www.play.com

podgeen

Have any of ye ever order games from this site? I signed up today and placed a pre-order on Vice City, from what i could see delivery is free and they deliver to ireland, it cost 34sterling, which is about 56 or so euros i think. which is cheaper than 70euros in game, am i being screwed or something?

Mixie

I use em a fair bit lately and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Cheaper than walking into a shop here, and if i pre-order, i get it on day of release more often than not. cant fault that.

podgeen

yeah just been reading about them on the home entertainment board http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43173&pagenumber=1

Mr. Fancypants

They're deadly. Have a bigger range of cds than www.cdwow.ie, have an excellent selection of dvds, and great prices on games.

Shinji

Play.com are currently the subject of an investigation by Customs and Excise and the Post Office in the UK which will probably spill over into Ireland and other countries - basically these guys have been using a tax loophole to avoid charging VAT on any of their products, and it looks like this loophole is about to be closed.

A lot of people ordering from them in the past week have found that the post office refuses to hand over their package until they've paid the import duty and VAT on it - and usually a post office surcharge. This little lot can come to a good £7 or £8 on a single DVD!

(I've been warning people about this for a while but it's now actually started happening for real. Please do beware of these guys - they're actually WAAAAAAAY more expensive than other online retailers when you take the VAT thing into account, and you can get REALLY badly stung by them.)

Mr. Fancypants

Eeek!

ondafly

ah crap - where did you hear this Shinji ? me ordered Akira and Ghost in a Shell on Monday - and no sign of them yet - typical if i get stung for them :mad: Twas 20GBP cheaper than Amazon - what are we poor people to do - pay rip off prices to HMV, or pay for them online - and get stung for Tax when they arrive :mad: Oh how I love this country's tax system - PAY ALL YOU EARN

Shinji

what are we poor people to do - pay rip off prices to HMV, or pay for them online

Well, er, you could pay for 'em online at a place like CDWow or Amazon or wherever that actually charges the VAT and doesn't try and rip off the taxpayer?

RasTa

u live in england now dont ya shinji??
dunno over in ireland ya never get stung with customs on dvd's
have me first game on order with them,its outta stock though
once the spinal tap dvd i ordered came within then next day of postage
but as 4 games arriving on time from play i've heard that you'll be lucky to get it on the day of release
but is the retail price gonna be 70 euros in ireland for vice city?

is the loophole u talk about,play being based in jersey ?
again we wont get stung by customs in ireland
allthough sayin this ill probaly get hit on my next dvd

Shinji

again we wont get stung by customs in ireland

Depends entirely on whether Irish customs choose to blacklist Play.com the way that UK customs apparently have. I'd imagine they will, tbh - customs don't like losing tens of thousands of pounds like that...

tuxy

so thats why it says jersey beside play.com on credit card bills?
they tried to use jersey in some way to exclude vat from their goods?

Makaveli

Er crap, this might explain why I'm waiting a week now for my orders.

ondafly

Well, er, you could pay for 'em online at a place like CDWow or Amazon or wherever that actually charges the VAT and doesn't try and rip off the taxpayer?

Well Amazon aint the cheapest - when u put it through the exchange rate - GBP 2 EUR - tis only good for hard to get CDs. As for CDwow - they dont have a huge selection of Anime.

AFAIK - customs only charge VAT on anything over 50euros. So it looks like i should be ok - I hope !

Makaveli

Do customs send you a letter or something if they are blocking something that is supposed to be coming to you?

I think it's if it's less than €50 (or whatever the value) and marked as a "gift".
IIRC play dont mark the packages as gifts, they do print the price on the envelope though.
I dunno, I just hope my stuff wasnt stopped.

ondafly

im waiting on 2 dvds that were posted on Tuesday - if they are not here today - something is definetly up me thinks.

sceptre

Originally posted by Makaveli
IIRC play dont mark the packages as gifts, they do print the price on the envelope though.

Got some stuff last week. Marked as "Optical Media" on the envelope. Gave the correct price though. Up till then it had the name of the DVD on the envelope. I'd assumed that it was to confuse the occasional dishonest UK postman but perhaps there's real method in the, er, madness.

podgeen

i knew it there had to be some catch to it. Dont think i should order pro evolution2 just yet...

Meh

Originally posted by tuxx
so thats why it says jersey beside play.com on credit card bills?
they tried to use jersey in some way to exclude vat from their goods?

Yes, Jersey is outside the EU even though it's UK territory. That's where the loophole is.

eth0_

It's not like they're just using a Jersey based address as a loophole, they are actually physically based in Jersey.
I don't see how customs can think it's illegal for them to trade with mainland UK and with Ireland, are business' in Jersey not allowed to trade within Europe?

Shinji

It's not like they're just using a Jersey based address as a loophole, they are actually physically based in Jersey.

Actually, their offices are in Cambridge, and their warehouse is in Belgium, AFAIK.

I don't see how customs can think it's illegal for them to trade with mainland UK and with Ireland

It's not illegal for them to trade with us at all. It's just that you're still meant to be paying VAT, and that's what customs are going to start imposing on this lot.

Makaveli

Got half of my stuff today, so it is still coming through just a little bit slow.

suppafly

dam, i hope then don't get done, cuz everywhere is pure xpensive!

byte

Originally posted by Shinji
Well, er, you could pay for 'em online at a place like CDWow or Amazon or wherever that actually charges the VAT and doesn't try and rip off the taxpayer?

I thought that VAT isn't paid for CD WOW stuff either! Maybe I'm wrong! How else can they be so cheap? Or are Japanese CD imports really that cheap?

mystik

i'v got stuff from play.com and cdwow.....they both arrived pretty much on time....i just hope theres no after effects now

ondafly

got my DVDs from play - no probs at all just took 7 days. I suspect the problems are only being experienced in the UK ?

suppafly

hopefully thats the case. Has anybody who was oredered stuff from play here in Ireland encountered and problems?

Vokes

well im a first timer user of play. My order was posted 23/10 and got to me today, 30/10. That's 4 working days. Is that good/bad??

RichyX

I've used Play.com approx. 20 times in the last year and I've never had any real problem with them.
The occaisional kinda late item but that's it.
Amazon can **** off, their prices and service suk ass so I'll never deal with them.
Blackstar.co.uk were great when I used to deal with them, I'll switch to there if Play.com go to ****.

s8n

I've used play for dvd's for the last couple of months and had no probs.....just got my copy of withnail and I this morning for €10 (€33.99 in hmv)

Samson

Originally posted by Shinji
It's just that you're still meant to be paying VAT...

I don't think this is entirely correct, I have been buying film from a company in Jersey for years, I had always wondered why they always shipped my goods to me in a split consignment.
For example, if I ordered 100 rolls of film it would be delivered to me in 10 small packages containing 10 rolls of file each (all 10 packages would typically arrive on the same day).
I thought this quite strange, so once, when I was ordering (by phone), I asked the girl why this was and I was told that they are not required to charge VAT on small value export orders, hence, the apparently cheaper prices.

This may be the "loophole" you speak of Shinji.
So, it's not illegal once the goods are below a certain value (don't know what the value is, I think it may be around the £12 to £15 sterling mark). I would suspect that this is where play.com are getting into trouble, they are probably flouting the "small value" export order rule.

Makaveli

Originally posted by Samson
I don't think this is entirely correct, I have been buying film from a company in Jersey for years, I had always wondered why they always shipped my goods to me in a split consignment.
For example, if I ordered 100 rolls of film it would be delivered to me in 10 small packages containing 10 rolls of file each (all 10 packages would typically arrive on the same day).
I thought this quite strange, so once, when I was ordering (by phone), I asked the girl why this was and I was told that they are not required to charge VAT on small value export orders, hence, the apparently cheaper prices.

That's what play do too. If you order say 5 dvds you will get 5 packages. It keeps the value of the goods in the package down, so there is no incurred import tax and also, it keeps the weight in the package down (I dunno if that has anything to do with it though).
Atm, all orders are still coming through to us it would seem without customs doing anything. I've gotten all my outstanding orders anyway.