Buying iMac in UK

[JP101]

I will be buying my first iMac very shortly, through the UK store. My only question remaining is whether anyone knows of any US shops that will ship to the UK?
The configuration I am looking at costs £2,039 on the UK store, but only £1,400 ($2,349 run through google) on the american online store! That is £640, or $1,070 I would quite like to save.
I have seen B&H mentioned on this forum, but they unfortunately don't ship to the UK and I imagine Apple would prefer people didn't.
I am aware we have 20% VAT added in UK, but that would still only raise the £1,400 price to £1,680.

 

[Beardy man]

Although I don't know this for a fact, I think there might be some import duty and or shipping costs that would as near as damn it make up the difference.

Last time I looked into this it wasn't worth the hassle. Love to be proved wrong as I'm about to get another iMac ;-)

 

[seroposi]

I will be buying my first iMac very shortly, through the UK store. My only question remaining is whether anyone knows of any US shops that will ship to the UK?
The configuration I am looking at costs £2,039 on the UK store, but only £1,400 ($2,349 run through google) on the american online store! That is £640, or $1,070 I would quite like to save.
I have seen B&H mentioned on this forum, but they unfortunately don't ship to the UK and I imagine Apple would prefer people didn't.
I am aware we have 20% VAT added in UK, but that would still only raise the £1,400 price to £1,680.

There is also US Sales Tax ( varies from State to State I believe ?) to add; Shipping; Import Duty and then 20% vat so I don't think you'll be much in pocket. I don't know if Apple US or an authorised reseller would actually ship to the UK anyway as their network already exists here. Furthermore, if it arrives damaged in transit you'll have one large headache. Just flash the cash and enjoy life with a mac!

 

[joe-h2o]

Do you know anyone (either you or a friend or relative) who is linked to education. Either a teacter/lecturer/academic/student/researcher etc will count, then you can use the education discount.

Not only will this take about 8-10% off the price, you'll get three years of AppleCare for free as part of the education agreement that Apple has in the UK.

 

[JP101]

Thanks all, I guess I'll just have to pay the inflated UK price!
I'll look into the education discount though.

 

[AT101ET]

I know B&H ship to the UK for some times, but don't think it applies to mac purchases.
You could do a couple of things such as use a reship service or family member.
However, there may be some import tax if you do and you'd have to worry about safe handling.
There may be a clause if the item is sent unboxed (as a uses item) but I'm not too sure.
On the other hand, it's quite a bit of a saving so..

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Not only will this take about 8-10% off the price, you'll get three years of AppleCare for free as part of the education agreement that Apple has in the UK.

Do you know if this is only in the UK or all of Europe? I live in Austria but when I go to config my iMac on the Apple site (through the edu-store), it doesn't seem like the Apple Care gets added. It costs somewhere around 120-150 € more I believe. It would be cool to save this obviously. Perhaps I should buy my iMac in England this summer …

 

[phphoto]

To get the best education discount and the near free Applecare, you need to phone the order using the phone number at the top of the order page rather than ordering online. You should get about 15% discount this way.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

To get the best education discount and the near free Applecare, you need to phone the order using the phone number at the top of the order page rather than ordering online. You should get about 15% discount this way.

Is that 15% discount + the almost free Apple Care in addition to the education discount?

 

[phphoto]

Is that 15% discount + the almost free Apple Care in addition to the education discount?

No, the 15% discount is available when you call them through the education discount contact number.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

And what's the normal education discount when you order online?

 

[phphoto]

and what's the normal education discount when you order online?

8-10%

 

[joe-h2o]

To get the best education discount and the near free Applecare, you need to phone the order using the phone number at the top of the order page rather than ordering online. You should get about 15% discount this way.

Edit: just as a confirmation, is that extra discount available to a standard education purchase?

What's the qualifier, since it's effectively a 50%-100% improvement on the discount.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

8-10%

Interesting! I just had a chat with Apple. Actually it doesn't have to do with the phone number, but it depends if you're University/school is part of the Apple Campus program or something like this.

They asked me the name of my university and gave me a discount.

2013 iMac 27" Intel i7 (3,5 Ghz), 512 GB SSD and Apple Care.

Standard Apple Store price: € 2878
Education price: € 2662 (7,5% cheaper)
Education price for Apple campus program: € 2500 (13% cheaper compared to standard Apple Store price)

For the last one, the Apple Care costs 100€. It's not free sadly, but they told me the discount is already big enough in addition (what a bad joke ) Well it's still an almost 400€ discount, but still

 

[henry72]

Maybe wait for a bit if you don't need it right now?

https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/imac/

Apparently there will be a spec bump next week and I'm pretty sure there will also be a price drop too.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

Do you know anyone (either you or a friend or relative) who is linked to education. Either a teacter/lecturer/academic/student/researcher etc will count, then you can use the education discount.

Not only will this take about 8-10% off the price, you'll get three years of AppleCare for free as part of the education agreement that Apple has in the UK.

15% discount as student,

If you were looking to buy an macbook or macbookair then you could travel state side and bundle in a nice holiday - pick a stature with zero sales tax, and then pay import on arrival. Alternative, i had a relative come from the isa, who purchased and opened the machine for me used it twice, then sold it me as 'second hand' as they decided on buying a smaller model - not really practicable with an iMac!

 

[daveplotty]

Okay forgive my ignorance. I just went to try a buy a new Macbook Pro through the Apple Store for Education UK website and all I had to do is select Institution not listed when selecting University and managed to get the discounted prices and went all the way through to payment page. Surely it can't be this easy??

Alternatively won't this work for people? http://store.apple.com/uk-edu

 

[joe-h2o]

Okay forgive my ignorance. I just went to try a buy a new Macbook Pro through the Apple Store for Education UK website and all I had to do is select Institution not listed when selecting University and managed to get the discounted prices and went all the way through to payment page. Surely it can't be this easy??

Alternatively won't this work for people? http://store.apple.com/uk-edu

That is how I have always bought my machines (I work in a university) - the UK education store that asks you to pick your institution checks your IP address to see where you are and will block you from using the store if you're not on the university's IP block (or using a VPN to access via there).

There is a non-limited education access store but I believe the prices are not the same.

If your institution is not listed then your best bet may be to phone Apple directly since you might get a bigger discount.

 

[daveplotty]

Actually scrap that. I found the direct URL to use and has given me more discount off. I think that is the solution!! Now I am going to wait a few months to see if they make any changes to the 13" Macbook Pro