UK market-Is it now best to order AF3 from Fractal in the US going forward?

S

stevejon38

Member
Now that regretfully the UK is no longer a member of the EU, means that buying from G66 in Germany will now incur additional custom duties, which puts those who live in the UK and wish to order at a financial disadvantage.

UK shoppers face Brexit duties on holiday and online purchases | Politics | The Guardian

Previous to this the advantage of buying from G66 I'm told was that you got an extended 3 year warranty and that if you chose to import from the US, then by the time you paid all of the custom duties, etc., you would paid out about the same as the G66 price.

From now on this will no longer be the case for those in the UK.

So given this, will I now be able to order from Fractal in the US instead?

If so, there doesn't appear to be a problem with supply of AFX Mk 2, it's just whether the good people at Fractal now recognise that the UK will in future be seen as a separate (albeit much smaller) market compared to the EU.

G66 also don't appear not to have stock at the moment and are operating a waiting list.

Or are their any plans for Fractal to appoint a UK only distributor?
 
I'm not sure if Fractal actually ships to consumers outside of North America. You'd probably have to reach out to the admins and ask
 
This will be interesting to find out. Although the Uk has left the EU,(as of 1/1/21) would Fractal still regard me as being geographically in Europe and the rules to purchase via G66 still apply?

Ps.
All my dealings with G66 have been handled with upmost care and attention. Fantastic company.
 
Wait to see what has been negotiated. Not sure at all there will be additional taxes for an order to G66.
G66 will surely revert early 2021 and indicate what has to happen.
 
stevejon38 said:
Now that regretfully the UK is no longer a member of the EU, means that buying from G66 in Germany will now incur additional custom duties, which puts those who live in the UK and wish to order at a financial disadvantage.



Previous to this the advantage of buying from G66 I'm told was that you got an extended 3 year warranty and that if you chose to import from the US, then by the time you paid all of the custom duties, etc., you would paid out about the same as the G66 price.

From now on this will no longer be the case for those in the UK.
Click to expand...

I assume you still have to pay shipping, customs fee and VAT when you import from US to UK? I don't really see how that would change anything for your end price?
The price has always been pretty much the same, whether you buy from G66 or form US.
 
Ole said:
I assume you still have to pay shipping, customs fee and VAT when you import from US to UK? I don't really see how that would change anything for your end price?
The price has always been pretty much the same, whether you buy from G66 or form US.
[/QUOTE
chrisjnyc said:
OP, Fractal doesn't ship to the UK. and has a deal in place with G66. I would bet G66 will ship to the UK and everything stays the same.
Click to expand...

Sadly now that the UK is no longer part of the the EU, anything above £290.00 that is not declared as a gift will be subject to additional custom fees as well.

Here's an illustration:

If available from Fractal in the US:

Current price without Tax: £1555.00
Custom fee (@3.70%) £57.00
VAT (@20%) £314
Shipping (inc.VAT@20%) £70.00

Total: £1994.00

From G66:

Current price without Tax: £1974.00
Custom fee (@3.70%) £73.00
VAT (@20%) £395
Shipping-Free

Total: £2442.00

Difference is £448.00 or $605.00 for our American friends. That will almost buy me an FC6 to go with it (plus shipping cost)

Even without the additional custom charges, it was always at a lower cost from the US.

G66 are an excellent company to deal with,. However the breakdown is that it's £224.00 for each year of their warranty.

Part of this difference I accept is a commitment to collect/deliver from anywhere from within the EU for any faulty items. The failure rate I would expect to be low, so as a business cost this is probably not affecting their bottom line too much.

Fractal make road tested hardware with a high expectation regarding build quality and durability, so I wouldn't expect to come across a problem.

This was the case before when I owned the Axe FX and Mk2 units.
Click to expand...
 
My best guess is that fractal will not ship to the UK as it's a pain in the rear end.

There's a chance that when ordering from g66 (if they wish to continue to deal with us moving forward....) Would be that you wouldn't pay the local vat/sales tax at the thier end and you would pay any equivalent locally when it arrives in the UK. There would be vat and UK import duty as well as the admin fees and any brexit rates but I would have thought that this would form part of the import duty but it would be at an increased rate.
 
xpenno said:
My best guess is that fractal will not ship to the UK as it's a pain in the rear end.

There's a chance that when ordering from g66 (if they wish to continue to deal with us moving forward....) Would be that you wouldn't pay the local vat/sales tax at the thier end and you would pay any equivalent locally when it arrives in the UK. There would be vat and UK import duty as well as the admin fees and any brexit rates but I would have thought that this would form part of the import duty but it would be at an increased rate.
Click to expand...
From the anyone importing into the UK, the custom fees are the same irrespective of whether it's coming from Germany or the US.

Having checked the UK Gov website, it's 3.70% for this commodity. So when it gets shipped, you now have to wait longer because the Royal Mail will contact you and collect all relevant VAT and custom charges upfront, before it gets released to you.

The whole idea for Fractal to ship to G66 made perfect sense, when the UK was part of the EU, because of the frictionless borders between countries.

You treat the EU (and other no EU countries aligned to the EU single market) as one trading bloc. However because the morons in the UK voted against this, the UK has to be seen now as a separate market and not part of the EU trading bloc, and as such is subject to the same custom restrictions and regulations as any other non EU country.

Now the goal posts have been moved.
 
stevejon38 said:
From the anyone importing into the UK, the custom fees are the same irrespective of whether it's coming from Germany or the US.

Having checked the UK Gov website, it's 3.70% for this commodity. So when it gets shipped, you now have to wait longer because the Royal Mail will contact you and collect all relevant VAT and custom charges upfront, before it gets released to you.

The whole idea for Fractal to ship to G66 made perfect sense, when the UK was part of the EU, because of the frictionless borders between countries.

You treat the EU (and other no EU countries aligned to the EU single market) as one trading bloc. However because the morons in the UK voted against this, the UK has to be seen now as a separate market and not part of the EU trading bloc, and as such is subject to the same custom restrictions and regulations as any other non EU country.

Now the goal posts have been moved.
Click to expand...


A few things, probably worth reigning in political outbursts on here.

The fractal products won't touch royal mail, it'll go via ups like it always has done and whilst they will have to clear it through customs for a "small" fee, I doubt it will delay much.
 
Maybe wait and see what comes forth of the agreement just signed between UK and EC. IMHO few or nothing will change; except for an additional few days. BTW when in EC we order something from Switzerland as a person (not a company), there's no charges and almost no additional delay.
 
I'm genuinely curious as to why the OP would think just because of Brexit that Fractal will change its modus operandi and sell directly to the UK? At best, a distributor could be appointed in the UK, and at worst G66 could still service the UK. I doubt that it will make much difference to the end-user either way.
 
lauke-lux said:
Maybe wait and see what comes forth of the agreement just signed between UK and EC. IMHO few or nothing will change; except for an additional few days. BTW when in EC we order something from Switzerland as a person (not a company), there's no charges and almost no additional delay.
Click to expand...
The difference is that Switzerland has aligned itself with the EU single market, the UK hasn't, so I understand that it won't be as seamless as you've experienced.
 
Scorched said:
I'm genuinely curious as to why the OP would think just because of Brexit that Fractal will change its modus operandi and sell directly to the UK? At best, a distributor could be appointed in the UK, and at worst G66 could still service the UK. I doubt that it will make much difference to the end-user either way.
Click to expand...
You can see how much of a cost difference there is for a start. That does impact on the end user, even before Brexit.

I work for a dealer who sells high end AV from a Northern European manufacturer. Their pricing is even across different continents and markets.

Let's say there is a product that retails for 2500 euros, the US price would be $3000 and the UK price would be £2250. This is roughly equitable with the exchange rate differentials between the three currencies. The US owner would not be asked to pay 20-25% more as is the case here.

On a different note it's unlikely that a UK distributor would be sought as the market might be too small from Fractals POV.

However, I would be surprised to see the good people at G66 not wanting to supply UK orders. I would assume that they would ship exc. VAT and have to fill in a customs declaration form (more paperwork for them-more time/cost) and then the end user gets charged the customs duty and VAT, once it arrives in the UK.

Point made here is that at the moment they don't appear to have any stock and are running a waiting list (how long this will take to fulfil at present is unclear), which is not the case with Fractal themselves.
 
@stevejon38
Here's an illustration:

If available from Fractal in the US:

Current price without Tax: £1555.00
Custom fee (@3.70%) £57.00
VAT (@20%) £314
Shipping (inc.VAT@20%) £70.00

Total: £1994.00

From G66:

Current price without Tax: £1974.00
Custom fee (@3.70%) £73.00
VAT (@20%) £395
Shipping-Free

Total: £2442.00

Difference is £448.00 or $605.00 for our American friends. That will almost buy me an FC6 to go with it (plus shipping cost)

Even without the additional custom charges, it was always at a lower cost from the US.
Click to expand...
The units sold in the US don't include a 3-year warranty AND if you have to use the (1-year) warranty, paying for shipping both ways isn't going to be cheap...

Just something to include in your comparison.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom