so yes, anyone ever bought direct from Jenson USA? Experiences please; reliability, delivery times, being hit for import duty etc? I’m not super bothered about warranty support as the thing I want to buy isn’t really subject to that kind of issue. ta!

Being hit for import/VAT is nothing to do with the retailer. You should pay it unless it’s under a (very low) threshold. If you get away with it that’s just luck.

Some retailers may mark down the value, so you’re only committing a bit of fraud.

Bought from them last month. It was dispatched very quickly, arrived in a few days, but yes you get hit for VAT and the shipping isn’t cheap. Still, in this case it worked out cheaper than the UK/EU alternative even with all the extra charges added on…

Did it once, for a set of forks. USA price was less than half the UK price. Arrived real fast, well packed. Import and postal charges killed it – they ended up almost at the UK price. There must have been a fiver less is all.

USA price was less than half the UK price

they ended up almost at the UK price. There must have been a fiver less is all.

That doesn’t stack up unless they were a cheap pair of forks and the shipping was thus a very significant proportion of the purchase price. Import is <5% (isn’t it?) VAT is only 20%.

Very quick delivery, vat, import tax and potential courier customs handling charge (usually about 8 quid) to factor in. And possible lack of warranty.

I placed an order for a Pike air shaft on the 27th Dec that isn’t available over here yet. It was sat on my desk when I got work on Monday, having been delivered on the 2nd. So great service, delivered by UPS.

I’ve not seen anything regarding VAT or fees yet, I’m assuming that’ll come later? Kinda hoping not but if they do they do.

quick delivery via FEDEX, who send you a bill for vat/import about a week after which you can pay online or via phone, I bought my gopro + chest mount and even with taxes still worked out cheaper than buying in the UK for just the camera. Also bought suspension forks

Ups won’t deliver if the fees aren’t paid fathomer so your all good I think.

Worth noting that if the item doesn’t attract vat here, you shouldn’t pay it, eg helmets.

Ordered one and it was delivered within 24hrs, but they’d used the wrong import code, so ups paid the charges/vat and wouldn’t give me the helmet till id reimbursed them, turns out Henson had but the wrong import code on the customs form. Took a while but eventually got the money back from hmrc

It was a few years ago, so can’t remember the exact details. I do remember that the final price, once all the fees had been added in, was close to the UK price. Postage on my set of forks was a tad more than £8. Just saying that you need to establish all of the charges that apply post sale to work out the final cost.

thanks all, it’s a pair of shoes that are about 50% UK retail (including postage costs) so i might take a chance as i doubt import duty will be 50 quid…

The couriers like FedEx, UPS, ParcelForce etc will assess duty and VAT themselves, almost always assuming something has to be paid. Some get you to pay before releasing the parcel, some send a bill later.

Items that come via standard Royal Mail via your postie go via Mount Pleasant first to assess and some stuff can go through without charge when in theory it should have had one. Only stuff I’ve had from US that goes this way is if they send it via standard USPS.

If fees due, they all slap on a handling fee to take your money.

If you want cheap forks etc, try France. Alltricks for example. Or Germany, like bike-discount.de