Cotswold cameras

I believe they are grey importers, and there were a number of thread on them on the forum but cannot find them now.
 
Cheers Kev, yes I did a search but couldn't find any reference to them on here.
I know their a Grey importer but I was going to order from E-Infinity anyway, also a Grey importer (who I've used a dozen times before)
but Cotswold Cameras are slightly cheaper, offer a 3 year warranty and have an office (evidently) in Cheltenham which is literally on my doorstep.
Its just you cant get to speak to anyone on the number on their site.

And yes would prefer to deal with HDEW Terry but unfortunately they don't do Sony evidently
 
There was a long thread about them, interspersed with new '1 post' members saying how good they were ... IIRC there was no shop in Cheltenham.
 
I seem to remember they did have a shop at one time. But I think they are in an office block now.
 
Cotswold cameras have this listed on companies house.... the people listing is this name as well going from secretary to director. I also think that there have been threads on here; general consensus did not make me add them to my list to consider for any future purchases.

Screenshot 2023-10-24 at 17.47.09.png
 
Also ....
apart from being cheaper than E-Infinity and giving a UK based 3 year warranty
you have the option of paying via PayPal's "Pay in 3" service (to spread the cost) and you are obviously covered by Paypal !!!
 
that site looks dodgy as hell, cannot even get the right images above the descriptions.
 
If you do a search on this forum you'll see some bad reports for Cotswold cameras. Same goes of e-infinity tbh.
I have only ever seen good reports for panamoz (and hdew) in general.
PayPal credit does cover you, even under section 75 I believe.
 
HDEW don’t sell Sony and Panamoz are dearer.
I have brought from E-Infinity a dozen times before over the last few years and they have always delivered with zero issues (apart from one scare which got sorted in the end)
I must admit I like the idea of a 3 year UK based warranty and being able to pay via PayPal
 
Chipper said:
Cotswold cameras have this listed on companies house.... the people listing is this name as well going from secretary to director. I also think that there have been threads on here; general consensus did not make me add them to my list to consider for any future purchases.

View attachment 404836
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That appears to be a different company, which is no longer the one trading on the web site.

The Contact Us page on the web site lists their name as COTSWOLD UK CAMERAS LIMITED


1698231289454.png

Cotswold UK Cameras Ltd is Company No 14313543, first established on 23 August 2023 at the same address in London, but with a different person as officer and with significant control

COTSWOLD UK CAMERAS LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

COTSWOLD UK CAMERAS LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

1698231471848.png

1698231504111.png

The company formerly trading through the web site which you identified was COTSWOLD CAMERAS LIMITED, Company Number 09101906,

COTSWOLD CAMERAS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

COTSWOLD CAMERAS LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
 
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I must admit I am confused by their T&Cs

Is my contract with a company in the UK (COTSWOLD UK CAMERAS LIMITED) or a company in Hong Kong (Laguna Trading Company Limited)?

1698231829702.png


1698231864239.png
 
I decided in the end to pay slightly more and go with who I know …. E-Infinity, placed the order yesterday, got confirmation of the order more or less immediately and today got the usual email photograph showing the camera/parcel boxed up with the shipping label ready to dispatch.
It’s nearly £800/£1000 cheaper than the best UK price … that’s a lot of wonga difference, are we British being shafted OR WOT :mad:

£3,699 at most places in the UK
£2,660 at E-Infinity

:oops: :$:oops: :$:oops: :$:oops: :$
 
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128 City Road is convenience office for Company Registered Addresses BTW

Directors Business Address Service - YourCompanyFormations.co.uk

Do You Require A Directors Business Address Service? YourCompanyFormations.co.uk Can Help You. Our business Trading Address Is An Ideal Way Of Gaining A Prestigious Address Without The Expensive Overheads Along With Using Our Address For Company’s
www.yourcompanyformations.co.uk www.yourcompanyformations.co.uk

That is not their actual trading address, although you would have no idea about that from their web site.

They are also required by the Companies Act to quote their Company Registration number, on all business communications including their web site. However, I cannot find it.
 
tman said:
It’s nearly £800/£1000 cheaper than the best UK price … that’s a lot of wonga difference, are we British being shafted OR WOT :mad:
Click to expand...

They aren't paying VAT (if they don't get caught in UK customs)
They aren't paying UK rates to their employees (not sure if you would would be willing to work in the UK for HK wages)
They aren't paying UK corporate taxes
You aren't getting any of the consumer rights and protections that you enjoy when purchasing from a UK retailer
If you need to take them to court over a problem, you have to do it in Hong Kong

etc.
 
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tman said:
It’s nearly £800/£1000 cheaper than the best UK price … that’s a lot of wonga difference, are we British being shafted OR WOT :mad:
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No, you're just avoiding the tax that would be liable had you bought through a legal retailer in this country, who had paid the required import duties and VAT at 20%. All of the liability is on you and you're basically hoping your package doesn't get pinged at customs for the import duty it is liable for. There are some weird things that grey retailers take advantage of, like camera bodies are liable for duty but body and lens kits are not for some reason. But, you're still basically committing a little bit of tax avoidance / fraud and hoping you don't get caught. You can also be caught at any point in the future if you take the camera abroad. There are lists of Serial numbers assigned to the UK, and if you were ever inspected and found to have a grey import camera they would charge you the import duty. Extremely unlikely to happen I know but it's not impossible.

I have bought grey once, many years ago by the way so I'm not passing moral judgement on using them.
 
Don’t go down the Tax avoidance route ;)
Let’s reel off a list of tax avoiding Tory MP’s and their wives shall we, and large corporations as well while we’re at it ??????
 
tman said:
Don’t go down the Tax avoidance route ;)
Let’s reel off a list of tax avoiding Tory MP’s and their wives shall we, and large corporations as well while we’re at it ??????
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I don't think that defence would get you far with customs. It is tax avoidance , however you want to spin it in your own head.
 
E-infin are good until your gear goes wrong. I bought a Sony A7IV from them which after three months had a dead pixel and needed repair. I contacted E-infin who told me to send it to Sony UK to get a price for the repair. First I had to pay for the shipping myself to Sony. Secondly, if you decide not to have the repair done by Sony, you have to pay them a fee for the appraisal. The quote came back at £630. So I contacted E-infin with the price and they said it was too expensive and they were only willing to pay £400 for the repair. Looking at Sony's quote, the sensor was more than £400 so how they were expecting me to get it repaired for less than £400 is beyond me. So I had two choices have Sony repair the camera and pay the additional £230 myself, or have the camera returned to me and send it to E-infin for repair. The problem with the second option I had already paid for postage. I would have to pay Sony for the appraisal which if memory served me right was £75. I would then have to pay for it to be shipped to e-infin and wait a considerable amount of time for it to be repaired. So I paid the extra and had Sony UK replace the sensor. If I think of all the equipment I have bought from E-infin over the years. This one inconvenience and cost is small compared to the amount of money I have saved in the past. Having said that I have now started buying equipment when possible from Cotswold camera. Only time will tell if / when something goes wrong, how good their 3 year UK warranty is. As a Side note I do feel really sorry for the UK shops as they can not compete in any way. If the difference in price is small, I buy from Wes or similar.
 
bovey9 said:
As a Side note I do feel really sorry for the UK shops as they can not compete in any way. If the difference in price is small, I buy from Wes or similar.
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you can get some really good deals in the UK. but people these days aren't willing to wait to make the savings.
I have got most of my gear in the UK and in fact all my current gear is all UK sourced.
I have paid around the same price or slightly more than grey prices at the time of purchase.
Also I have good relationship with some shop managers and they normally do a good deal for me to sweeten the deals :)

But all that requires time, effort and some amount of patience which a lot of people don't have or want to spend
 
nandbytes said:
you can get some really good deals in the UK. but people these days aren't willing to wait to make the savings.
I have got most of my gear in the UK and in fact all my current gear is all UK sourced.
I have paid around the same price or slightly more than grey prices at the time of purchase.
Also I have good relationship with some shop managers and they normally do a good deal for me to sweeten the deals :)

But all that requires time, effort and some amount of patience which a lot of people don't have or want to spend
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A lot depends on the gear you are after. The Sony A9MKII an old camera about to be replaced is still £3999 in the UK but you can get a grey one for £2650. I remember talking to a chap at Calumet who said some of the grey prices were cheaper than what he could buy the gear for. At times grey is cheaper than the second hand uk market, which is cheaper.
 
bovey9 said:
A lot depends on the gear you are after. The Sony A9MKII an old camera about to be replaced is still £3999 in the UK but you can get a grey one for £2650. I remember talking to a chap at Calumet who said some of the grey prices were cheaper than what he could buy the gear for. At times grey is cheaper than the second hand uk market, which is cheaper.
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For older bodies/lenses grey prices are really low indeed.

For example I got my A7IV for £2200 with 3x £100 cashback vouchers on Sony lenses.
I used the cashback vouchers on nicely discounted openbox lenses and you can stack them with the winter/spring cashbacks too. So I got a massive discounts on some lenses well below even grey prices.

the grey price at the time for A7IV was £2150.

so I got a better deal than grey at the time. of course buying now grey prices are a lot cheaper for A7IV. the difference is certainly lot higher the older lens or body is. So for the A9II I expect the difference to be even larger like you mentioned. But I was not going to wait around 4 year for an A7IV or any body for that matter. I normally end up buying something within a year of its release at which point I can generally (not always though) source the bodies or lenses close to grey prices.

I recently bought a 70-200mm f4 Gii from a UK dealer for same price as grey at the time. Though grey price is £60-70 less now. But I needed the lens for my trip last week so I am not sorry I bought it.

For much older lenses I just resort to buying on the used market.

But there have been times (like with A7C or A1) when I couldn't source the body at all in the UK for 2-3 months regardless of the price and they were readily available on Panamoz for grey importing. I wasn't going to wait 3 months for UK dealers+Sony to get their act together and then miss using an expensive body on trips etc.
 
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nandbytes said:
For older bodies/lenses grey prices are really low indeed.

For example I got my A7IV for £2200 with 3x £100 cashback vouchers on Sony lenses.
I used the cashback vouchers on nicely discounted openbox lenses and you can stack them with the winter/spring cashbacks too. So I got a massive discounts on some lenses well below even grey prices.

the grey price at the time for A7IV was £2150.

so I got a better deal than grey at the time. of course buying now grey prices are a lot cheaper for A7IV. the difference is certainly lot higher the older lens or body is. So for the A9II I expect the difference to be even larger like you mentioned. But I was not going to wait around 4 year for an A7IV or any body for that matter. I normally end up buying something within a year of its release at which point I can generally (not always though) source the bodies or lenses close to grey prices.

I recently bought a 70-200mm f4 Gii from a UK dealer for same price as grey at the time. Though grey price is £60-70 less now. But I needed the lens for my trip last week so I am not sorry I bought it.

For much older lenses I just resort to buying on the used market.

But there have been times (like with A7C or A1) when I couldn't source the body at all in the UK for 2-3 months regardless of the price and they were readily available on Panamoz for grey importing. I wasn't going to wait 3 months for UK dealers+Sony to get their act together and then miss using an expensive body on trips etc.
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It's certainly worth shopping around and like I said I always buy UK if the price difference is not too big. The brand can also make a difference the newish Z8 is £3999 uk and £3129 grey.
 
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