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Ike,

Total order (3 planes + 4 spare blades) was US$619.54 = £354.92.

Parcel Farce charged me £54.61 tax plus £8.00 "handling fee" (robbing b*gg*rs).

Thus:
- tax + fee as a percentage was 17.64%
- tax only as a percentage was 15.38%

Total cost to me was £417.54, BriMarc would have cost £457.08 plus postage (not sure what they charge for that). So saved some £40 plus postage, but waited a few weeks more than I would have with BriMarc (though that wasn't a problem in this instance).
 
- tax only as a percentage was 15.38%

Thanks for the info. Funny business ain't it? . I'd have thought the minimum would have been 17.5% VAT. Anyway, it seems we can all come out comfortably ahead even after getting stiffed by IR/C&E.

cheers

Ike
 
Quote:
- tax only as a percentage was 15.38%


Thanks for the info. Funny business ain't it? . I'd have thought the minimum would have been 17.5% VAT. Anyway, it seems we can all come out comfortably ahead even after getting stiffed by IR/C&E.

It's a question of maths. If you buy in the UK tax as a percentage is only 14.89%. Looks like Parcelforce charged Pitbull 18.18%

Go figure.

Andrew
 
Don't quite understand that, Andrew. I see how you got the 14.89% figure, but:

£354.92 + VAT
= 354.92 * 1.175
= 417.03

VAT paid = 417.03 - 354.92
= 62.11

So Pitbull was charged less than 17.5% VAT, surely?

Although I've only had one coffee this morning, so I could be wrong... :wink:

NeilCFD
 
For the record we would only charge carriage under £150 and offer a no arguments warranty. If you are not happy we will replace, refund or repair to your whim.

Martin
 
Top marks to Martin et al at Brimark for service, but there's the occasional 'special offer' that pops up somewhere else, and the savings are somewhat more than 10%. So in my case, I've dipped my toe in the water for a few little extras 'direct'. Hope you don't mind, Martin - you haven't lost my future custom BTW. :wink:

cheers

Ike
 
One of my 2 parcels arrived from LV today. Just 6 days delivery and best of all, no taxes!. The surface mail option really does give good value. I expect it can take a lot longer though, maybe I was lucky this time.

Ike
 
Neil,

You are right of course. I was assuming that the £354.92 that Pitbull quoted was the total price including VAT. So, yes, strange that the tax should be less than 17.5% but that's customs for you.

Andrew
 
Yeah, it doesn't seem to make sense - still, at least it worked out at a lesser rate rather than a greater one!

I had a thought that maybe the figure Pitbull gave was the amount debited to the credit card, which would be converted from dollars using the card company's rip-off rate, whereas ParcelFarce may have based the tax on the dollar price using the 'true' exchange rate.

NeilCFD
 
Neil,

The variance of the tax actually paid versus what should have been paid is probably due to a combination of what you suggest, plus exchange rate movements in the time between actual dispatch date and date of arrival in the UK.
 
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