UKC

Has anyone had any experience buying gear from China? I have a sweetheart deal from a retailer there which I want to take advantage of but am slightly concerned about getting stung by import duty/ customs duty/ any variants.
I've had a look online and couldn't work it out. There seemed to be something about a £120 limit. Does this mean I can place an order below this amount and it won't be subject to charges?
Advice and experiences welcome! Cheers

In reply to spidermonkey09:
It's duty if the value is above £120, VAT if over £18, and a proccesing charge of between £7 and £15 depending who deals with the parcel.

Customs are really onto anything coming from China, so little chance it won't be dealt with and very likely it'll be opened and inspected.

In reply to Mr Lopez:

Thanks- but ****!

In reply to spidermonkey09:

Yeah... I'm expecting a bill in the next few days which i'm not really looking forward to.

Sometimes if the value is £100 odd they don't bother with it 'at their discretion'. I got a parcel from the US a few weeks ago which after sitting in customs for 3 days it was sent out with no bill to pay. It's still a bit of a gamble though

In reply to spidermonkey09:

Chinese sellers usually declare a much lower value than the true cost of the item on the customs form anyway, so you might not end up paying the true amount due - if anything! I've never had anything opened by customs either (I must have had 50-odd parcels over the years, or maybe I am just very lucky), I get the impression that they're too busy to deal with a lot of the throughflow.

In reply to spidermonkey09:

It's a gamble. I've had two 'high value' packages and both times got hit with VAT (which I don't mind) and a substantial 'processing fee' which in one case took the cost of the item to more than it's UK price and, in both cases, led to a lengthy delay in receiving the items.

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

I was about to buy a new watch from Singapore and didn't for this very reason as i found it in the UK for around £50 more, the far east stuff is fine if it works out well you get a bargain, if it doesn't you end up paying what you would have paid in the UK, with a load of messing about, not to mention any potential after sames support.

In reply to spidermonkey09:

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty