Buying a scope from overseas (1 Viewer)

[YNMN]

Hello,
I live in the United States and am shopping for a Swarovski scope (e.g., STX85). The pre-tax price at online shops in Europe (are they tax-exempt if we buy from countries like Germany or Sweden?) is lower than pre-tax price in the US, and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on buying it from these sellers. How about warranty and repair? I understand that if you buy outside of North America, you will need to send your scope to wherever you buy (e.g., Swaro in Austria) for a repair. What are the pros and cons of doing so, compared with sending it to Swaro in USA)? Thank you for your input.

 

[Harrier22]

I bought binoculars in Greece and the warranty required returning it to Greece should repairs/return be needed. Not very practical since I live in Chicago.
I’ve also read a couple of CN reports about hefty US customs duties.
I wish you luck in finding a good deal but do exercise caution.

 

[jring]

Hi,

it really depends on the manufacturer how warranty will be handled for what is essentially a grey market item to the support organisation in your country...

Swaro will probably let you send it to Absam if asked nicely... others might insist on going through the original seller in some strange country, which might be an adventure even if they are still in business.

As tax exemption, yes if you buy something in the EU and will directly export it (either via mail order or when flying back from vacation), you can get the around 20% (depends on country) value added tax (aka sales tax) back - either directly deducted by a mail order store prepared for the process or after filing paperwork filled in by the vendor at the airport.

You also might have to pay customs duties and/or import tax in the US - this depends on correct declaration (optical telescope = 8% in the US, none or other might be a lot more) and the courier service (they will add a fee for doing the paperwork and sometimes they forget to do it completely and just deliver it - in theory you would have do the paperwork yourself then ;-)

It helps a lot if you buy from a mail order store which does this on a regular basis...

Joachim, who once got handed a parcel with a big red sticker saying "only deliver to customs office - DO NOT hand to adressee" at the post office...

 

[YNMN]

Thank you for the helpful information. I was able to get some responses from both European and North American Swaro, and was told that I would be able to send it in for a repair here in the United States, but the warranty is going to carry the European warranty rather than the US one since it was purchased outside the United States. For a repair that is not covered by warranty (e.g., accidental drop), they suggested to send it to the U.S. shop anyway for assessment (even if purchased outside the U.S.). As for the tax/custom, one Japanese dealer mentioned that if we buy with an online order from them and have the product shipped to the U.S., there will be no Japanese tax but the U.S. will charge custom fee for sure. But if we buy in person in Japan, there will be no sales tax in Japan and oftentimes they do not charge at customs in the U.S. (although they could). The bottom lines seems that if the price difference is small, there will be less hassle if you buy it where you live.