his auctions as he is breaching ebay t and cs.

The feedback is too low for me, and the negs for non delivery where seller refuses to pay out for loss are worrying, it doesn't matter what he says about having to pay extra for insurance, it is the sellers responsibility to get the item to you. Any seller that seems to think insurance is the buyers problem is not likely to be much help if the transaction goes wrong.

Several mentions in feedback that watch came as is, rather than boxed, and no refund was available where a complaint was made even though a guarantee was offered in the auction.

I'll leave someone else to add comments about customs etc, but personally I would not buy.

Soo

maniac886

Terms & Conditions
Please do not bid if you do not agree with these terms and conditions.
- Item will be shipped out from USA.
- All sales are final, unless the item you receive is not as advertised.
- Seller will not be responsible for custom duties, import tax, and losses/damages of uninsured shipment.
- Buyer must contact seller within 3 days and payment must be received within 3 days after auction ended.
- Not honoring your winning bid will result in negative feedback.

maniac886

Is this a better bet?

soolin

The second seller is using a very similar selling template to the first seller, right down to the no insurance bit unless you pay extra that I don't like.

Whilst he is showing 100% feedback he has got some withdrawn comments that weren't encouraging, plus a few neutrals.

I would strongly suggest that if you are going to deal with this sort of seller that you use paypal and make sure you fund only from a UK credit card that offers you a chance to get your money back if the transaction goes wrong.

Soo

slowen

When you look at postage it says £9.99 but also you have the option of £12.99 optional insurance which could suggest it may get lost in the post if you don't pay the extra £12.99 as his feedback shows some people not received goods and they basically don't give a stuff.

Customs charges are normally 17.5% of the value of the goods plus a Royal Mail handling fee for them to check and open the parcel etc, there is a chance it could get through customs undetected though

tempuscat

OP: there are several really good / honest / reliable UK sellers of watches as a quick eBay UK site search / FB study will confirm. 'Course, if they don't have the watch you're after, then that's no good -- but you could always contact them to ask if they are able to source such-and-such a model for you and its likely price.

We did just that three years ago with a UK seller because we really couldn't face the hassle of VAT, Customs, high transit insurance and the potentially high expense of returning a faulty item to an overseas seller (in this latest link of yours, the seller says you're responsible for all his eBay costs, his shipping costs, and your shipping costs -- have you added up that lot?)

A month after we contacted the eBay UK seller, he emailed to say he'd sourced the watch we were after and would place it as a BIN at a particular time / day to suit us. He did so. We bought. The watch arrived the next day and it, like the transaction, was perfect. More to the point, it was worry free -- to our way of thinking, the less uncertainties there are in a potential transaction, the better it is. Good luck!

maniac886

If customs dont get me I can get this watch for £77.48 inc postal insurance which is almost a £50 saving from normal UK retail price.

soolin

well 17.5% of total cost inc post and packing (I've done it that way as you have no idea what the seller will declare for customs) puts it up to £91, plus handling fee which can easily be another £20 puts it up to £111. For that you get a watch, with the possibility that it is not boxed and you have no guarantee if it should break down after a few months.

Soo

maniac886

Comes with 2 year international warranty. I have purchased a few diesel watches in the past without problems.