chinese ebay shops

lcowner

has anyone ever bought from chinese/kong kong dealers on ebay and if so are the groupsets GENUINE shimano??or are they copies and crap?? item number im considering is 200816145554,they look good to me :P

be interested to know ur thoughts if u have bought any shimano stuff from these sellers????

Geo555

No idea whether they are genuine, but why buy from China/Hong Kong, when you could be hit with customs charges and have litttle comeback.

Ribble are selling the same groupset for £210, so buy from them.
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/gsd/road- ... SHR&bike=1

lcowner

thanks mate ur absolutly right !dident realize ribble wer doing them for same price,cheers for link

VTech

We import and export a lot through a couple of companies and one thing is for certain, HMRC are clamping down on taxation of items from outside of the EU.
I cant remember the last package that arrived without charges !

lotus49

I have bought a lot of stuff from Chinese eBayers but I wouldn't buy anything expensive. eBay can be very unhelpful dealing with problems. I would take a punt on a £4 battery but not a whole groupset.

lcowner

think ur right!

ricky1980

i do not think you will be hit by import tax if this is a one off.

also most of the bits are made in taiwan, and they have a huge sales market out there so it makes sense for the retailers out there to sell direct to other countries.

I have bought shifter parts and cassettes from taiwan ebay shops there is no reason for me to think they are counterfeit products.

gubber12345

if you pay with paypal you'll be fine,simple reason is if you are not happy and open a dispute and the seller doesn't sort it out you get your money back.

I've also bought a fortune of stuff from HK/china and never been hit with excess tax....maybe i'm just lucky.

VTech

When importing items, even with values as low as a couple of £ it is with discretion wether or not a charge is applied, it may be for a work related item or for one of the staff and be a personal item delivered to the office for convenience but the charge is then made by HMRC and then paid for by the courier/delivery firm who then pass it onto the recipient. At no point do the recipient have any input on that process whatsoever.
My point is that now (quite rightly so) the HMRC are tightening up and putting more resources into the screenin of imported goods.

lcowner

Yes I too have bought a lot of goods in china hk ect,at the start I never paid duties but they seem to b copping onto this now! I think I'll stick to ribble or the likes or good used parts off here as it was kindly pointed out to me its just as cheap as china ect....

d87francis

Apologies for mentioning your company name VTech, and thanks for your message implying you would sue me for libel, having pointed your own ineptitude at referring to your businesses possible tax avoidance on a public forum. I'm sure companies don't like it when their employees admit to dodging taxes. Regardless of the recipient's involvement, knowingly accepting an import that is due duties and has not had them applied is an offence.

What I was saying before it was removed, is that the following post suggests that at some point whoever "we" is accepted imports without duties.

VTech wrote:

We import and export a lot through a couple of companies and one thing is for certain, HMRC are clamping down on taxation of items from outside of the EU.
I cant remember the last package that arrived without charges !

Perhaps it is time to curtail your prolific use of this forum when it starts to implicate your employer in criminal action and threaten your livelihood?

Monty Dog

Firstly, if you're after deals on branded goods, then beware are there's lots of forgeries around - particularly frames and other carbon components. I always consider there's no warranty - the cost of return shipping is prohibitive for a start. I regularly buy things like hubs, frames (custom titanium and carbon) and other OEM components from China - in the main I don't pay vat/duty but I always factor these into any purchase decision. There's plenty of ebay sellers or online dealers with a good reputation - there's plenty of scammers too.

sloppyschleckonds

d87francis wrote:

Apologies for mentioning your company name VTech, and thanks for your message implying you would sue me for libel,

Odd how he has one persona for the public forum and one for private. Ignore him if I were you.