Bundle Box Brings US Goods & Prices to UK Comments

Genius!

I wonder how long before Labour try to put a spanner in the works?

LOL. Yeah clamping down on tax havens with the new Bundle Box Duty - policy-making in the back of Tucker's car!

Thanks for the site info - bookmarked for later use.

I can see this coming in useful when buying my next Apple computer. Though I wonder if I'd need a UK Power supply to get it working, or can you buy adaptors?

Problem I can see is that payment for any transaction is still not coming from a bona fide US source (eg a US-registered credit card), which is presumably pretty easy for an automated transaction processor to check.

Paypal have a promo code for when you register:

Get £10.00 Discount at Bundle Box with Promotional code: 9MV2xd (expires 30th Dec 09)

I wonder how warranties are affected by this, and how you get around to returning something if it goes faulty!

Getting companies to ship any item [especially highly re-sellable brown goods] to 'not the credit card address' is a hurdle as well as getting the credit card company to authorise it - especially if this is a different country and your first transaction with them. Having done this [relatives in US] it isn't easy but you can save quite a bit as may not even pay US sales tax [if your supplier is in a different state to delivery state]. Using my UK amazon details by logging in to amazon.com [not amazon.co.uk] has worked
But then you have the obvious problems of power, warranty [fancy doing an RMA?], video/connector standards and, probably the most difficult of all, understanding the 'English' of their manuals!
;-)

@John Dann: there is no tax avoidance taking place, as UK import duty and VAT is calculated. HMRC should have no problem with this whatsoever. And why would a US based retailer even be bothered about where the money is coming from? They are only interested in making a sale and ensuring any US sales tax that is due is paid. Amazon.com have always been happy to take money off my UK credit card when I send gifts to a US address.

How about finishing the review by giving a complete example say the cannon EOS-1D MK iv and show the true cost saving and explaining the best payment methods rather than half a review

^lol

There's nothing illegal or dodgy about buying goods from abroad, as long as import duty/VAT is paid, which Bundle Box works out for you. This service will be welcomed by any government because the appropriate tax is being paid and the goods aren't being sent as a 'present' as many imports are to get around paying tax. Think it's a great idea as it saves you having to do all the calculations yourself and you get to see how much cheaper (or not!) the goods really are.

Power issues aside, it seems that Bundle Box themselves seem to have thought of the warranty issue:

"Many products in the USA have warrantees limited to the USA only. To provide you with cover on those products, Bundle Box offers an international warranty that covers your product against malfunctions and manufacturing faults, from 7 days after receipt of the product up to one year after that."

So there.

After having a play its quite a clever system, however is it just me or does it seem odd that if the price of the item stays the same, but the dimensions increases then the amount of Import tax you pay also increases (and the delivery costs obviously), why is that? The VAT you pay should be on the price of the item, not the size surely?

Also, finding out the size and weight of items when they are packaged up is a bit of a nightmare if you are working out how much something will cost to post. Was looking at getting a used Apple TV from Apple US ($145 dollars as opposed to £135 here, when they are available on the web!)but i have no idea what size the box would be that they post it in, and that does affect the price quite a lot it seems

The only problem UK concerns may have with this sort of activity is that it increases the UK trade deficit and generally for products that are actually sold in this country.
It would be interesting to see if a surge of interest in this kind of service would be the incentive manufacturers need to start pricing their UK goods in line with the rest of the world.
Sadly, I suspect should these kind of services *really* start taking off a more restrictive sales policy on the part of the manufacturers to geographically limit their products (DVD regions anyone?) would be the more likely outcome.

I just gave it a try, I ordered an Asus spare for my laptop which is not available in the UK.
Many sites let you enter a billing address and a shipping address. That's what I did and my CC was approved immediately.

This will never take off - simply because of the final cost incurred. I priced up a $100 PC Case - price to get it shipped to the UK £57. Remember you also have to add on the shipping cost to Bundle Box, so in theory that $100 case would cost over $200.

Might work for very small items I guess ... but highly doubt it.

lol yes you are correct ... I am just about to sign up and order a £5,000 Canon Camera from the States. As I say for MOST things this will not work as the cost difference via the (possible) hassle is just not worth it.

HI all! I am living in a new place and dont' have many friends so I thought I would join some forums and stuff to try to connect with new people. With all the comments, I had a hard time trying to figure out if this was a review for the Bundlebox parcel forwarding service, a review for laptops, or a review for a laptop bag. I do agree with Gordon, some items are better purchased and shipped to you in your own country. There are other electronics, games, clothes, etc. that are cheaper in the United States. I am temporarily living in Spain and have a US address through a company called Bongo International. The reasons that I use them in particular is because they ship through DHL so I get delivery confirmation on every package, they consolidate my items from all different online stores for FREE which saves lots of money on shipping, and now for the holidays, I can get items shipped to up to 5 different destinations which means I don't have to repackage the gifts I am sending to my family members. These were items that were important to me when I was searching for a parcel forwarder. You have to figure out what is important to you and choose a parcel forwarding company accordingly. :)