Import to and service in UK

[mouse@cheese.storage]

Dear all,


I've been mainly reading the posts on this forum, and came across some posts where people have imported their T-series in the UK, buying it from bill.
I have been considering this for a while, but do have a few concerns and it might be useful to hear your experience on this.
Some overly long list of questions is:
1) if you get it imported in the UK, you only pay VAT, which is to my understanding 17,5% of the value of the product. Is that then the value of the product you paid over in the US ?
2) how do you experience service over here(UK), do you get it straight from IBM, and can you registere your PC with them without problems. As over here IBM does not directly sell unless through retailers, and previous experience has tought me that a retailer is not very helpful in providing service if he knows you didn't buy the thing from him ?
3) how long did you approximately have to wait for your thinkpad ?
4) can you get the service disks from over here or do you get them in US ?
5) are there any other things I should take into account ? (any pros and cons are welcome)


Many thanks,

[Imran]

email Bill get a quote

VAT issue you have to pay. but can be limited, talk to Bill.

IBM deal with warranty or issues.

If i was You id look on the IBM web site because the VAT kind of makes it un attracttive to import . Recently IBM have released new t42 s to the Uk market and the resellers are selling lower than the recommended IBM web price. Depends what you want T42 for, there is more range In USA but try this page
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/ ... d+T+Series
remember both the sites below sell lower than the RRP on IBM web page.
Try

http://www.myhomeoffice.co.uk/index.htm phone them
or
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/default.asp

[v_parthi]

Hi,

I live in Germany and I just enquired long ago to Bill about it. From Bill's side, there is no tax, and please enquire the UK customs regulation to import it from US, and the shipping price from Bill. i.e. price+shipping+customs import tax. In many cases, the original price in UK must be more than the one (all inclusive) offered by Bill. It's my personal experience.

regards
Parthiban.

[Imran]

depends if the model is a topseller in the uk or not the topseller items are discounted, the others have silly price tags.

so stupid in fact i dont know who IBM expects to but them??

[mouse@cheese.storage]

Thanks for the replys,
Problem is that most of the resellers in UK have only a very limited set of models, and in general they are still more expensive than buying in US. But i'll definitely compare ...

[Imran]

it depends what ure after if ure after a t42p

then defintely big difference although IBm have released a t42p with all the trimings and you can get it for about £2330.

Thats not bad

[ian]

At the risk of boring the people who've read this beofre, I've recently bought a T42 15" (2373 CWU) from Bill - he sent it to me here in France via FedEx. When the nice man from FedEx came to my house I paid him the VAT and he gave me my laptop.

Let's do the math: I estimate - having compared the FRENCH price on the IBM FRENCH site with the US site - that even after paying the shipping ($150) and the VAT ($393) I saved in the region of $2000 - that's about £1086 - and it's all perfectly legal. The unit was declared when it came into France (see Bill) and I paid the tax.

Now I can't imagine it would be TOO different in the UK - it's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not - you can call the customs and ask them what they'll charge - I did - and they don't bite...

As for service, it has a WORLDWIDE guarantee (which as a general rule includes France and even parts of Mid-Lothian...)

Service disks are actually now called Recovery disks and are available in Swahili, I'm sorry, English from IBM UK

I waited about three weeks from the day I ordered it and transfered the cash to Florida, to the day my head exploded when I opened the box...