Purchasing off B&H USA

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#914189 12-Oct-2013 18:58

stevenz: B&H insist on using UPS for shipping though from memory which tends to be around the NZ$80 mark for even a small parcel, so often the shipping charges will offset much of the benefit of the lower prices. You may be better off getting them to ship to you via YouShop.

Handling fees tend to be in the $30-$40 region for smallish items in my experience.

B&H themselves though are totally reliable.

I agree. Their shipping is expensive. Find out how much before you buy, it may be better to use YouShop..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#914190 12-Oct-2013 18:59

trainsonrails: HI,
I would like to know if anyone has had experiences of buying things from B&H USA. I would like to buy a product under $1000. What are the procedures of getting the item to NZ?
Cheers

Often. Just the same as shopping anywhere else outside NZ - fill in delivery address, pick shipping method and pay!

Geektastic

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#914191 12-Oct-2013 19:00

old3eyes:
stevenz: B&H insist on using UPS for shipping though from memory which tends to be around the NZ$80 mark for even a small parcel, so often the shipping charges will offset much of the benefit of the lower prices. You may be better off getting them to ship to you via YouShop.

Handling fees tend to be in the $30-$40 region for smallish items in my experience.

B&H themselves though are totally reliable.

I agree. Their shipping is expensive. Find out how much before you buy, it may be better to use YouShop..

I've been unimpressed with You Shop. MyUS.com is better.

ushare

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#914196 12-Oct-2013 19:04

Hey buddy :)

I purchased an Optoma HD33 projector in late 2011. I had to pay GST and shipping but they have great support and reply quickly. Didn't have any problems and still go on to look for cheap deals :)

stevenz

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#914380 13-Oct-2013 17:58

Geektastic:

I've been unimpressed with You Shop. MyUS.com is better.

Unimpressed how? Better how?

@KnightNZ

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#914415 13-Oct-2013 19:36

Lou1983: Different items have different GST thresholds. For instance you can bring in clothing and pay no tax up to the value of $250 not including shipping.
Car part's used to be around $400 and even more higher if it was considered classic and hard to get.

Use this calculator to find out roughly what you'll need to pay.

http://www.whatsmyduty.org.nz/

EDIT:Looks like some things have changed since I last imported anything.

Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

Customs Duty and GST are not the same thing. GST is constant regardless of goods type.

freitasm

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#914420 13-Oct-2013 19:45

Lou1983: Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

And if Customs opens the package and find the goods are under valued then you are in for fraud.

And yes, Customs opens packages and inspects parcels.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

JimmyH

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#914484 13-Oct-2013 22:13

freitasm:
Lou1983: Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

And if Customs opens the package and find the goods are under valued then you are in for fraud.

And yes, Customs opens packages and inspects parcels.

I have had this happen without me requesting it, and the first thing I knew was when the package showed up with documentation stating I had paid far less than I had. It was camera accessories (a few batteries and a charger). I think (from memory) I paid about $160, and the documentation valued it at $24.95.

No issue of fraud as even the correct price was under the GST/Duty threshold, but I was surprised.

In fact, I thought I had ordered from a NZ company (it was one of those legit looking ".co.nz" front-end websites) but the package came from Hong Kong. So I issued no instructions at all as to what to declare to Customs.

rayonline

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#914503 13-Oct-2013 23:21

I have used them over the years.

Postal price is on their website via checkout.

You WILL get pinged for tax. They quote the real merchandise price on the parcel ...'

Every time I expected to pay tax on it, I was asked to...

mattwnz

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#914507 14-Oct-2013 00:07

Geektastic:
old3eyes:
stevenz: B&H insist on using UPS for shipping though from memory which tends to be around the NZ$80 mark for even a small parcel, so often the shipping charges will offset much of the benefit of the lower prices. You may be better off getting them to ship to you via YouShop.

Handling fees tend to be in the $30-$40 region for smallish items in my experience.

B&H themselves though are totally reliable.

I agree. Their shipping is expensive. Find out how much before you buy, it may be better to use YouShop..

I've been unimpressed with You Shop. MyUS.com is better.

What problems have you had with youshop? I have found them OK from the US side. But the NZ service in delivering it to you once it has arrived in NZ is very poor. I even placed feedback on the NZ post website, never heard anything, and when I followed it up, they said they had no record of trhe feedback. So not a great company to deal with from my experience.

Bung

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#914508 14-Oct-2013 00:15

JimmyH:I have had this happen without me requesting it, and the first thing I knew was when the package showed up with documentation stating I had paid far less than I had. It was camera accessories (a few batteries and a charger). I think (from memory) I paid about $160, and the documentation valued it at $24.95.

No issue of fraud as even the correct price was under the GST/Duty threshold, but I was surprised.

There was recent exercise by Customs to see how much under valuing was going on. One of the statements by Customs was that they have blacklists of both Companies and individuals that they'll be watching. So depending on who you buy from the inspections may not be random.

timmmay

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#914522 14-Oct-2013 07:10

mattwnz: What problems have you had with youshop? I have found them OK from the US side. But the NZ service in delivering it to you once it has arrived in NZ is very poor. I even placed feedback on the NZ post website, never heard anything, and when I followed it up, they said they had no record of trhe feedback. So not a great company to deal with from my experience.

On the NZ side it's CourierPost. In my experience they're better than most courier companies.

Fred99

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#914524 14-Oct-2013 07:28

freitasm:
Lou1983: Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

And if Customs opens the package and find the goods are under valued then you are in for fraud.

And yes, Customs opens packages and inspects parcels.

Unless there's evidence that you requested the under-valued invoice, or made a false declaration to customs about the value of the goods, then there's nothing they can do.
The "offense" has to be assumed to have been committed outside NZ, NZ customs have no jurisdiction.
I don't think there's a simple solution to this - for example if you were required to sign a declaration for the value of every package received from overseas, then you might get nailed for accepting an under-declared value gift from a relative when you genuinely have no knowledge of the value.

Apart from the few remaining cases where duty applies (to protect local manufacture), "customs" is simply acting as revenue collector when levying GST on imported goods. In a global market where most countries have a GST (or sales tax) as a main source of tax collection, "lost" revenue will become an increasing problem.

As for B&H NY, I've bought stuff from them and paid their exorbitant freight charges for some very small items (camera accessories). Next minute, I'm on their mailing list for their small telephone book size printed catalogue, which is much larger than any of the items that I've bought from them. They were sending these to me for free via USPS - I had to log in to request that they don't send them.

freitasm

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#914527 14-Oct-2013 07:42

Fred99:
freitasm:
Lou1983: Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

And if Customs opens the package and find the goods are under valued then you are in for fraud.

And yes, Customs opens packages and inspects parcels.

Unless there's evidence that you requested the under-valued invoice, or made a false declaration to customs about the value of the goods, then there's nothing they can do.

Not sure about that. I remember a case here on Geekzone of someone who bought something, had it shipped but Customs stopped, checked the item, looked online for the price on that retailer and others and then charged the customer the undeclared value.

YMMV.

Fred99

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#914531 14-Oct-2013 07:57

freitasm:
Fred99:
freitasm:
Lou1983: Also, alot of sellers will mark the receipt as being less than what you actually paid.
I've done it a couple of times with car parts from the US but if anything happens through transit the insurance will only pay out
what the receipt value.

And if Customs opens the package and find the goods are under valued then you are in for fraud.

And yes, Customs opens packages and inspects parcels.

Unless there's evidence that you requested the under-valued invoice, or made a false declaration to customs about the value of the goods, then there's nothing they can do.

Not sure about that. I remember a case here on Geekzone of someone who bought something, had it shipped but Customs stopped, checked the item, looked online for the price on that retailer and others and then charged the customer the undeclared value.

YMMV.

Oh - absolutely. But there's no prosecution or "penalty", so no deterrence - if you think you might get away with it.
A bit like if instead of issuing a fine, parking wardens asked you to politely pay the $2 owing.

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