Lee Valley

[Aragorn]

I know it's been said before....
But Lee Valley are superb

I ordered from them online on Saturday night (Leigh FMT in case you're wondering). I got an email Monday night saying it had shipped and it arrived today.
I had to pay duty, but still saved over £100 than buying from the UK.

There's something wrong there for sure!

 

[Charley]

I know it's been said before....
But Lee Valley are superb quote]

I'll second that :wink: Nice gloat btw.....

 

[Aragorn]

Oh, you spotted the gloat, did you :!:

 

[gidon]

What delivery mechanism did you select - seems very quick? I'm still with toying with getting their shoulder plane.
Did you have to pay import VAT at 17.5%?
Cheers
Gidon
(oh nice purchase by the way - let us know how you get on - not heard a bad review yet)

 

[Aragorn]

I was quoted for delivery separately by email and I choose the "5-6 business days" option which was the second cheapest (around £50 for this item).
The duty does indeed seem to be just VAT at 17.5%.
I'll let you know how it goes. I have a stool in black walnut with compound angled mortices and tenons to do. May not be my first project though!

 

[Adam]

They have my recommendation also. Fantastic service - I used the "Air-mail" option, and although they qoute 2-4 weeks, it was here in 3-4 days. I didn't pay any VAT or duty on my delivery - must have "slipped" though the net. Unforunately, I did get caught for VAT on my L-N order which arrived yesterday.

Adam

 

[Charley]

Excuse me Adam, your L-N order? Isn't that a gloat? Come on now you have to say what you got :wink:

 

[Adam]

Oh go on then... Shoulder plane + low angle Jack. :lol: Blame ALF, what am I doing wasting good money on things without a tail. Grrrrr. :shock:

 

[Charley]

nice 8)

It is tempting, yesterday I priced up a L-N no.4 bench plane and you save £58 Thats without import duty though :?

 

[SimonA]

Is it possible to ask how much you paid for these and how much you got stung for tax?

I've just got another order though from BCT and was stung for tax too.....but half of it, £13.50, was for bloody Parcel Force to pick it up from customs!!! I only paid £12 to ship it 4000miles arcoss the planet, but PF charged me £13.50 to transport it 400mile.......what a joke!!!

SimonA

 

[gidon]

Thanks - I was quoted delivery for the shoulder plane - thought 10 days sounded quite a long time - reassuring to here it should be less than that.
Still no money left after spending too much at the w/w show! Will have to wait.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Alf]

As I've also being toying with the idea of ordering direct from Lee Valley, I decided to brave the HM Customs and Excise site, in the hopes of being able to work out what duty I might get stung with before the event. Apparently what you're charged depends on what the item is, and you can search for the relevant "commodity code". Planes, chisels etc are "82053000" fyi. Unfortunately the actual tariffs aren't available on line, and I didn't fancy stumping up £200 for the paper version... :shock: Then I found the European Union tariff which suggests, if I'm reading it correctly, that the duty should be 3.7%. Sounds ridiculously low. And then I realised you get hit with that and the VAT. Boy, oh boy, that must make the Chancellor a happy man... So I'm beginning to wonder if the dollar hasn't got to fall quite a bit further before I'm going to be willing to take the risk, especially with my luck... :?

Still, nice gloats all round, chaps. Enjoy

Cheers, Alf

 

[gidon]

Alf - I followed the exact same path to finding out import costs a while back and came up with the same figures as you (unsurprisingly). The duty is less than 5% with most items but it's the import VAT that will really sting!
Still with a real exchange rate of about 1.85, most woodworking items items I've looked at are still 20%+ off UK prices even with all the taxes + delivery charges - and as Adam has mentioned - you may not get charged these taxes if you're very lucky.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Alf]

you may not get charged these taxes if you're very lucky.

Ha-hum... you were saying? :roll:

Cheers, Alf

Breaks mirrors and kicks black cats for a living, with a little side job involving four-leafed clovers and weed killer... :lol:

 

[desmoengine]

having also had some tools shipped from across the pond, my take on the duty/vat issue ,is that the fees due to customs are based on the DECLARED value on the weigh bill. ? i don't know if the invoice has to be produced as proof at point of shipping or not ,but this could present interesting situations for enterprising sellers!!

Dave W

 

[Aragorn]

Dave
That's true. I had a shipment from Oz last summer worth around £300. On the paperwork they had declared it was worth much less (around £50 or so). Thanks to their dishonesty, I only had to pay nominal duty.
Can't see Lee Valley doing something "underhand" like that...

 

[johnelliott]

i don't know if the invoice has to be produced as proof at point of shipping or not ,but this could present interesting situations for enterprising sellers!!

Dave W

Getting the supplier to supply an artificially low invoice can be a bit risky, if the customs suspects and checks, you could lose the consignment, similar to not declaring stuff at the airport

John

 

[desmoengine]

[Getting the supplier to supply an artificially low invoice can be a bit risky, if the customs suspects and checks, you could lose the consignment, similar to not declaring stuff at the airport ]

please note i did not suggest that at all . it was only that i noticed a value on a weigh bill that i could not reconcile with my order.

lets hope theres no Customs & Exise weekend woddies in here pay tooooo close attention

me thinks this topic should now DIE

Dave W[/quote]