online buying from US websites

HairyMonkey_2

Hi,

I am sure this may have been discussed somewhere before on this site but I couldnt' find any referneces in the search.

What I want to know what are the pitfalls in buying things from US websites. What things should I watch out for - excise duty, etc.
I have no idea so I would be interested to find whether it is cost effective to buy say for example branded clothes from a US department store website because the exchange rate is favourable.

trace-j

Customs will be the biggest pitfall if your parcels are picked up and have to pay the duty. Other pitfalls would be whether the websites you use are prepared to supply overseas and type of shipping they use. I've had items delivered by the regular postie and by courier. If they use a courier would be handy to know this in advance as you don't want the packet being sent back (colleague is having a nightmare with FedEx at the mo on a different matter) and potentially arrange for someone to be in. Also re Customs tax I have heard if it does get caught up and you have to pay it's cheaper if Royal Mail have to deliver it. If FedEx get caught with it the charge trebles as you end up paying for their (over inflated) admin costs.

Other thing also would be is that you are bound by US terms of site use and couldn't enforce your statutory rights as if you had purchased from the UK.

Supply of DVD's, i.e. basically stuff not yet released in UK will be difficult to get hold of. Civally copyright holders can sue the site you are using if they do supply so tend to shy away from selling it.

Also obvious re electricals being different Voltage and don't forget a conversion chart for US shoe and clothes sizes.

fatboyonadiet

Your customs limit is only £18 in value, anything above that will incurr charges, unless you managed to get them to tick the gift box and then you won't be charged anything.

Also think about warranties too, might be Ok with some companies.