Reply With Quotegeez pete..did you upset the bloke ???Originally Posted by peterbo3
Not much use talking to poor old battler. He is in banned camp for while.
We had a few words then he was canned.
Cheers for the business advice battler, but like i said, reselling doesnt make a living. It's the other services that do.
For guys like us, buying in quantities for the discounts is not an option. No one likes holding too much stock.
geez pete..did you upset the bloke ???Not much use talking to poor old battler. He is in banned camp for while.
We had a few words then he was canned.
Quick update on buying a Furuno 620 from CascadeGPS and others with similar charges in the US ....
Quoted $US823 for the unit+transducer and $US105 for freight (cheapest). That makes a totals of $US928.
The exchange rate is $A1=$US0.86 so total cost is $A1,079 which attracts 10% GST. Buying the transducer locally would get the package under the GST threshhold of $1,000 but that adds around $A100 retail as the local transducer costs are much more so much of a muchness.
By the time we add credit card charges and the always reduced exchange rate on credit cards, the cost is heading north of $A1,100. The local supplier who can get the package for $1,295 starts to look good.
Customs advised me via email that only Goods to the value of $1000AUD will attract GST not the value plus postage. Recently bought a Furuno and transducer from the states and although the value including postage was $1050 it did not attract any additional import duties or GST.
Gday Buck, does that email actually say that postage is not included in the calculation of GST? Or does it just say GST is calculated on the value of the goods?
I deal with this daily and can promise you the Australian Customs Service interprets the value of goods entering the country through post or courier as -
stated value + transport cost + any insurance + 5% duty (if required) = actual value. GST at 10% is then calculated on the deemed actual value. It doesn't suprise me that you were not required to pay GST on your $1050 sounder, good luck to you, I'd like to make a comment about that but I would be in trouble at work if I did.
I coppied the paragraph below from the Customs website
Cheers
The Australian Customs Service (Customs) collects GST on taxable goods imported into Australia. The GST payable is 10% of the value of the imported product. The value of the product is the sum of:
- the customs value of the goods
- any customs duty payable
- the amount paid or payable to transport the goods to the port or airport of final destination in Australia (or the place in Australia to which goods are posted)
- the insurance cost for that transport, and
- any wine equalisation tax payable.
Townsville BCF and BIAS are price matching the $1,300. Take in a printout off the Trymax web site. I'll be fitting my new unit tonight.
Mike,
The way I read the email ,was that postage was not taken into account. I unfortunately don't have the email anymore I think I deleted it. But the easiest way to confirm this is to contact customs with a direct question via their Web page as I did. Either way I happy with my OS purchase.
Cheers
Trust me, they take into account postage if that's the mood they are in. Got caught with some golf equipment which went $A80 over because of postage component (still saved a bundle because golf clubs are SO overpriced in Oz). That's the rules and they'll use them at times so factor it in and hopefully you'll get under their radar.
I don't have to confirm it mate, doing the paperwork every day at work. I was just trying to make sure no one here believes postage and insurance isn't included in Customs Service calculations of value (99% of the time anyway). Glad you're happy though, those Furunos are pretty good gear.
Cheers
Mike
up set me never i just had 6 days up at awoonga wheres the rest of the thread ?
Joe
Classic just read i got band & ive been away thats the best.
Mate the charges, both duty and GST are based on cost of goods including freight and insurance and the GST also takes into account any duty imposed on top of that. The advantage is that in most cases, for marine electronics, no duty applies.
I've bought stuff overseas and in Australia. In general if I buy off shore I keep the price down below the $A1000 mark. Sometimes that means that I may buy in stages or from different suppliers. At times this is done because of price differentials.
Recently I bought a Furuno 620 from Cascade.
Couple of points:
Via USPS express it took 12 business days (16 days in total). Bit ordinary considering USPS claim 3 to 5 business days.
Also the "tracking" was not updated from the time it was posted to when it arrived in my hands. Made for a pretty nervous wait I can assure you.
Yes it was insured, but from talking with Paul at Cascade, any insurance claims through USPS take several months to work through.
Paul was great to deal with, but remember he has no control of your package once he posts it.
Secondly, the sounder with transom mount transducer delivered to my door cost me $1032 AUS. That's including bank fees and postage. I bought when the Aus dollar was 96.5c.
The cheapest I've found locally is BCF at $1245 (for BCF members but joining is free)
So that's a saving of $213 or 17%.
Considering the delay in postage and possible warranty hassles in the event of a claim if I had it over again I would have probably just bought local.
Now here is a REAL reason why quite a few name brand products are sooo much more expensive here than in the US.
Our entire market in so many sectors not just marine, is smaller than some of the larger retailers in the US, and the parent companies simply do not want to cut us any slack.
Our distributers so many times do not buy at the same prices as their comparable US counterparts.
Many of the large US retailers would hold more stock than this country would sell in a year, and they would have in house service departments that would be many times larger than what any local distributer could have if it has one.
In Pro audio we used to see retail prices in the US magasines in US$$ and expect to pay twice that as the wholesale price here.
Because some of our distributers were being channeled thru US distributers rather than straight to the parent company.
Back in the 70's & 80's there were plenty of sound company owners comming back with suitcases full of genuine name brand microphones from US & singapore. because the local price was rediculous and that margin was not in the hands of the local importer.
Even when the local distributer/importer was a wholy owned subsiduary of the parent company, that wholy own subsiduary was not buying at US wholesale.
So the local distributer in most cases is not ripping you off, they are being given a very poor go themselves.
This is why I have seen several brands come and go from the aust market...the parent company perswades a local to distribute their product..after a while they realise that the situation is simply not sustainable and they pull the pin.....then the parent company tries again.
Back when unauthorides paralell importing was very heavily discouraged and individual overseas purchases were very uncommon......these guys could do what they liked and the parent companies were making $$$$$$ out of this.
It used to be that way with woodworking equipment... but these days we doo very well with tools in comparison to US,UK and europe ( this is bassed on adds in OS magasines).......because so many of the local Importers have bypassed the overseas brands and gone direct to the factories.
The overseas brands that still persist here have forsaken their greedy ways.
And have cmbined that with shipping direct from factory not via the US.
The problem with the marine market is that it is so heavily concentrated in the sounder and GPS market the vast mojority is in the hands of 2 players.....what wee need is for some asian upstarts to start making and offering decent stuff to make these big companies play fair both with us and the local distributers.
So no offence intended and for quite a lot of the part no offence taken...... but if you don't want to pay too much for marine electronics.......ya have to purchase overseas.......its mostly not the local distributer or retailer to blame, it is the parent company.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
One other issue is that much of the stuff we buy has so much margin on it that the sale price have very little relationship to the cost of manufacture and service.
So may of the vendors are charging what they think we will pay.
When the major and predomonat microphone brand, due to lower cost competitors and informal paralell imports has to drop 30% off it retail price list overnight......hmmmm
Another brand ..an upstart..decided there was not room for an independent distributer in AUST, pulled the pin on the local bloke and droped something like 30% off the price overnight, by offering on line direct retail sale 30% below RRP.
Many retailers were caught with heaps of stock on their shelves that was now worth 30% less than it was the day before..and for many this ment selling that stock at cost or at a loss.
ya sort of get the picture of how much respect some companies have for the AUST market.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
There's a real posibility the GST threshhold will soon drop to $400 for all private imports (same as NZ) then a gradual reduction down to zero so we're inline with other countries. Not good news for those who buy their gear O/S off the net.
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