Confused with what shop I should buy from?

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Kris
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Hey all

So I am looking at buying a canon 10-22mm and only want new.

So using google shopping I have found a couple of sellers (inc/ Amazon) at Amazon for £600. My issue is that I have also found that sites like Panamoz, Digitaland, onestop digital & digitalRev all price in at around £450!

I am sightly dubious about ordering from sites I have not used before or from abroad!! Do I really wanna spend an extra £150 just for the piece of mind of having a bit of assurance?!?!?? There is quite a difference.

What is everyone's opinion?

Thanks
 
Then again there is Kerso. His site displays £540! :)
 
Kerso is the middle ground really. It'll still be foreign sourced stock, but he gives you a uk receipt to help with warranty and has fab service so will help you out should the need arise.
 
One Stop Digital is completely reliable and very efficient. Bought from them many times and will do so again.
 
The cheaper ones are grey imports, and in my view, nothing wrong with them espeically considering the price differential
 
There is still Canon cashback available for UK sourced lenses, for the 10-22 its £55.

The camerapricebuster site shows Amazon as the cheapest at £604.98, so the lens would end up costing £550 from there. They work it on the serial number of the lens so it will need to be a proper UK one.

If buying from an overseas importer you may (should) have to pay import duties & VAT if it gets spotted, which wipes out the advantage of going overseas.
Some of these shops will prepay the duty/VAT, if you get charged they refund you. Never done it, so I don't know how successful this is.
 
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I have to give a thumbs up for Panamoz,

5% discount on list price for paying by BT or you can pay through PayPal for peace of mind.

They ship via ups so they come real quick!

Tina from Panamoz is really helpful.

I've spent over 1K with them, no issues so far.

Definitely reliable and trustworthy as far as supply and delivery are concerned & have read good reviews on thier after sales service.

Going to order a G15 from them beginning of jan :)
 
Ooh and I must add that all prices include duty - it's in thier FAQ's.
 
brad28 said:
I have to give a thumbs up for Panamoz,

5% discount on list price for paying by BT or you can pay through PayPal for peace of mind.

They ship via ups so they come real quick!

Tina from Panamoz is really helpful.

I've spent over 1K with them, no issues so far.

Definitely reliable and trustworthy as far as supply and delivery are concerned & have read good reviews on thier after sales service.

Going to order a G15 from them beginning of jan :)
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As long as you don't mind being implicit in tax evasion, there's very little wrong with that I suppose.


brad28 said:
Ooh and I must add that all prices include duty - it's in thier FAQ's.
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No they don't and no it isn't.
 
I've spent a fortune with panamoz over the last 12 months and I also had canon cash back on a 70-200 L f2.8.

When I buy my next lens it will be from panamoz
 
big (y) for Panamoz, large thread in the other forum regarding them. Incredibly fast delivery time considering its hong kong! Will be using them again in the new year for sure.
 
High Street.

If there are any problems with the product, you can take it back and plonk it on their counter - no long distance 'phone/e-mail conversations. No tax issues. Keeps UK residents in work. You never know when you'll need that shop for something NOW - use it or lose it! More expensive than the far eastern sites? Yes, but IMO, that extra is well worth it for the reasons given above.
 
My only issue with panamoz is a morale one for me as they evade tax by shipping items described as zero tax items, such as toy parts
 
I am not convinced buying a lens in the UK really does keep the shops open, it will take a lot more than that but I still buy expensive items from UK for the reason of being able to take it back if faulty/becomes faulty.
With cheap items I don't really care and I will take the risk of having to deal with any faults or not bother and throw it out.
I don't have any moral issues with tax as I pay a lot more tax than the majority of people already so feel I am contributing to the country fairly.
 
I've been debating this myself...
I took major umbrage at the recent Amazon/Starbucks/Nero tax scandal(No Amazon xmas shopping, never liked Starbucks anway, stopped buying Nero), it would be major hypocrasy on my part to then shop with Panamoz/DigitalRev etc.

If you were fine with the recent tax furore, probably nothing stopping you going grey :)

Much like music/film pirary - it seems to be one of those issues people are upset about unless they can benefit from it.

(Not a personal dig at anyone btw - just seems like the current status quo)
 
Thanks everybody.
I appreciate everyone's view. I thought I'd get a mixed opinion on here! :p
 
I bought a Sigma 150-500 OS from Panamoz at the start of the year, despite the worries of warranties etc, and I was really happy with the purchase. I saved over £200 on the purchase so IMO it was well worth the gamble.

But in November I had a problem with the lens, it had a focus problem so I had to claim on the warranty. With great trepidation, bearing in mind how many people had said how many problems people have with overseas warranties, I contacted Panamoz support by email. I received an email by return with a London address to send it to. I sent it off the next day and waited to hear from Panamoz with the bad news. However, a week later I received an email saying a brand new lens was being dispatched as soon as I confirmed my postal address.

11 days after I first contacted Panamoz I received a brand new Sigma 150-500 OS with another full years warranty card. That's better service than people get direct from Sigma, Canon and lots of other companies. Next time I'm buying anything for my camera I will check on Panamoz first to see if they have it in stock. They are usually the cheapest around and I've had brilliant service from Panamoz every time I've used them, with 3 to 4 days average delivery times they are usually as fast as most UK companies seem to be anyway.
 
Yes a difficult decision, if you buy from Ian (Kerso) you should be able to get the Cashback as well - which brings it down to nearly the Import price and you'll get a UK warranty as well.
 
Go with Panamoz, great company, you can't go wrong ordering from them.
 
Why would you not go with the likes of panamoz? You are making a massive saving on rip off Britain prices.

But hey, if you want to pay full uk price to "save the high street shop" please do so.

It's no skin of my nose if uk shops are closing over it. Good I say. Saves me losing even more money.

This is all just my view though.
 
As mentioned earlier for me it's the saving and customer service that do it for Panamoz, when I shop I look for the best deal and customer service plays a massive part in the decision !

I'm after a good deal, I pay 1k in tax every month so in my view I'm not doing anything to deprive society of anymore tax money as I contribute so much !

Panamoz all the way ! It's something that everyone's gonna have thier views on but as long as Panamoz offer great savingS, speedy delivery and excellent customer service I will shop with them!
 
brad28 said:
I'm after a good deal, I pay 1k in tax every month so in my view I'm not doing anything to deprive society of anymore tax money as I contribute so much !
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The point is that tax statute passed by parliament should determine how much tax one contributes, not the taxpayer. Try phoning up HMRC and telling them 'I think I've paid enough tax this year, can I have a month off?'.

If you treat the tax system as an opt-in, how does that differ from the aggressive tax avoidance large businesses and HNW individuals engage in?
 
Dexy101 said:
Why would you not go with the likes of panamoz? You are making a massive saving on rip off Britain prices.

But hey, if you want to pay full uk price to "save the high street shop" please do so.

It's no skin of my nose if uk shops are closing over it. Good I say. Saves me losing even more money.

This is all just my view though.
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Because actually you may well be breaking the law... Unless you pay the government about 20% of the price you paid to cover the duty and VAT you ARE NOT paying... That is why they are cheap, you're not paying any tax on purchase whereas UK stores* have to pay that 20% tax for you in the form of VAT.

*Discounting high street chain stores here that are just taking the pee with pricing.
 
Dexy101 said:
Why would you not go with the likes of panamoz? You are making a massive saving on rip off Britain prices.
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Well, the 20% VAT rate in the UK is below the EU average of a little over 21%. That makes up almost all of any saving by purchasing from HK.

Would you complain similarly about rip off Germany (19% VAT) or rip off France (23%)?

Dexy101 said:
But hey, if you want to pay full uk price to "save the high street shop" please do so.

It's no skin of my nose if uk shops are closing over it. Good I say. Saves me losing even more money.
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I'm sure you'll welcome the outsourcing of your own job to a low wage economy abroad, too, then. Or are you happy to cut your wages to match those in China to keep it?
 
Llamaman said:
The point is that tax statute passed by parliament should determine how much tax one contributes, not the taxpayer. Try phoning up HMRC and telling them 'I think I've paid enough tax this year, can I have a month off?'.

If you treat the tax system as an opt-in, how does that differ from the aggressive tax avoidance large businesses and HNW individuals engage in?
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Well society seems that way, all these scroungers on benefits not paying any income tax, that sounds like an opt in society to me?

I'm not here to get into arguments I'm just making my point of view and if people don't like it they shouldn't try getting into arguments.

Like it or not I'll buy from Panamoz, whether that's immoral or not you can decide quietly by yourself by not purchasing.

The OP was asking about whether you should buy from Panamoz etc, its become a political thread! We should be talking about price, service, warranty, delivery! - which by the way ticks all boxes for Panamoz !
 
brad28 said:
The OP was asking about whether you should buy from Panamoz etc, its become a political thread! We should be talking about price, service, warranty, delivery! - which by the way ticks all boxes for Panamoz !
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It's not political. We are discussing the legal ramifications of choosing whether or not to pay VAT which you are responsible for as the importer.

As a 21-year-old earning in excess of £50k, you should be reasonably bright. Surely you understand that knowing your tax obligations with regard to buying goods abroad are just as important as service and warranty?
 
DemiLion said:
It's not political. We are discussing the legal ramifications of choosing whether or not to pay VAT which you are responsible for as the importer.

As a 21-year-old earning in excess of £50k, you should be reasonably bright. Surely you understand that knowing your tax obligations with regard to buying goods abroad are just as important as service and warranty?
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So what everyone's saying is buying from Panamoz breaks UK laws ?
I though it was Panamoz responsibility to pay all taxes due?
 
From panamoz website:



3. Will I have to pay additional charges?

Your government may charge you taxes and duties. Under all circumstances, we will fully pay/reimburse for all taxes, duties, and related charges.
 
brad28 said:
So what everyone's saying is buying from Panamoz breaks UK laws ?
I though it was Panamoz responsibility to pay all taxes due?
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Yes. They break the law by mislabelling the goods in their packages and by trading from a UK address without declaring any income.

No. Panamoz are not the importer and therefore have no obligation to pay any form of duty. You do.


brad28 said:
From panamoz website:

3. Will I have to pay additional charges?

Your government may charge you taxes and duties. Under all circumstances, we will fully pay/reimburse for all taxes, duties, and related charges.
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Very cleverly worded isn't it?
 
Musicman said:
Well, the 20% VAT rate in the UK is below the EU average of a little over 21%. That makes up almost all of any saving by purchasing from HK.

Would you complain similarly about rip off Germany (19% VAT) or rip off France (23%)?



I'm sure you'll welcome the outsourcing of your own job to a low wage economy abroad, too, then. Or are you happy to cut your wages to match those in China to keep it?
Click to expand...

(y)
 
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