Buying Laptop Battery from .co.uk site, shiped from singapore

docdolittle

Hey guys just wondering about a recent purchase I made... I bought a laptop battery off a .co.uk site and they shipped it from Singapore. The site doesn't say where they ship from so I assumed the UK when buying. I got a letter from customs Friday requesting a receipt from the battery, saying that anything over €22 gets charged customs duty, 21% Vat and a handling fee of €6 where applicable... This is probably going to bring the price of it way over what I expected.

Is it fully up to me to pay this or is the seller somewhat responsible as they have no indication of shipping from other countries?

Thanks in advance

rubadub

You should have really checked the site and not guessed/presumed, many .co.uk sites do not ship from there, even big boys like HMV.co.uk ship from outside the EU so you are liable. Pidgin english on the sites usually gives many far-east places away.

Post a link to the website you bought from. You should always check for contact info on anysite and at least look for a bricks & mortar address.

I'm afraid there is really no chance of the seller paying any of it.

DYLF

if your the one recieving the goods your the one libal for the vat and duty on them.

docdolittle

Dam.. At this rate it would of been cheaper to get it off amazon Thanks for the answers guys, much appreciated. It was top-battery.co.uk btw, I just looked up the domain and it is

Registrant type:
UK Individual

But the address is in China

AlwaysAmber

They don't seem to mention shipping from Asia anywhere, so it's might be worth chasing it up.

Contact the company first and see if they'll refund the customs charge. If not try PayPal. They have a RoyalMail logo next to the shipping link, so I'd use that angle with PayPal.

rubadub

The royal mail bit is sneaky, as is this

# Our shipping cost listed on this website only cover Continental United Kingdom. Customers in other countries, please feel free to email sales@top-battery.co.uk

# We ship to United Kingdom and Ireland. Customers from the other European countries, please contact us for postage.

In sort of infers they are within the UK as I would presume it would cost the same to send to anywhere in the EU from singapore. The standout warning term is "continental united kingdom"

docdolittle

Now can you see why I assumed it was shipped in the UK? Emailing the site/customs now to find out the extra cost and see what the seller says.

allthedoyles

Its called drop-shipping . ......Based in the UK and buying from Asian suppliers .
Quote from wikipedia : >

Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in all retail businesses, the retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price.- unquote

Unless they clearly specified that you were liable for duty / vat etc , you should open a dispute with them through paypal

rubadub

allthedoyles wrote: »

Its called drop-shipping . ......Based in the UK and buying from Asian suppliers

This crowd is based in Asia though, they just have weak signs/inferences that they are in the UK, probably weak enough to pass any complaint.

allthedoyles wrote: »

Unless they clearly specified that you were liable for duty / vat etc

You do not always see this specified on many big legitimate/reputable sites, its really up to the consumer to know the laws in his areas when importing goods.

docdolittle

He used 'txt spk' in some parts of his reply :P

Hi ,
How are you.
Thanks for your email.
As our prices are very low and reasonable,so all of our prices don't include VAT. You may compare with the other sellers' price in your market .
Thanks for your understanding.
All of our producst have full year warranty.Pls don't worry.
For the first three time,you should full charge 12hrs. Then discharge,But not fully drain. 5% remain,Then recharge. Remember for the first three time charge,you should shut down your laptop.
Any questions,pls feel free to contact us.Thanks.
Best wishes,
Sunny

I could dispute this with paypal now, but I'm guessing it's really not worth the effort Ah well, guess I learned a lesson in buying from websites like that now...

delllat

same happened me last week ,,ordered a laptop charger from a uk company ,they intend to ship it from china and could take around a month to arrive

its not the end of the world but its a pain in the stones if it doesnt work because they have sneakily priced it to avoid ebay fees

80% is for "postage" , 20% is for item cost so if i have to return it for a refund im down nearly 200% or more counting our registered post to china

MJensen

Same thing happened to me today! I ordered a replacement laptop battery from www.buy-laptop-battery.co.uk

I checked out the shipping policy on their website. It says:

"If your order cause any import duties or Tax, Please scan the tax receipt to us together with your order ID. We will refund the tax to you in 3-5 business days upon receipt of all your information."

I was quite delighted to read that but slightly skeptical. Let's see how it all goes.

MapForJ

I asked a mod if I could post to this as it is a while ago since anyone did

Hi ,
How are you.
Thanks for your email.
As our prices are very low and reasonable,so all of our prices don't include VAT. You may compare with the other sellers' price in your market .
Thanks for your understanding.
All of our producst have full year warranty.Pls don't worry.
For the first three time,you should full charge 12hrs. Then discharge,But not fully drain. 5% remain,Then recharge. Remember for the first three time charge,you should shut down your laptop.
Any questions,pls feel free to contact us.Thanks.
Best wishes,
Sunny

In the above quote he says their warranty is one year. However, the following may be of interest to anyone who bought from them or anyone else with one year warranty

The Sale of Goods and Associated Guarantees Directive 99/44/EC<http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l32022_en.htm&gt; provides a common set of consumer rights for consumers which are valid no matter where in the EU the goods are purchased, and which are enforceable for at least 2 years from delivery of the goods. The Directive states that in the case of faulty goods a consumer has the right to request a repair, replacement or refund for the item for the two year period. In addition the Statute of Limitations in Ireland and the UK provides a period of 6 years within which a consumer can bring an action against a trader (this does not mean that the item purchased has to be functioning appropriately for 6 years it merely offers the consumer the opportunity to take legal action during this period).

rubadub

MapForJ wrote: »

the following may be of interest to anyone who bought from them or anyone else with one year warranty

no matter where in the EU the goods are purchased

But this seller is outside the EU, so it wouldn't apply, useful for other sellers though.

MapForJ

rubadub wrote: »

But this seller is outside the EU, so it wouldn't apply, useful for other sellers though.

Are you talking of top-battery.co.uk? They are in UK . I know they drop ship but give the impression of being in UK so they may come under it. Anyway handy to know for eu sellers who insist their warranty is 12 months

rubadub

MapForJ wrote: »

Are you talking of top-battery.co.uk? They are in UK .

I had checked the other one www.buy-laptop-battery.co.uk but top battery are in china too, you can check it on sites
http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=top-battery.co.uk&WHOIS+Submit.x=41&WHOIS+Submit.y=6

Domain name:
top-battery.co.uk

Registrant:
luoxianghua

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
DongBian Commercial Building
Longhua townBaoan District
Shenzhen
China
518000
China

Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 08-Aug-2009
Renewal date: 08-Aug-2013
Last updated: 08-Aug-2011

Registration status:
Renewal request being processed.

Name servers:
ns17.ixwebhosting.com
ns18.ixwebhosting.com

WHOIS lookup made at 17:11:24 12-Aug-2011

I know they drop ship but give the impression of being in UK so they may come under it.

All I saw was the .co.uk I didn't notice any sly stuff on the site, I couldn't see any mention of location. I am not sure what happens in the case of a genuine UK based drop shipper.

MapForJ

rubadub wrote: »

I had checked the other one www.buy-laptop-battery.co.uk but top battery are in china too, you can check it on sites
http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=top-battery.co.uk&WHOIS+Submit.x=41&WHOIS+Submit.y=6



All I saw was the .co.uk I didn't notice any sly stuff on the site, I couldn't see any mention of location. I am not sure what happens in the case of a genuine UK based drop shipper.

I know i just did a whois on top-battery. I wonder though if giving the impression they are in the UK is in breach of any law?. I bought from them and was not happy. I had assumed they were in UK and drop shipping

i did not get charged any customs though? Is that just random checks?