ONE STOP DIGITAL

PS) Has anyone purchased anything from this company? Their price is rather good for the 30mm I am after.


http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/shopping_cart.php

A Hong Kong based company, whcih is not immediately obvious on the website.

Thank you Hyram, thought there would be a catch!

Before I bought my latest lenses from Chris @ SRS, I stumbled across this website and thought that there had to be a reason why their prices are lower than any others, so I searched around the site and discovered the small print

Extraordinary though. They say they'll refund any VAT/import duties charged.

Presumably this is perfectly legal - since I imagine HMRC doesn't care who pays the tax. Assuming they follow through on their promises, I guess they take the chance that only in a minority of cases will they have to do this.

Warranty and associated hassle factors aside (a very big 'if'), this does seem to be a good way of getting the low prices... I'm quite tempted by the 77mm Hoya circular polariser at a mere £52.

Hoya Pro 77mm Polarisers are cheaper still on eBay. Search for "hoya pro 77* pol*".

Always check eBay for lenses as well.

A tax "refund" is really just a discount, so it's perfectly legal. The question is do they really pay these discounts if you do get done for tax?

I recently bought a Sigma 70-300 APO from them (now sold & have the new 55-300), no problems whatsoever & no tax to pay - delivered in 5 days from HK. The obvious thing to check is warranty, the lens I bought was supplied with an international warranty card

simon

Simon,

Why no tax to pay :

To be be honest, I've no idea - it only cost me the price advertised on their site

simon

You can escape tax if the seller puts a low value on the Customs form and if Customs don't check the contents. You have no way of knowing whether or not your parcel will slip through the net.

You could be committing an offence if you accept the goods without paying any payable import duty and VAT, regardless of what is written on the form.

If you are charged duty or VAT, there is a handling charge as well. This is a flat £8 fee for the Royal Mail. It can be a lot higher for other couriers.

Duty and VAT is based on your total order including shipping.

I've used them 3 times in the past, all with no problems whatsover. The items weren't marked as gift or anything, but I think they rely on the fact that there are far too many parcels hitting the uk every day for every single one to be checked. In fact, only a tiny percentage of parcels arriving from HK are checked according to my customs friend.

Of all the Hong Kong based companies I've heard of, I've never heard a bad thing about OneStop. On another forum, a chap has mentioned that they refunded his customs charges without quibble too. He had to send the receipt for payment via email.

From my own experience, communication is good too, and your parcel is trackable every step from dispatch.

But, prices have been creeping up lately, and I find SRS to be close enough on price for most of the non zooms for me to just go with them, and then also you've got the assurance of the UK warranty.

Very nearly bought a Bigma from them when they were priced at £519, now priced at £569, SRS £745. Seems that Sigma have put their prices up across the board, so the gap is narrowing, and the UK one does have a 3 year warranty, so the choice is getting harder!