iPad - Customs - How do they know ?

magic roundabou

Morning all , i am off to the states next week and am considering getting an ipad over there - am a bit worried about the customs coming back in but am wondering how they know its new ? if i send all the manuals etc home in the post and just have the ipad how do they know i did not bring it over with me

Thanks in advance

clare

BeeDI

magic roundabou wrote: »

Morning all , i am off to the states next week and am considering getting an ipad over there - am a bit worried about the customs coming back in but am wondering how they know its new ? if i send all the manuals etc home in the post and just have the ipad how do they know i did not bring it over with me

Thanks in advance

clare

Simple. Just knock it about the place before you come home. Few dents and scratches and a couple of cracks on the screen, and they will well belive it's an auld yoke.:D:D

TT09

Wouldn't think to much into it, just put it in a case and carry it on with you in hand luggage.

adox

Theres no real brochures or anything that come with it.

I`m not condoning trying to avoid paying tax but when I bought one in the States last year, I just took it out of the packaging and put it in my carry on bag.

Johnmb

Just activate it over there, and maybe have a few apps on it so that it looks used and there won't be a problem, even if they do check it, which is unlikely.

Tipsy McSwagger

I got one a few months back and just brought it onto the plane with me. I left all the packaging in my hotel room.

robbie1876

magic roundabou wrote: »

Morning all , i am off to the states next week and am considering getting an ipad over there - am a bit worried about the customs coming back in but am wondering how they know its new ? if i send all the manuals etc home in the post and just have the ipad how do they know i did not bring it over with me

Thanks in advance

clare

I hope you have better luck than me trying to get one in the States (presuming you mean an iPad 2!) I was in Florida last week and tried hard to find one without success. Best Buy, Walmart etc had very sporadic deliveries of just one or two at a time. The local Apple store recommended I queue in the morning for a few hours before they openend.

I actually went to the Apple store at 7am one morning (my excuse was I was still waking at Irish time ) and there was not too many people waiting. Great, I thought, good chance of picking one up! However, the guy in front of me said that just before I got there, an Apple employee came out and said there were no WiFi models that day, only 64GB Verizon models, so about 150 people left the queue and went home. Seriously, 150 people at 7am! Apparently people are queueing from midnight every night.

I'm not meaning to dampen your quest for an iPad, just advising to be prepared. The closest I got was by monitoring this site - http://www.ipad2locator.com/ - and then making a dash for a Walmart if you see one in stock. I missed out by about 10 minutes on a deliver of 2 iPads at lunchtime one day to a Walmart that was not too far away.

Best of luck!

Robbie

magic roundabou

Thanks Robbie - checked that website and it seems that i will not have a problem with customs as i will not be able to get one !!!
but will look anyway

Pat Mustard

magic roundabou wrote: »

Thanks Robbie - checked that website and it seems that i will not have a problem with customs as i will not be able to get one !!!
but will look anyway

If you have a reliable postal address over there, you could order it on apple.com and then pick it up over there. The delivery time is 1-2 weeks.

Then discard the packaging and activate it. If you use it legitimately over there, you should be able to argue that it is no longer new, if challenged.

Ps. maybe you could get one in the airport on the way back.

naasrd

magic roundabou wrote: »

Morning all , i am off to the states next week and am considering getting an ipad over there - am a bit worried about the customs coming back in but am wondering how they know its new ? if i send all the manuals etc home in the post and just have the ipad how do they know i did not bring it over with me

Thanks in advance

clare

I just carried mine in my hand.

jakdublin

magic roundabou wrote: »

Morning all , i am off to the states next week and am considering getting an ipad over there - am a bit worried about the customs coming back in but am wondering how they know its new ? if i send all the manuals etc home in the post and just have the ipad how do they know i did not bring it over with me

Thanks in advance

clare

I brought one of the original ones back last year, still in the box. It was a 16gb wifi model, which I think came in just under the value of goods you're allowed to bring through. Nobody checked it.

holystungun9

I was in Florida and bought a macbook, ditched all the packaging, had a sleeve to hold it and everything else went into hand luggage. There is no reason for them to be searching through your hand luggage and suspecting you are dodging customs.Every second person passing through the security check is taking out an ipad or laptop, don't even worry about it.

magic roundabou

thanks for all that, i will see if i can get one - also since some of you have done the same , can i ask a question - from looking on other threads it seems like it has to be an AT&T machine i get for it to work over here- when i come back can i go to any of the networks to get a sim ?
thanks

Johnmb

magic roundabou wrote: »

thanks for all that, i will see if i can get one - also since some of you have done the same , can i ask a question - from looking on other threads it seems like it has to be an AT&T machine i get for it to work over here- when i come back can i go to any of the networks to get a sim ?
thanks

If you want one that works on a mobile network here, rather than just over wifi, then yes, the AT&T version is the one you'll need. And yes, the 4 main (Vodafone, O2, 3, and Meteor) networks here do data sims that will work with the iPad, not sure about the smaller ones (Tesco, emobile, etc) though.

magic roundabou

thanks johnmb -

magic roundabou

Ok after lots of shops with noiPads I finally went into a target in appleton And asked hopefully -their answer was " of course which one do you want" ! So I am now the proud owner of an iPad - hopefully will get it home with no problems

robbie1876

Congrats! I just got back from the US with an iPad yesterday morning also, at last. There was nobody from customs around, they were all too busy in the corner playing with their sniffer dog.

Mr. Presentable

Let's hope you don't have any warranty issues with it - it'll cost you a bomb to bring it back........

Gregor Samsa

Technically, if Customs suspect that you're trying to avoid duty, they can impound any item and it's up to you to prove that you don't need to pay duty on it - by producing a receipt to show it was bought in Ireland, for instance. So leaving the box behind and loading it up with apps is no guarantee really.

In practice, however, they're not going to stop you with an unboxed iPad in you bag. Furthermore, I usually fly through Shannon, and in all my years I've never once seen a Customs officer at the desk there. So it's not something that would worry me at all.

Gregor Samsa

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

Let's hope you don't have any warranty issues with it - it'll cost you a bomb to bring it back........

Apple have a worldwide warranty. You'd just bring it to a Authorised Apple repair place here.

ryanmatty

Back from the States yesterday morning. Got through no hassle with my iPad only one lad sitting at the xray machine and looked like he didnt want to be there.

kmart6

magic roundabou wrote: »

Ok after lots of shops with noiPads I finally went into a target in appleton And asked hopefully -their answer was " of course which one do you want" ! So I am now the proud owner of an iPad - hopefully will get it home with no problems

ryanmatty wrote: »

Back from the States yesterday morning. Got through no hassle with my iPad only one lad sitting at the xray machine and looked like he didnt want to be there.

How much did they cost ye folks?! Did ye save much?!

Bigcheeze

ryanmatty wrote: »

Back from the States yesterday morning. Got through no hassle with my iPad only one lad sitting at the xray machine and looked like he didnt want to be there.

They're not interested in people with ipads. They're not bothered about people doing clothes shopping either, despite all the urban myths you'll hear about it. It's people with a suitcase full of fags or drugs that they want. They generally pick out the people they want before they've even picked up their bag from the carousel.

djdrobins

kmart6 wrote: »

How much did they cost ye folks?! Did ye save much?!

Also, is there an issue with the power, or connections to other European devices here etc.
I have a friend who is over there at the moment and willing to get one for me, but is there any difference with them (wi-fi) versions only.
I have wi-fi in the house and work etc.

And yeah, what sort of price - is it a direct replace the $ with the Euro.

Kotek Besar

djdrobins wrote: »

Also, is there an issue with the power, or connections to other European devices here etc.
I have a friend who is over there at the moment and willing to get one for me, but is there any difference with them (wi-fi) versions only.
I have wi-fi in the house and work etc.

And yeah, what sort of price - is it a direct replace the $ with the Euro.

Apple power supplies are dual voltage, so no issues there. For prices, why not
have a look at the US Apple Store online?

whiterebel

Bigcheeze wrote: »

They're not interested in people with ipads. They're not bothered about people doing clothes shopping either, despite all the urban myths you'll hear about it. It's people with a suitcase full of fags or drugs that they want. They generally pick out the people they want before they've even picked up their bag from the carousel.

They are interested in people taking the p*ss. Like in the old days 400 fags instead of 200 isn't a big problem and they would generally let it go. Same with people with one suit case of clothes etc. I've seen people with 6 HUGE bags coming back from Orlando, and they were stopped. C&E are under a lot more pressure now for money, hence so much more stuff being checked coming in from outside the EU, such as play.com and The Hut. The Ipad will put you right at the threshold for your tax/duty free allowance when you are travelling with it, so again, if you get a lot with it you are putting yourself up on the radar. Once you go over the allowance, everything you have bought outside becomes subject to Tax and duty.