Skyline_UK


TIP:  If you still want to order stuff from a non-EU country make sure the sender user a courier like Federal Express as they have their own Customs clearance interfaces with Customs ao you should still get your package on time as they'll probably ask for it on the doorstep as they puy priority on the delivery time commitment.   
   

Amen to that John.
 
I recently received a package from the USA (via UPS) and they didn't even 'demand' the small amount of duty payable when they delivered it. The guy even said he could call back "when it was more convenient" for me.
 
As you say, Parcelfarce (I like that, I'll use it myself in future ) could learn a lot from others in respect of customer service. 
  
  
PS - where are you in The Midlands John (if you don't mind me asking)?
 
 

The amount of VAT is correct on his package... the VAT is due on the price of X2, of which the boxed set is merely one small piece.

US companies shipping overseas to the UK collect VAT and customs duty to the same degree UK companies shipping to me here collect CT sales tax.... they dont.

While i sympathise with the angst the OP had in this situation, I do not see any fault here of Cakewalk, as this is exactly the risk you run when you buy from overseas... getting something of value quickly through customs without an agent is a dice roll ... but to do it tax/duty free is a lottery pick....

A couple of years ago I had an issue with cakewalk regarding the VAT and pricing.
I was trying to get their VAT reg details as tyhey had told me that they were registered for EU VAT and that they collected EU VAT via the Cakewalk store.
That was their main argument as to why the prices were higher in EU.

I think, eventually, they gave out their VAT reg details..

If search worked I might even be able to find the thread.......
 
fouid this:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1246213&high=VAT+registration
 

David Ramirez (Cakewalk)
We do state on all EUOR and GBP pages:

"Prices shown are manufacturers list price and include 17.5% VAT. Any available upgrade and/or special pricing for registered Cakewalk customers will be shown when you click through to the individual product pages."

Yet we will add our VAT registration number for further referencing.

and this:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?&m=2120844&mpage=10
 

Robin Kelly (Cakewalk) Just wanted to follow through on a promise to post the VAT IDs. Here are our VAT IDs and they will be up on the site shortly.

[size=0United Kingdom: 922 4707 34
All Other EU Countries: IE 9669179H

Robin

 
 
SO VAT has already been collected by Cakewalk. HMRC should not be levying VAT on import.

which is why I already wondered if they are charging VAT, why ask for more..

I mean the import side of it's separate from that ? as I bought mackie stuff in the past and the prices after went stupidly high after.

box set is what £25. + another £15..  they are having a giraffe 

Fog


which is why I already wondered if they are charging VAT, why ask for more..

I mean the import side of it's separate from that ? as I bought mackie stuff in the past and the prices after went stupidly high after.

box set is what £25. + another £15..  they are having a giraffe 

@Fog - No the disc set was £24.99 at CW store and then vat/import duty which ever it was they don´t tell you of £22.89.
Then the keyboard which was "only" vat/import duty of £15.91, the numbers makes no sense at all, and I can´t be bothered to investigate further.
 

yes but when you are buying that £25 INCLUDES vat or should  .. which is why I don't get where they get this "extra" charge from.. when I buy from other makers .e.g. d16 or psp the tax is shown up as 20% in the order (they are EU based though).

if it's £30+ then yer I bother to get my money back IF they have messed up.. I did the same when the DVLA wanted to charge me another £16-20 for a new logbook.. I told em, prove they sent it ;-)


I expect the whole custom thing IF it's someone of say ebay etc. but not really from a company.

@twigman ..  that was some years ago and my understanding was that while cakewalk had previously shipped from within the Eu.. this no longer applies and product is now shipped from Boston..

I think the salient question is whether the phrase  "Prices shown are manufacturers list price and include 17.5% VAT.." is included on a cakewalk store access in GBP from the UK..

If not and it simply says "manf. list price" then Cakewalk should add.. "any applicable sales, VAT or customs are the responsibility of the buyer" to at least forewarn purchasers... (or direct physical media sales to a local distributor)

I wouldn't go too crazy with the math on this particular order because there was a mistake to begin with on our end and we acknowledged that with Telecaster/Mike. If you're using this situation as a basis of comparison to all others, it's not going to make any sense.

The import tax was based on bad math from an incorrect entry on the order on our part. We had to manually process the order due to Paypal issues which is what really caused the problem in the first place. So it wasn't a fault with the logic on the online store, it was human error. An unfortunate double whammy. The fact that there WAS an import tax is unavoidable, but the amount was wrong and we were trying to work with Mike to correct it. 

This is why it's much easier to work directly with people without getting others involved. No offense to you folks, you're all extremely helpful, but when it comes to crazy corner-case scenarios like this you most likely don't know the full details since you're all on the outside without access to the actual order details.

Long story short, the price on the order also included the upgrade cost from X1 to X2 since it was purchased at the same time as the boxes. The SKU that was used to process the order was for a physical upgrade and not a download upgrade like it should have been. This threw off the total cost of the actual physical product being shipped. So you're seeing an import tax of £22.89 for a total value of what I believe was more like £104.98 and not £24.99. (that's just an estimate on my end I don't have access to the order at the moment).

This, along with all of the other trouble Mike went through, is why we did our best to work with him, gave him a voucher/coupon to our store, and coughed up a portion of the cost on our end. We were offsetting our mistake in Mike's favor and also trying to give a little bit extra back as an apology. Honestly, it was a mistake made by entering a "C" and stead of an "E" on a SKU. A silly mistake, and one we wanted to set right with Mike. We were working on getting the tax amount adjusted as well but at the end of the day that turned out to be moot anyway because Mike refused the package. 

It sounds like everyone is happy (to some degree) that we've moved on from it. My point in posting on the topic again is that I wouldn't suggest getting any more headaches over the logistics on this case. It's an extremely poor example of how a normal transaction through the Cakewalk store would and should go for someone overseas paying VAT and import tax etc. 

Every business and every human makes mistakes. To me, I think it's important that the company and/or people involved work to try correct the mistakes when they do happen. Mike once again, I'm sorry for all of the trouble.

Mystic38


@twigman ..  that was some years ago and my understanding was that while cakewalk had previously shipped from within the Eu.. this no longer applies and product is now shipped from Boston.. 

It does not matter where they are shipping from. CW are registered for VAT according to Robin Kelly and as we have not seen a fall in EU/GBP pricing to reflect that they are no longer levying VAT I assume that they are still accounting for VAT against their registration.
 
If not then why is there still a huge disparity in pricing between EU/GBP store and USA store?
 

http://imageshack.us/phot...mages/688/cwstore.jpg/ Store states VAT inclusive so no VAT should be levied at point of import. Unless of course Cakewalk are not accounting for VAT in which case they are overcharging us and misleading us.