US Buying Advice for UK Citizens

[AndyHayes]

Martin Lewis at Money Saving Expert dot Com has some useful advise here that might help us Brits get our pens a bit cheaper than from Rip-Off Britain whilst throwing them a rope out of recession (which they are obviously not in yet!).

 

Whilst not specific to FPs there is a lot of valuable advice about where you reach the point that you might as well get on a plane and visit the shops in person and an interesting bit on duties. Well worth a read I reckon.

[I am not a number]

I'm waiting in a state of considerable fear for the amount that I am going to have to fork out to Her Maj's Revenue and Customs for some recent US purchases (before I found out that a mate of mine would be over there with a big aeroplane - I'll just end up paying the one customs bill that way rather than being hit with a separate handling charge for each individual item). The other thing that really hacks me off is the amount of time that the pens can be delayed before I get charged for the privilege of paying my Customs bill.

 

If the British Government are that hard up for money, they may as well just go and sell the personal records of 25 million UK citizens and then claim that some low ranking civil servant has "lost" them.

[AndyHayes]

If the British Government are that hard up for money, they may as well just go and sell the personal records of 25 million UK citizens and then claim that some low ranking civil servant has "lost" them.

 

Not my details this time!

 

Should do wonders for the ID card argument!

 

[andyk]

If the British Government are that hard up for money, they may as well just go and sell the personal records of 25 million UK citizens and then claim that some low ranking civil servant has "lost" them.

 

Not my details this time!

 

Should do wonders for the ID card argument!

 

 

Shouldn't affect me either, but I consoled myself by thinking that if the records related to child benefit (childs allowance or whatever it's called), that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair's details will presumably be included on the disc.

 

I was also slightly amused by a TV comment that they were sending it by internal mail and hadn't bothered to send it recorded or registered (didn't know you could do that for internal mail), personally I always thought that internal mail was

safer for confidential items than entrusting them to the general mail anyway.

 

I digress, thanks or the link looks quite interesting.

 

Andy

[AndyHayes]

I wonder if by internal mail they meant DX ?

[I am not a number]

Two discs, most likely csv format, TNT were the courier.

 

You should have seen some of the stuff that I used to get across my desk when I worked as a consultant for the MoD!

 

Oh hang on, that's the doorbell...[/Thud]

Edited November 21, 2007 by I am not a number

[David Miles]

Martin Lewis at Money Saving Expert dot Com has some useful advise here that might help us Brits get our pens a bit cheaper than from Rip-Off Britain whilst throwing them a rope out of recession (which they are obviously not in yet!).

 

Whilst not specific to FPs there is a lot of valuable advice about where you reach the point that you might as well get on a plane and visit the shops in person and an interesting bit on duties. Well worth a read I reckon.

 

 

All you need is a trusted seller in the US who can do you a few favours. I know a few good people and they have not let me down.

 

It's not about 'what' you know, it's about 'who' you know.

[DocNib]

I'm waiting in a state of considerable fear for the amount that I am going to have to fork out to Her Maj's Revenue and Customs for some recent US purchases (before I found out that a mate of mine would be over there with a big aeroplane - I'll just end up paying the one customs bill that way rather than being hit with a separate handling charge for each individual item). The other thing that really hacks me off is the amount of time that the pens can be delayed before I get charged for the privilege of paying my Customs bill.

 

If the British Government are that hard up for money, they may as well just go and sell the personal records of 25 million UK citizens and then claim that some low ranking civil servant has "lost" them.

*******************************************************************

Simon,

 

I think your "on-line" name sums up the feeling that a lot of UK citizens have toward your government's taxation/Customs duty policies! If I remember the whole phrase properly it goes, "I am not a number, I am a FREE man!" (never understood it back then, but "The Prisoner" was way ahead of it's time!).

 

I had one run-in with UK Customs, on my first shipment there, but since then around a dozen packages have made it there without incident. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have to get an agent who isn't having a bad day or who doesn't care what hemisphere the package is being shipped from.

 

By the way, your package to your buddy is on the way, very well packed (by NurseNibble, my wife) & has numerous layers to the inside of the box. He should receive it anywhere from Friday to Monday at the latest...Thanksgiving here is a Fed. holiday (USPS is closed) plus getting bodies in gear after eating so much food takes a lot of work!).

 

Cheers!

DOC

 

[I am not a number]

Thanks Doc!

 

Have a great Thanksgiving all you folk out there in Americaland!

 

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/Iwanttonap.jpg

Edited November 22, 2007 by I am not a number