Aussie Orders from American Suppliers

ESiggins

I was wondering if any of my Aussie brethren have ever ordered from an American Supplier like B&H or Adorama. With the AUD as strong as it is against the USD, some of the deals are much better, even with international shipping, and I'll probably move back to New York soon, so US warranties are actually a good thing for me. My question is, do you have to pay customs or import duties or anything like that on the stuff you order from the US, and if so, how much? Ta very much,

Fred.

gus

ESiggins wrote:

I was wondering if any of my Aussie brethren have ever ordered from an American Supplier like B&H or Adorama. With the AUD as strong as it is against the USD, some of the deals are much better, even with international shipping, and I'll probably move back to New York soon, so US warranties are actually a good thing for me. My question is, do you have to pay customs or import duties or anything like that on the stuff you order from the US, and if so, how much? Ta very much,

Fred.

Last time i asked ..B&H wont take credit card if thats how you intended to pay...stopped me buying there. May be diff now.

You will not escape paying tax for the goods as they come into Australia...customs are just so so onto it these days. I think the threshhold is $1k.

ESiggins

Thanks, Gus. Credit card is no problem, my GF has an American one I can use. Just wondering about percentages and stuff on the import tax. Obviously, if the tax kills the bargain, I'll just buy local.

Kenny

Hi Fred,

I bought a Nikon SB800 flash from B&H a while back. They wanted a photocopy of both sides of my credit card before they would transact, but then it was fine. There is no import duty on cameras or camera accessories. However, you do pay GST... I ended up paying about $AUD55 at the Post Office before I could collect, but otherwise it was painless. Still saved myself about $AUD300 on what I could get it here for at the time.

Cheers,
Ken

ESiggins wrote:

I was wondering if any of my Aussie brethren have ever ordered from an American Supplier like B&H or Adorama. With the AUD as strong as it is against the USD, some of the deals are much better, even with international shipping, and I'll probably move back to New York soon, so US warranties are actually a good thing for me. My question is, do you have to pay customs or import duties or anything like that on the stuff you order from the US, and if so, how much? Ta very much,

Fred.

ESiggins

Good on ya Ken, thanks.

gus

ESiggins wrote:

Good on ya Ken, thanks.

There you go...if they are taking our credit cards now then go for it. B&H prices are unbelievable to what we get here...my 135 f2 prime was about $750 AUD cheaper from B&H (andy got it for me when i went over to last years shootout) Actually my 400 prime was about the same saving....go for it.

Check out our customs site & it explains the GST clearly (think its 10% on anything over $1000) but still huge savings even inc insurance.

shane

B&h
I ordered a 70-200L form B&H about 1 month ago. They accept VISA no worries up to $1500 US. Over that amount they will not accept VISA from Australia.
As the total (inc shipping) came in under $1000 AUS, I paid no GST or import duties at all.:D

Shane.

T(h)orsten

Order at BH from Australia
I ordered a 20D, 70-200 and 17-40 from B&H from Australia. L lenses came with international warrenty. Everything was packed very protected. Saved me a fortune compared to Sydney prices. For that amount a Amex Card was required and BH wanted a copy faxed.

You pay 10% GST. You can also "gamble" to avoid GST by splitting the shipment, but you pay more for transport.


I also bought a lens (28-200) from digital-rev-au on eBay AU. All went fine there as well. However, not sure what would happen in warrenty case ...

Regards,
Torsten

ESiggins

Sweet! So the RAM chip I just ordered from Crucial.com (I'll actually be able to run photoshop and firefox at the same time now) shouldn't have any GST, 'cuz it was under a grand?

gus

ESiggins wrote:

Sweet! So the RAM chip I just ordered from Crucial.com (I'll actually be able to run photoshop and firefox at the same time now) shouldn't have any GST, 'cuz it was under a grand?

No...not shouldnt...wont.

ESiggins

gus wrote:

No...not shouldnt...wont.

henryp

shane wrote:

I ordered a 70-200L form B&H about 1 month ago. They accept VISA no worries up to $1500 US. Over that amount they will not accept VISA from Australia.

We need the local bank's cooperation to verify an order is legit. We do this to deter credit card fraud and identity theft. For reasons which escape me, banks in Aus seem unwilling to assist us in this endeavor. Because of this we limit Visa & MasterCard transactions to a max of 1500.00. There's no such limit for Discover or AmEx and we're happy to accept wire transfer too.

Steve Cavigliano

Good to see you here Henry

Not only will we benefit from getting B&H info, "straight from the horse's mouth", as it were. But you can keep an eye on one of your biggest volume customers. Andy Williams


Seriously Henry, you are most welcome here

Steve

W.W. Webster

henryp wrote:

For reasons which escape me, banks in Aus seem unwilling to assist us in this endeavor. Because of this we limit Visa & MasterCard transactions to a max of 1500.00.

What about orders from New Zealand, Henry? Hopefully the limit doesn't apply to us?

Trent

warranty issues
I was thinking of ordering from B&H and was wondering about the warranty issues? If my camera breaks I will just have to send it back to B&H?