Thanks for the plug!

Recognize that not all of this is Digikey.  Digi can't
afford to take chances and only Air Parcel Post and
Express mail can be insured and they are about the
same price.

My understanding is that all Express Mail bound for
most EU countries is sent to Frankfurt (I believe
managed by the British Post Office) and then farmed
out to local delivery companies.  The whole process
leads to outrageous brokerage fees.

The moral is, when ordering from the US, try to find a
dealer who will ship via Global Priority or Air
Letter.  Otherwise, the package will be routed to a
quasi public or private firm and lead to this kind of
problem.

Peter H Anderson  http://www.phanderson.com

--- Mike Harrison <mike@WHITEWING.CO.UK> wrote:
> 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 #9.42
> (say $14) and
> >the real pain:  Parcelforce charged #13.50 ($21)
> for collecting the #9.42!  Global Priority usually
> arrives
> >via Royal Mail, who charge a flat #4 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:
> 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 #12, but there is a #10 handling
> charge for orders below #75.
>
> From 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
> Farnell, and they can't hope to compete with the
> above charges.
>
> 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.
>
> 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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