Uk Twsbi Buyers

[encremental]

Anybody done it? What's the best way? And how much is it going to cost me (given Royal Mail's unnatural interest in harmless transactions like these)?

 

While I'm at it, my favourite nib would be a Pelikan F - so should I order F or M?

 

John

[Loddonite]

I bought one 4 weeks ago.

I chose regular mail.

I got a card through the door on Tuesday from Royal Mail telling me I had £13 to pay in customs charges.

 

I have paid and am waiting delivery.

 

[andyk]

Hi,

 

Just bought one on ebay from a UK seller for about what they cost from the USA/Taiwan (£30) avoiding the additional costs, but this was the first and only one I'd seen in the UK.

 

Andy

[Aysedasi]

I bought mine on eBay. Thought I'd got caught for £14 customs duty but it turned out to be something else I bought from the States. As with all these things, whether you get caught for duty is a lottery. I reckon over the years I've been caught on about 1 in every 6 items....

Edited October 23, 2010 by Aysedasi

[51ISH]

I was one of the original 300....so mine came from Taiwan.....I think.....no custom charges for me....but I understand there have been some since.....not sure if these were sourced through the States though

 

I bought the medium, which I find to be either a little on the fine side or a little dry but a smooth line none the less..

 

I understand the fines also to be a little on the fine side...

 

Very happy with my TWSBI...may get the vacuum filler.....if the funds permit

Edited October 23, 2010 by 51ISH

[atypical]

I'm not from the UK myself -sincerest apologies-, but we on the continent also have postal services politely requesting 10 EUR (8.89 GBP) for tea and scones "handling" in addition to VAT and import duty. Whereas I do not mind paying VAT and duty, I do have a bit of a problem with the "handling" part, especially after I received the familiar 10 EUR ransom note for a pen that was sent to me as a gift from Australia.

 

I ordered my TWSBI at www.taiwanlovesyou.com and fully expected having to fork over about 50% of the price of the pen in charges. To my surprise I had to pay.... absolutely nothing. This may have been because of the declared value of the pen (carefully crafted to remain below the postal radar), dumb luck or a form of heavenly justice to compensate for the Oz pen.

 

Like 51ISH, I have the medium nib and also find it to be rather fine. I would say it's a reasonable match for a Pelikan F.

[vans4444]

Mine was one of the first 300. It cost just the postage, no customs duty

[Lorna Reed]

I too bought mine on ebay and had £13.00 in various rip-off charges to pay, including '£1.00 fee for overdue charges'????? I would love another TWSBI, especially when the coloured ones come out, but am put off by these money-grabbing Royal Mail tactics.

[epo]

Same here, bought from twsbipen on ebay, stung for an £8 collection charge and £5.30 or so in duty.

Edited October 24, 2010 by epo

[Ernst Bitterman]

Time for a swarm of well-written letters in various delightful shade to the your various MPs, I'd suggest. The collection fee is only about $5 (about £3) here in Canada, and it's the same Queen getting the money, right?

 

(note: the last bit is purposefully innocent, possibly even disingenuous, for comedic purposes)

[andyk]

Time for a swarm of well-written letters in various delightful shade to the your various MPs, I'd suggest. The collection fee is only about $5 (about £3) here in Canada, and it's the same Queen getting the money, right?

 

(note: the last bit is purposefully innocent, possibly even disingenuous, for comedic purposes)

 

Hi,

 

Unfortunately someone has to pay for the mistakes of past governments/bankers, so doubt that this will have any effect when it brings in some sort of revenue for the Govt (lol).

 

Andy

[carlc]

Mine was one of the first 300. It cost just the postage, no customs duty

 

+1

 

Can't help on the nib I'm afraid.

[wykeite]

Royal Mail seems not to be in the greatest financial state, I expect it will get worse with everything with a declared value above £18 being walked off to customs. The independent carriers such as DHL, Fedex etc. have long known about this license to steal to the extent that I know for certain I shall be paying extra.

[impossiblebird]

I ordered my TWSBI at www.taiwanlovesyou.com and fully expected having to fork over about 50% of the price of the pen in charges. To my surprise I had to pay.... absolutely nothing.

Did your TWSBI have the newer 1.5 piston?

[hershamboy]

I bought mine (piston v1.5, medium nib) direct from Speedy, emailing info@twsbi.com and then sending the required payment via paypal. There were no customs charges to pay, and delviery was super-quick (considering distance...)

 

That was 2 months ago though - though I think the customs thing is fairly arbitrary, as at around the same time I got caught for customs on an Esterbrook being sent from the USA. I paid just over 30 quid for mine, including delivery. I still can't get over how much pen I got for £30.

[atypical]

I ordered my TWSBI at www.taiwanlovesyou.com and fully expected having to fork over about 50% of the price of the pen in charges. To my surprise I had to pay.... absolutely nothing.

Did your TWSBI have the newer 1.5 piston?

Unfortunately, it still had the older piston version.

I am waiting for a 1.5 piston to arrive.

[encremental]

Thanks everyone!

 

So it looks as if the best way is to get the pen direct from Taiwan, either via Speedy or from taiwanlovesyou.com, and probably with an M nib.

 

With luck, that's around £30 and it is very obviously a pen worth that amount. If I was to be really unlucky and have to pay £45, that would still be a bit less than the cheapest Pelikan M200, and I am presuming that this would still be good value?

 

John

[carlc]

Thanks everyone!

 

So it looks as if the best way is to get the pen direct from Taiwan, either via Speedy or from taiwanlovesyou.com, and probably with an M nib.

 

With luck, that's around £30 and it is very obviously a pen worth that amount. If I was to be really unlucky and have to pay £45, that would still be a bit less than the cheapest Pelikan M200, and I am presuming that this would still be good value?

 

John

 

John

 

That's a difficult question.

 

As has been noted elsewhere the TWSBI is a new pen and has no track record for long term use - Pelikan has a long record of well built, long lasting, pens. That's not to knock the TWSBI - it's an excellent pen but the price difference comes to about £7 in the worst case scenario for the TWSBI (customs etc).

 

Also the pens are very different in size. I would buy the TWSBI; but only because I find the m200 too small.

 

Carl

[epo]

Not an entirely scientific observation, but with one exception (a huge, difficult to ignore laptop bag) I have always been stung for import duty from the US and never been charged from the Far East.

[encremental]

Carl, I buy so many Pelikans that the prospect of getting a Twsbi was as much to do with giving the guys in Hanover a rest as much as anything else! I wondered if they were in the same area, or if the Twsbi was essentially just a budget pen...

 

Actually, I want a Twsbi because I thoroughly approve of the co-operative nature of the project.

 

Yes, epo - east seems better than west. I don't have any problem with the duty, it's the handling charge which I object to. And the charge for handling the handling charge. When I bought a load of pens from Serpentum in Israel on the marketplace here a few years ago, he just used to put them in little Israeli Post boxes, and no sort of customs forms seemed necessary - I still don't quite understand why.

 

John