Any European order SLRs from bhphoto?

Has anybody living in Europe had any experience with buying an SLR from bhphotovideo? It seems you can get a much better deal that way (even after including shipping with the price), so is there any catch?

Thanks.

I would check the local import duty that may get applied in the destination country.

If you order from Sweden, B&H will add the appropriate customs fee and VAT automatically. No problem, except that it will of course add to the cost.

I've bought from them while I've been in the US. Then it's my own responsibility to duly report the goods being brought into my country, when passing the customs line.

The other thing to be careful of is the warranty. In the UK at least, you need to have a UK or at least a pan-Euro warranty from Canon if I understand correctly. I assume, if you import from the USA, you will only have an American warranty.... I may be wrong, but thats my understanding.

You'll pay the duty, if any, but the real sting will be your country's VAT charge. Couple that with the strong USD at the moment and buying from the US isn't as attractive as it was even 6 to 8 months ago.

foxbat wrote in post #6677924
You'll pay the duty, if any, but the real sting will be your country's VAT charge. Couple that with the strong USD at the moment and buying from the US isn't as attractive as it was even 6 to 8 months ago.

Indeed, you'd need to be a complete dingbat. B&H charge $1200 for a 50D body. Add on P&P (say, $40) and VAT gives you a price of $1456. The current rat eof exchage is aout 1£ = $1.50, so that equates to £970.

Whex sells the 50D for £850.

So you pay an extra £120 to have no useful warranty.

haha...someone used the word "dingbat"...love it!

Do you ever bribe the locals to let go the VAT?

adas wrote in post #6679415
Do you ever bribe the locals to let go the VAT?

Why stop there? If one is going to break the law, why not just steal the camera and save the hassle of payment entirely? Better yet, steal a container load and go into business!

oki i know this is a bit late, but since youre from Malta aswell and i have ordered from BH (for a friend) i can tell you theres no big catch with them. When he had an issue with the lens things got a bit messy though as they told us to send it to the manfucaturer (Minolta - whom as you probably know have been bought by Sony and wasnt easy getting them to help). the catch with all non-EU sellers is however that you WILL pay import duty + VAT (on whole price incl. shipping, unless its very cheap) and id be surprised if you manage to crack the way they work it out. i payed 1/3rd the price of a 2nd hand lens i got from US (around 65 EUR tax - altough it was still cheap overall) and in some cases it was just 10 euros for the bag that cost over 100 EUR. you will also have to provide receipt when you go collect it or they wont give you anything and then wait for a couple of days till they "calculate" whatever you have to pay.

best solution i found over here is, ebay.co.uk. there are a lot of US sellers that sell with US prices but ship from EU. its how i got my body, lenses and everything. with international warranty and all of course. their customer service, when needed, was nothing short of excellent. adani505,digigood, and jean_sale are some sellers i bought from.

whatever you do it'll be way cheaper and better than going local though.

live in switzerland
got 3 things form b&h and was happy every time