Buying direct from China

thesarge

I have recently been shopping around for some new computer components to upgrade an old machine. Always on the look out for the best possible price I have discovered a number of sites that ship direct from China e.g.

hxxp://www.chinavasion.com/

hxxp://www.dhgate.com/

The prices seems pretty good, even taking into account the shipping costs.

Does anyone have any experience of buying from sites like these? are they as good as they seem?

deanos

You could get clobbered with VAT / Import / Service charges that could bump up the price quite a bit

gazhawkins

Worth bearing in mind that you might not be covered under the consumer credit act of 1974 - should you purchase on a credit card and something go wrong. I'm not a legal beagle, but I think this is a grey area legally.

veryskint_3

i've not ordered from these sites but ordered things direct from china before and never had any extras to pay. Never had a problem!

hesjane

I've bought stuff from Asia before....arrived no problem. VAT billed arrived a few months later after I thought I'd slipped through the net. Not worth it IMHO - they really clobber you

veryskint_3

i dont know about anyone else but i have never been landed with a vat bill but i suppose it depends on what item you are buying, some sellers put "gift" on the packaging and this seems to work!!

deanos

veryskint wrote:

i dont know about anyone else but i have never been landed with a vat bill but i suppose it depends on what item you are buying, some sellers put "gift" on the packaging and this seems to work!!

Nothing to do with that , if cutoms open up the package and deem it to be over the limit's you will get a bill, of course they cant open all packages so most get through.

jmarko

gazhawkins wrote:

Worth bearing in mind that you might not be covered under the consumer credit act of 1974 - should you purchase on a credit card and something go wrong. I'm not a legal beagle, but I think this is a grey area legally.

This isn't the case any more. There was a recent case on this that said that a consumer could rely on the act if the purchase was made abroad (subject to the usual conditions).

jmarko