Buying from Grey market ?

Alastair said:
Err.. no.

If you buy from a company in Hong Kong you're making a deliberate step outside the protection offered by your local Trading Standards officer. Maybe that's a deliberate and informed choice, maybe it's through ignorance.
Click to expand...
And what about UK companies like HDEW and Digital Rev? You have to do quite a bit of digging to find that you're importing.

Also with online buying now I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that aren't aware of the grey market or the potential pitfalls. Whether this is ignorance or not I do think that it could be brought to people's attention much better than it is.
 
Last edited:
What makes you think Digital Rev are a UK company?
 
admirable said:
What makes you think Digital Rev are a UK company?
Click to expand...
Oops, I meant Panamoz. The UK phone number and prices in U.K. I know these are grey importers but again it's not instantly obvious. It's been a big bear of mine for a while that there's not more transparency.
 
snerkler said:
Oops, I meant Panamoz. The UK phone number and prices in U.K. I know these are grey importers but again it's not instantly obvious. It's been a big bear of mine for a while that there's not more transparency.
Click to expand...
Anyone can have a UK phone number and price in pounds. I've got a London phone number for work, but you won't find a London office with the business name on the door.

HDEW
"Please note that by making a purchase on this website you will be acting as the importer of the product for all purposes including all customs regulations,copyright and trademark laws.You accept that the role of HDEW Cameras is limited to sourcing products and making them available for you to import directly from the country of origin.By purchasing a product through this website you authorise us to make arrangements for clearance of customs on your behalf for the products you have ordered."​

Panamoz
"This User Agreement and any transactions on this Site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong applicable to agreements made and entirely to be performed within Hong Kong, without resort to its conflict of law provisions. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms and conditions shall be filed only in state or federal court located in Hong Kong, and you hereby irrevocably and unconditionally consent and submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts over any suit, action or proceeding arising out of this User Agreement."​

If a deal is too good, that should be trigger enough for a buyer to query why and read the terms and conditions.

I have attempted to explain how some of the UK-based grey importers work in previous threads, but they get tetchy about discussions of their offshore corporate structures.
 
Alastair said:
Anyone can have a UK phone number and price in pounds. I've got a London phone number for work, but you won't find a London office with the business name on the door.

HDEW
"Please note that by making a purchase on this website you will be acting as the importer of the product for all purposes including all customs regulations,copyright and trademark laws.You accept that the role of HDEW Cameras is limited to sourcing products and making them available for you to import directly from the country of origin.By purchasing a product through this website you authorise us to make arrangements for clearance of customs on your behalf for the products you have ordered."​

Panamoz
"This User Agreement and any transactions on this Site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong applicable to agreements made and entirely to be performed within Hong Kong, without resort to its conflict of law provisions. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms and conditions shall be filed only in state or federal court located in Hong Kong, and you hereby irrevocably and unconditionally consent and submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts over any suit, action or proceeding arising out of this User Agreement."​

If a deal is too good, that should be trigger enough for a buyer to query why and read the terms and conditions.

I have attempted to explain how some of the UK-based grey importers work in previous threads, but they get tetchy about discussions of their offshore corporate structures.
Click to expand...
I think you're missing my point ;) I'm not saying the info isn't there, just that it takes some digging around. Not everyone who shops online is tech savvy let alone savvy enough to know about the pitfalls of online shopping. Call it naive, call it ignorant, but in this day and age things should be as transparent and obvious as possible.

Anyway, that's just my opinion (y)
 
Panamoz are Chinese I follow my goodies as they ship, however it's always a known name that emails me like Jenny or James not your typical Chinese name...so it may be a U.K. Office/bedroom who then sub contract it to somewhere in China.

10/10 from me had loads from them takes 4 days tops from,china.

Also a guy on here I think may even be this thread phoned canon uk and they said they would service them, also any discrepancies panamoz pay canon anyway he added.
 
Last edited:
littleted said:
Panamoz are Chinese I follow my goodies as they ship, however it's always a known name that emails me like Jenny or James not your typical Chinese name...so it may be a U.K. Office/bedroom who then sub contract it to somewhere in China.
Click to expand...

Its not unusual for Chinese people to adopt a western name when dealing with western cultures. My wife works at a post grad university and many of the overseas students adopt western names.


If we are all honest with ourselves we know there is something that is the cause of the price difference. There have been so many threads on here that have pointed towards it but none of us can prove either way its 100% correct so we just go round in circles deemed to repeat ourselves. This is often why we see so many of these threads always go the same way and neither prove or disprove 100% (or end up in arguments).

Currently UK customs don't seem to be that interested in possible import issues. If this guardian report is correct it seems the EU has noticed we haven't been that interested in collecting the import duties.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-imports-scam-say-eu-anti-fraud-investigators

I think one of the clear sign some isn't right is when the import declaration devalues the item or describes it incorrectly (toy etc), that would be the flag to me something isn't what it should be. I have heard this on previous threads (edit and this thread post 44) and experienced this myself when buying a small item through amazon marketplace sellers.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone had to pay import tax on a camera from the likes of Panamoz.

If so, what was the import tax - fixed or % of the item value?
Did you have to pay the import then claim back from Panamoz?
 
markgodley said:
Has anyone had to pay import tax on a camera from the likes of Panamoz.

If so, what was the import tax - fixed or % of the item value?
Did you have to pay the import then claim back from Panamoz?
Click to expand...

There is no import duty on camera bodies but there is VAT @ 20%
 
It's a while since I did the sums but on a lens costing £1500, the duty and VAT came to just short of £400, I doubt if any of the 'non UK suppliers' would refund that amount.
 
admirable said:
It's a while since I did the sums but on a lens costing £1500, the duty and VAT came to just short of £400, I doubt if any of the 'non UK suppliers' would refund that amount.
Click to expand...
A bit over £400 in fact. Import duty on lenses is 6.7%, and VAT is 20%. So £1500 x 1.067 x 1.20 = £1920.60.

Some of them *say* they would refund it.... And on items considerably more expensive than a £1500 lens, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top