Single Market??- some advice sought

muddyone

I am looking to buy an oven. I have found the product I want which is manufactured in the Netherlands.
They have a single importer to the UK.
The price ex VAT in the UK is c £4000. So £4800 inc VAT
The price from a shop in holand is 3500 inc vat or £2800 ex vat.
The products are identical.( I have checked )
Obviously this is a significant saving.
My question is....
1. Any reason why I can't buy the one from Europe? I.e.warrenty and consumer rights issue.
2. I thought the days of these type of price differences where over.

For obvious reasons to protect any negotiations I have not mentioned the make etc... Obviously will share this once it is concluded.

Truepat

Not something I am an expert in but there is some information here.

As far as I am aware there is nothing that stops you buying it in the Netherlands and getting it shipped to the UK.

hollydays

The company you are buying from -if they didn't send you the item or there was another problem( ie having to pay to return it) how would you handle that?

aldredd

^^^ paying by credit card could give some added protection here

hollydays

The issue would be for me are there terms and conditions fully understandable in the event of things going wrong, and how I would be able to check the company out if they are not in the uk?
If it arrived damaged then what? If the company was dodgy or went bust then what.

Bantex_2

Could be a nightmare if anything goes wrong. Any contract and rights you have will be with the Dutch company.

arcon5

An oven? Not what I thought this thread was gonna be about

cookie365

Weren't the UK distance selling regulations brought into force to satisfy an EU Directive?

If so, there should be some kind of protection, depending on how much of the UK protection goes over and above the EU requirements.

Still, I'm imagining what it would be like for someone in Rotterdam trying to enforce their consumer rights against, say, Currys. And pretty it is not

aldredd

cookie365 wrote: »

Still, I'm imagining what it would be like for someone in Rotterdam trying to enforce their consumer rights against, say, Currys. And pretty it is not

Trying to enforce your rights against curry's when you're in the UK is hard enough haha

vikingaero

How much is shipping to the UK?

What happends if the oven goes wrong? How are you going to the the Dutch retailer to fix it? Are you going to pressure the UK importer to repair it? Does the UK importer have an agreement to fix ovens on behalf of the Dutch manufacturer?

Ectophile

There's a lot of negative answers here. For the £1300 savings, you could drive to the Netherlands, pick it up yourself, inspect it carefully for damage, and then drive all the way back again.

And if it does go wrong, you'd still have plenty left over to pay to get it fixed.