On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:47:56 +0100, you wrote:

>I bought John Peatman's 18F452 book, with its PCB for the QwikFlash =
device.  As far as I can find, Digi-Key
>are the only people doing a kit of parts, and as there are a couple of =
odd ones (the little LCD and the rotary
>encoder, for example) I decided to buy the kit.
>
>The Digi-Key price is $56.94 which didn't seem to bad - they add $6 =
handling fee for foreign orders, but for
>shipping they only offered Global Express (I usually ask for Global =
Priority, which would have been about $6
>to $9) and it doesn't tell you on the web site what it's going to cost -=
 it was $28.75, which I only
>discovered after the order was placed.
>
>Then when it arrived in Britain it attracted VAT/Duty on the item cost =
plus shipping of =A39.42 (say $14) and
>the real pain:  Parcelforce charged =A313.50 ($21) for collecting the =
=A39.42!  Global Priority usually arrives
>via Royal Mail, who charge a flat =A34 for collecting the customs =
charges.
>
>So after all I've ended up paying about $127 for something that started =
out just under $57...
>
>Do any other Brits buy from Digi-Key, and do you end up being fleeced =
like this?
>
>I've bought things from the US dozens of times, from eBay and web sites =
like Glitchbuster, Peter Anderson and
>so on, and it's never come even close to this sort of cost - this is a =
premium of 123%, compared to 30% for
>the last thing I bought from a web site where I had to pay VAT.
>
>Incidentally, Global Express doesn't seem to be any faster than Global =
Priority (and the names don't imply any
>advantage either way, to my mind), and neither has insurance or =
tracking, so why would the shipping cost be
>more than three times as much?  The transit time in this case was about =
6 days, which is at the upper limit
>that Global Priority manages.
>
>Finally, does anyone know how you can tell whether Parcelforce or Royal =
Mail will be used for the delivery,
>based on which US shipping service is chosen?

Parcel force ( >7 quid handling fee) is used for stuff sent USPS Parcel =
post, Normal post (3.75 fee)
for stuff sent airmail letter or Global Priority. I believe =
tracking/insurance is only available for
Parcel post.

>Seeing the number of US messages saying that they like Digi-key I assume=
 that locally they are good, but one
>thing's for sure: I shan't be buying from them again!
>
>- Howard Winter
>   St.Albans, England

Digi-Key have recently launched a campaign to attract UK orders,  but =
seem to be making a big mess
of it:=20
http://uk.digikey.com
They have a UK catalogue (Which I eventually got 2 copies of, after a =
farce of requesting one on
their 'free catalogue' form and then had them asking for payment for =
it....) which has prices in
pounds, inclusive of duty and brokerage fees (but presumably not VAT - =
they don't say) The flat-rate
delivery charge is =A312, but there is a =A310 handling charge for orders=
 below =A375.

=46rom what you say above it looks like the left & right hands don;t know=
 what they are doing as you
seemed to have been charged differently....

I think they just don't understand that we are used to the sort of =
service offered by RS and
=46arnell, and they can't hope to compete with the above charges.=20

Now if they would take small orders, and drop them in a $5 or $9 Global =
Priority flat-rate envelope,
then that would be something worth having, but at the moment the only =
thing I use Digikey for is to
check approximate prices and availability on parts when designing in.=20

I'd suggest you contact them to explain how  poor their service appears =
from the UK buyer's point of
view.

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