Buying a new camera through Ebay

[Georg Liigand]

Hello!

I would like to hear some opinions and suggestions from you as I am planning to buy a Panasonic GS-400 camera from an Ebay seller who is based in Hong Kong and is selling those for already a long time at Ebay. I am just curious that is there anything I should especially check before buying through that system such an expensive thing and do some of you have any experiences buying camera stuff from Ebay? I am looking at that user's profile and it says that he is an Ebay Power Seller, he has 96.6 % positive feedback and around 200 comments in the feedback menu. Does this sound alright enough to buy from him?

Thanks a lot!

[canadateck]

200 Feedback and its 96.6? Wow what are they for,I woulndt buy from him if they are for anything other then Slow shipping.

[Georg Liigand]

Sorry I just looked again and its 1409 feedback and 98.6%. I think I remembered something wrong when I typed the message. Does this sound better?

[canadateck]

I always read what they are for,enter His Id on this http://www.toolhaus.org webpage and it will bring up all the Negs/neutral his has gotten,then read through them.

[edDV]

Hong Kong? Probably the PAL.model.

In any case, warranty could be a problem. Special tourist export dealers can provide certain international warranties. Make sure what you are buying and where the warranty is valid.

[Georg Liigand]

No I need PAL and its PAL, I already made this clear with him. But is it possible to get the camera from anywhere else for such price..? (EUR999)

Thanks.

[edDV]

Check with Panasonic to see if warranty is valid worldwide.

[Georg Liigand]

Well he said the warranty card is for Hong Kong, but he offers 3 month warranty to me in case I find some defections with it and he said he will pay shipping if necessary.

[handyguy]

For what price?

Maybe we can find you something in the states.

You know, buydig.com

[Georg Liigand]

Well the price from those Ebayers is coming around 1335 dollars so I wouldn't like to spend any more. That is even together with shipping and insurance from Ebay. But it would be cool if you could find something from there, it just has to be PAL version. Thanks!

[npaulie2000]

You really take your chances with ebay there is very little they can or will do if something goes wrong buyer beware!

[handyguy]

But Paypal has a buyer happiness guarantee, but you got to pay for it

[richdvd]

But Paypal has a buyer happiness guarantee, but you got to pay for it

Not always...No.
Most of the time, Paypal does shit for ya.

www.paypalsucks.com for some happy customers.

[Georg Liigand]

I found another provider now that is a company, they have special Ebay customers support center website, the e-mail which they sent was very nicely written and they said they are providing 12 months warranty. I guess this is the one to go for.

[canadateck]

What ever you do make sure to use a Credit Card,Not bank transfer with Pay Pal, Money Orders,Or Bid Pay. Only use a credit Card. You can use it with Pay Pal,have a problem Dont ask Pay Pal for help,Just call your credit card company.

[tmh]

98.6 is NOT a very good ebay rating. Remember, most folks do their rating before they really know if the item is up to snuff.

i buy all sorts of electronics on Ebay (laptops, camcorder, dig canera), but NEVER from a mass-merchandice seller with less than 99% . Even with 99+%, remember that these mass sellers get their stuff as returns, store displays, etc.

Why not find a used item from an individual who is selling it and can actually tell you the truth about how it works. Many people upgrade or just sell for good reasons. You can get great deals from very reputable folks. Be very careful for the big sellers when it comes to delicate electronics. Unless you get a full and useable warranty, you should not pay more than 1/2 retail price.

[Georg Liigand]

Again a lot of good information! I appreciate it. By the way, what do you mean by the returns and store displays etc? Do you think that the products are not as brand new as they say? By the way where do those sellers usually get their stuff at all who are selling for example all kinds of brand new photography accessories and camcorders etc? I don't really think that the product will be somehow defected or anything as they would otherwise have a lot more bad feedback. I looked at the negative feedback and most of them are something like "Whata hell?? I had to pay a huge amount of VAT to get the product and you didn't say it at all!!!" but those are simply funny ones, because everybody knows that if an invoiced product is sent, it requires VAT payment. I was talking to the seller so that he could send it to me as a gift maybe.

[Sartori]

In the text below I use term "camera" to mean a digital camera , a film one and camcorder rather than tie myself in knots putting exceptions all over the place . So you will need to do specific homework for a specific product . So if you wish to correct me , please read this bit first .

My wife (the photographic one) has been doing homework on cameras through ebay for the last month , what the Hong Kong ones dont tell you is that the camera is liable for Import Tax even on "gifts" as well as VAT .

From here http://www.dhl.co.uk/info/duty.html

It's not always about the purchasing!
If someone sends you a gift from abroad that is over £36 in value, you will also be obliged to pay the Duty and VAT unless the person who sent it has agreed to pay it themselves.

point 2

Who is liable to pay Duty and VAT charges?
The person receiving the shipment is legally obliged to pay Duty and VAT except where the person sending the shipment has agreed to accept these charges in the contract of sale. Private individuals intending to buy goods on the Internet from non-EU countries should be particularly careful. Often the price advertised on the supplier's website will not include UK Duty and VAT and you will be expected to pay this once the shipment arrives in the UK.
Example of VAT calculation

Value of goods £80 +
Transport to the UK £35 +
Duty charges £4.02

Total value for VAT £119.02 x 17.5% = Total VAT payable £20.83

Therefore the total import Duty and VAT charges payable on import of these goods would be £24.85

This is the Customs and Excise dept webpage on Internet buying

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pa...yType=document

and more info here

http://www.sloanefox.freeserve.co.uk/importukduty.htm

If you read this page you`ll see that you end up adding VAT , Import Duty and Royal Mail fees to get it in .

In short she gave it up as a very very bad idea , finding that if she searched through the UK enough she could find it cheaper in the UK because of all the fees added on , in fact she winced when she sees how much some of the people were bidding .
She found Jessops website http://www.jessops.co.uk/ http://www.pixmania.co.uk/ and http://www.digitalfirst.co.uk/ were doing good deals , she is ill in bed at the moment or Id get the rest of the addresses for you . I cant speak for the websites I mentioned as she hasnt bought her camera yet .
Another point to remember is that the Hong Kong camera will probably be a different model to the UK one as well as the point raised extensively above on the guarantee .



If you go to this page and download the PDF file there it will tell you the duties to be paid , vat to be paid etc (general NOT specifically).
In your case for a camcorder it would be 4.9-14% duty + 17% VAT + Post Office Fees .


http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pa...yType=document

[Georg Liigand]

Again, big thanks. Actually I'm located in Estonia, not UK and the VAT Tax here is 18% (I've paid it before as well for some items) and there shouldn't be any more charges. But to reduce the VAT, the seller could add an invoice with smaller price and then I could anyway get it cheaper. For the whole price the VAT would be around 170 EUR, but paying something like 90 EUR would not cause any bigger problems to me I think.

But how do they figure out the price if it's a gift? Are you sure it's done in everywhere, not only UK?

The Hong Kong version shouldn't really be anything different from what I need as it's PAL and if the charger even needs some other voltage, then it could be generated with some adapter I believe.

[Sartori]

On one of the sites it says basically if you try er.. scamming it by undervaluing or mislabelling it , they`ll lock you up at least in the UK anyway . The point about the gift is that its an article worth more than £18 , or everything bought on the net would have the word GIFT printed on it to avoid VAT , I dont know what Estonia has in terms of import duty or even if its in the EC (sorry for narrow knowledge) and therefore harmonisation on import duty or whatever (my mind starts clouding over ).

[Sartori]

Some unscrupulous overseas suppliers openly advertise on the internet, or on their web-sites that they will deliberately either misdescribe items or underdeclare their value in order to evade customs charges that are legally due on importation. You should be aware that although the foreign sender may have completed the customs declaration form on the parcel you are regarded (in law) as the importer of the goods and responsible for the information on the declaration, and any customs charges that may be due. This means that if you purchase goods from these suppliers and the declaration is found to be false or misleading you may be liable to financial penalties or criminal prosecution. Furthermore the goods themselves will be liable to forfeiture. It is in your own interests to ensure Customs declarations are completed properly.

from the UK Customs and Excise pages

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pa...yType=document

But as they say on Blind Date in the UK "the choice is yours"

[Georg Liigand]

Hehe Yeah, I believe it's not too good to cheat this way, but on the other hand, how big is the chance they will figure it out...?

[troyvcd1]

Come on. Your going to spend a lot of money on a camcorder and get no warranty and have to deal with an ebay shipper. Maybe he is shipping used merchandise. Who knows. Just bone up and pay the extra money from a reputable internet dealer.

[proxyx99]

make sure camcorder menus are not in Chinese!

[Georg Liigand]

Yep, I'm just gonna check this with the company whether the menus are correct or not. But this is generally out of question that it's a bad seller, because they have a nice company there with warranty office in UK as well and they are giving 12 month warranty with the camera. They also have phone support which works.

[Sabro]

I buy and SELL on ebay just about every week. While it might sound like a great deal, I'd honestly suggest you get it from someone a lil closer to your home.

There are possible compat issues that may be at hand with the item you are interested in, and in some cases, your item may be delayed coming thru your local Customs, extra fees applied and your countries fraud laws may not apply to the sellers country.

Using common sense will mostly keep you safe on eBay, and if it was a vintage (can only be found in that country) type item, then yeah maybe....but I'm sure you could find this item elsewhere and receive it quicker with less potiental problems.

Sabro

[Georg Liigand]

What I'm currently very sure at is that all the tax I have to pay is VAT 18%, the transport is ok, the warranty is 12 months which fits for me, the system is PAL and the only thing to confirm now is that the camera must be in English. I looked at some European sellers and it's pretty much more expensive in all shops. And the Ebay seller is selling the product only to Europe and via German Ebay, so why should they sell some incompatible versions... It might be that all the shops in Europe are ordering from the same warehouse where those Hong Kong shippers get it from.