The apprehension of buying expensive stuff from far away countries
flight
Tue, 26 Feb ‘08
I might be a bit of a cynical but I do have my doubts about buying expensive things from around the world over the internet. I always think that I will get ripped off and there's no way to get my money back if it happens. Having been recommended by my friend Oli and the knowing of saving lots of British pounds, I set out to buy a new camera lens for my canon 400d on ebay from a company called Digital Rev in Hong Kong. I picked out my lens and paid for the item and shipping using Paypal.
Yesterday the UPS guy came to my office and asked to see me. This was good news and bad news, the good news was that the lens actually arrived, the bad new was that he had a pink VAT invoice in his other hand. I kindly had to pay £44.12 before the man would let go of my parcel. Having remembered reading something about a 'no VAT guarantee' I went back to ebay and look it up, and there it was:
“This is a special 'We pay the import fee if there is any' auction.”
I contacted the ebay shop about this and only hours later they had reimbursed me the £44.12 to my Paypal account. Nicely done by Digital Rev! And thanks for helping me overcome my fears for future purchases from far flung corners of the world!