Buying from the US when in the UK

[mpw]

...mpw – forgive my ignorance but isn't Jersey different from the UK in terms of certain tax laws?

Yes. We don't pay any VAT so if I shop in the UK (or France/Germany/etc.) I can claim the VAT back from HMR&C at the airport.

Strictly speaking for the most part we're not in the EU but we agreed to free movement of goods to ease the paperwork hassle so we charge the import duties for goods from outside the EU at EU rates ie 2% on iPods from the States etc. but they don't have to comply with EU safety laws so don't get their volume restricted like pukka EU versions do.

Also when iTMS opened I couldn't get downloads 'cause of my non-UK postcode, I got round this simply by changing my postcode to Apple's Regent Street AppleStore postcode! it'll also accept my real address as long as the postcode is in lower-case rather than standard Royal Mail upper-case!?

 

[mpw]

mpw is right there is no duty on electronics with the anomalies he mentioned the exceptions.
Displays in general protection for near dead Welsh tv manufactoring industry innit.

There are plenty of exceptions, the EU import tariff's a mess.
For example;
iPods get their own listing and there's a separate listing for generic mp3 players.
Any display with a DVI input including the DV-in on a camcorder with a flip-out display gets a 14% extra import tax, which is why you can get two models from some manufacturers like Canons MV30 (without DV-in) and MV30i (with). I bought a MV30 and added DV-in using a simple software change with the right sequence of buttons through the remote.
One of my favorites is Totes Toasties, you know the socks that only appear in the shops at Christmas, they don't fall under the 'sock' tariff, oh no, they're under the seperate tariff for socks with rubber additions to the sole of course.

 

[robbieduncan]

Called Dixons at the Airport today and they have 15" Superdrive for £1341. Looks like my quest is nearing its end!

Cheers for the tip Robbie.

That's a good deal I don't think this will be a problem as the PowerBook line has not been updated for a while but you might want to check that it's the most recent version. When I bought my PowerBook it was about 1 month after the new ones were released and Dixons were still selling the old ones (at full price!)

 

[nat3503]

I'll be going to Boston on August 1st, flying from Heathrow Airport. I'll phone up Dixon's at the Airport before I go to see what their prices are, but if I decided to buy an iBook or Powerbook in Boston would it work in the UK? And would I need to buy any extra hardware e.g. power adaptor? I couldn't find anything on Apple.com. And is the warranty worldwide? I found on Apple.com that if there's a problem I'd have to send it to California to get it fixed.

I might also buy an Isight... does that have worldwide warranty? Sorry - I did look on Apple.com but I couldn't find whether the warranty is worldwide or not.

And... (last question I promise!) I'm going to university in the UK in October and just finished 6th form - would I be able to get a student discount in the US?

It's ridiculous that Powerbooks in the US are cheaper than iBooks in the UK (upgrading the harddrive to 30 Gb, RAM to 512Kb and adding Bluetooth, like the Powerbook specs) - both with Educational discount.

 

[robbieduncan]

PowerBooks and iBooks work anywhere in the world. The Power Adaptors are switching so all you need is either a plug adaptor, a standard figure of 8 extension (buy it from Maplin) or an official Apple UK plug.

I believe that Apple portables have a worldwide warranty, desktops don't. I think iSights count as portable for the warranty.

No idea on the student discount but remember that Apple UK prices are inclusive of sales tax (VAT), but the prices quoted in the US are exculsive of tax. Also if you want a build-to-order iBook or PowerBook you will not be able to pick on up at an Apple store.

 

[kerpow]

I'll be going to Boston on August 1st, flying from Heathrow Airport. I'll phone up Dixon's at the Airport before I go to see what their prices are, but if I decided to buy an iBook or Powerbook in Boston would it work in the UK? And would I need to buy any extra hardware e.g. power adaptor? I couldn't find anything on Apple.com. And is the warranty worldwide? I found on Apple.com that if there's a problem I'd have to send it to California to get it fixed.

I might also buy an Isight... does that have worldwide warranty? Sorry - I did look on Apple.com but I couldn't find whether the warranty is worldwide or not.

And... (last question I promise!) I'm going to university in the UK in October and just finished 6th form - would I be able to get a student discount in the US?

It's ridiculous that Powerbooks in the US are cheaper than iBooks in the UK (upgrading the harddrive to 30 Gb, RAM to 512Kb and adding Bluetooth, like the Powerbook specs) - both with Educational discount.

Just buy a US to UK power converter plug from anywhere and plug the PB's adapter into that. Will save you 30 quid or so.

 

[robbieduncan]

Just buy a US to UK power converter plug from anywhere and plug the PB's adapter into that. Will save you 30 quid or so.

You do not need a power convertor. The power brick is switching anyway. All you need is to get the plug to a UK plug. As the plug is removable on the power brick the cheapest way to do it is to buy a figure of 8 cable (as I suggested above) like this for £2.99

 

[Jaffa Cake]

There are plenty of exceptions, the EU import tariff's a mess... One of my favorites is Totes Toasties, you know the socks that only appear in the shops at Christmas, they don't fall under the 'sock' tariff, oh no, they're under the seperate tariff for socks with rubber additions to the sole of course.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!

Thanks for clearing up the Tax issue – it's certainly confusing. I asked my girlfriend about it last night (she actaully works for Revenue and Customs) and she didn't have a clue about it, so us mere mortals don't stand a chance – to be fair though her field of specialism is well removed from this issue.

I think one thing that was adding to my confusion was the extra 14% you mentioned that gets slapped on displays – I got one of those shipped in too so I've probably got that figure lodged away in the back of my head somewhere. Luckily it all came through with no problems or charges though.

 

[Lau]

You do not need a power convertor. The power brick is switching anyway. All you need is to get the plug to a UK plug. As the plug is removable on the power brick the cheapest way to do it is to buy a figure of 8 cable (as I suggested above) like this for £2.99

Also, if you can't bear to have a black lead on your lovely white brick, if you have an iPod with a power cable you can use the little plug that slots on the end. They're the same! (Or at least I hope they are, I've been using the same one interchangeably for a year or so now.)

 

[Applespider]

I believe that Apple portables have a worldwide warranty, desktops don't. I think iSights count as portable for the warranty.

No idea on the student discount but remember that Apple UK prices are inclusive of sales tax (VAT), but the prices quoted in the US are exculsive of tax.

I think the iSight should be fine - I've had the Apple Store in London replace in-ear headphones etc that I bought in the US. I watched them replace an iMac G5 too since someone in a US Apple store had told the customer it would work in the UK.

I have a funny feeling that someone on MR asked about an edu discount over in the US and wasn't able to get it. You might want to have a hunt through some old posts - tho when I tried to search there were so many threads I couldn't find the one I thought I remembered.

 

[mpw]

...It's ridiculous that Powerbooks in the US are cheaper than iBooks in the UK (upgrading the harddrive to 30 Gb, RAM to 512Kb and adding Bluetooth, like the Powerbook specs) - both with Educational discount.

How do you work that out? I make it that the;
US PBook 1.5/512/60 is $1499(or £854) the same item in the UK is £893.
US iBook 1.2/512/60 +BT is $1199(or £683) the same item in the UK is £701.
Therefore and without taking into account the different costs for rents, wages, business operation, shiping, conversion of product for various European markets the smaller market place etc. etc. Apple are only charging a premium of 4% on the PBook and 3% on the iBook, hardly ridiculous. In fact I did the same calculations a while ago in another thread and things seem to have improved, probably down to currency flucuations.

I wish people would stop bleating about how the UK gets ripped off by Apple (or any other corp.) 'cause it often isn't true when you look at why things cost more (or seem to at first glance). By the way in the earlier thread Dell came out alot worse than Apple, at the time the 'mark-up' was something like 35% against Apple 15%.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

FAO: mpw

mpw,

My mate who wants to get either a 12" iBook or a 12" PowerBook is flying out to Jersey in a few days time. Do you know how much these two laptops cost over there? He's got a mate that lives there who could probably bring back the boxes for him as I think he's coming over a week or so later.
Also, if you don't have to pay VAT out there, can you get a student discount too? No VAT + a student discount = huge total savings!!

 

[mpw]

mpw,

My mate who wants to get either a 12" iBook or a 12" PowerBook is flying out to Jersey in a few days time. Do you know how much these two laptops cost over there? He's got a mate that lives there who could probably bring back the boxes for him as I think he's coming over a week or so later.
Also, if you don't have to pay VAT out there, can you get a student discount too? No VAT + a student discount = huge total savings!!

He'll save nothing if he buys it here from a retailer (there's only two and one of them generally has the last revisions at current prices).
What he needs to do is buy from AppleStore Online UK and have it shipped here to his friends address. And yes all my Apple gear comes VAT free at Education prices .
If he wants a laugh tell him to drop by the local Apple reseller and watch the poor shmuks who wander in and see iPods at more than Apple's full VAT price and just buy them there and then. Another good chortle is 'The Computer Shop' which probably still has G3 iMacs at full price running OS9. Get him to ask a question and listen to the answer. Last time I asked the difference between MS Works and MS Office as budled on competeing systems, did you know the only difference of note is that office has a better spell check dictionary because it's used for business letters!

 

[Euan]

Why would you not have to pay VAT just because you're a student? You pay VAT on cds, dvds, etc, etc so why not on computers?!?!