Importing computer parts from China!

David_Brent

Hi Please can anyone advise what I should do in terms of:

1) Safe payment (as possible paying for goods to china) what is my safest/cheapest (especially with currency) way to do this? To start with I'm only looking to transfer about £400. I have checked out the manufacturer they have a website and registered business address and seem legit.

2)Custom clearance and tax - the supplier is offering to sort this out for me for an extra $200 USD but I am a little weary as to this and which route I should take in terms of customs clearance/tax when dealing with China?

Thanks in advance:-)

paddyrg

Be extremely careful. You must use your own choice of escrow company who will also manage the transfers of cash, or frankly the chances of seeing the cash or parts are so reduced. Neither having a website nor that website having official looking numbers on it is any kind of guarantee for China, a country where they will make and sell fake eggs to make a few yuan. Really. Look it up. If you found the vendor through Alibaba, use their aliexpress site for a modicum of protection, but the reality is you're still talking a massive punt each time.

for duty, pay your own. After all it is you hmrc will chase for it if it is wrong anyway.

Voyager2002

There are plenty of merchants in China who accept Paypal, so if this one does not take any secure form of payment that is a 'red light'.

Their kind offer to sort out duty for an additional fee is another 'red flag'. True, there are certain countries where there is an agreement in place so that the vendor can deal directly with HMRC, but I don't think China is one of them (you can check on the HMRC web site).

Back to the drawing board, I suggest.

Wywth

David_Brent wrote: »

Hi Please can anyone advise what I should do in terms of:

1) Safe payment (as possible paying for goods to china) what is my safest/cheapest (especially with currency) way to do this? To start with I'm only looking to transfer about £400. I have checked out the manufacturer they have a website and registered business address and seem legit.

2)Custom clearance and tax - the supplier is offering to sort this out for me for an extra $200 USD but I am a little weary as to this and which route I should take in terms of customs clearance/tax when dealing with China?

Thanks in advance:-)

Consider any money sent to China (especially before you receive the goods) as money that may be lost forever.
To be fair, most Chinese suppliers who supply us do deliver, and some is as described ... but some is obviously fake.
But whether you get what you are expecting, or anything at all, is a huge risk with little chance of getting any refund unless you already have built up some trust with the supplier. Even then, I only ever pay in advance what I'm prepared to entirely lose. Some you win, some you lose ... and in my experience you usually win when looking at the bigger picture (assuming you do a bit of basic homework first)

Regarding import taxes etc, as paddyrg says, you need to take care of this yourself (or as a minimum expect Royal Mail to act as your agent for items sent by post)

patman99

If you use 'AliExpress' then they will mediate in a dispute & will do a reclaim of your money (it does take a while though).

Strangely, if the goods are shipped through Hong Kong, then as it is a 'Freeport', there is no duty to pay.

Brassedoff

My firm has our own Import Agent in Shanghai who does all our checking work for us. But, we move over £100K of the stuff at a time. I have to query your £400. Can you not buy from a UK outlet that offers you real protection under UK law?

There is a lot you need to now about buying from the Far East, especially China. As others have said, be careful, you could end up with broken bits.

We only deal with level 1 & 2 manufacturers, but they will not do business with you over £400. Chinese generally want the cash before they even chuck the goods on FedEx or a boat. If you can escrow, great. There are doxzents, look for Vistra, escrowmate, Sedo, Nationalsoftwareescrow. There are dozens. You own bank may even do it.

If you cannot source in the UK you need to be sure the parts are not knock offs as customs will take a hammer to them if they're opened.

It's normal for level 3 to have 8-10% failure rates, level 4,20% and forget five unless you are importing rubber ducks!

Are they parts that you will assemble here? If so, you only pay half import duty.

As I have said a few times, try and source in the UK you can take it back for refund or replacement. You cannot in China. And it's only £400.

If you need anymore info, Come back to me.