[timmyGCSE]

in my quest for a pair of JH11/JH13's, I contacted JH Audio today. They have a dealer in the UK, handheld audio:
Radio Microphones and In-Ear Monitors and Earphones

delightful! I've visited their offices before to listen to a shed-load of universals, the staff are incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. And they're only just down the road from me.

The prices for the JH audio products are not currently on the website but they are as follows:
JH10X3 Pro - £600 + VAT (£690)
JH11 Pro - £630 + VAT (£724)
JH13 Pro - £750 + VAT (£862.50)

now, this includes shipping to and from the states including any taxes, and ear impressions @ handheld audio. The only things you will have to pay on top is for custom art work (~£30) and shipping from handheld audio to yourselves once the customs are done (I will collect).

By my calculations, as a rough estimate including shipping to and from, ear impressions and VAT and customs import duty (2% calculated on item cost and shipping cost after VAT), going direct to JH Audio would set the JH11's at £715 (a tenner less) and the JH13's at £890 (£27.50 more)

Oh and on Thursday this week I've just booked myself an appointment to go and listen to the full lineup of JH Audio demo units

 

[mark2410]

VAT and customs duty?

erm i dont think so. sounds like an utter rip off to me given the jh13 are $1099 or at present £622 not £750 and you sure as hell dont pay VAT and any customs charges. id politely tell them thank you but no thank you.

 

[digivate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif VAT and customs duty? erm i dont think so. sounds like an utter rip off to me given the jh13 are $1099 or at present £622 not £750 and you sure as hell dont pay VAT and any customs charges. id politely tell them thank you but no thank you.

You're right about the price being closer to £622 than £750.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "you sure as hell dont pay VAT and any customs charges" though?

I'm fairly certain you would usually be expected pay VAT when importing audio gear from abroad ... I've been stung for VAT a few times (and slipped through the net unnoticed a few times as well).

Do you just mean that if you order it direct from JH Audio it's more likely to pass through customs under the radar and avoids the additional VAT?

 

[MiG(TM)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif VAT and customs duty? erm i dont think so. sounds like an utter rip off to me given the jh13 are $1099 or at present £622 not £750 and you sure as hell dont pay VAT and any customs charges. id politely tell them thank you but no thank you.

Don't you pay VAT on everything? and custom charges for importing them into the UK?

at the current rate of $1099, to £ @ 1.66 = $1, gives £662, which + 15% VAT is £761.

The only way to avoid VAT and Customs would be to mark it as a gift and think lucky?

Tis expensive either way

Unless IEM's are void from the whole customs thing?

 

[timmyGCSE]

Yes the monitors themselves are $1099, then add $75/£40 shipping from jh audio to you, £40 for impressions, and £30 dhl shipping to get the impressions to jh audio. That all comes to £770. The price from handheld audio is £862 all in, shipping both ways and impressions. So yes that makes going to jh audio direct cheaper but I spoke to jamie direct and asked about marking the package as a gift and she politely reffered me to handheld audio with a no to the marking the package as a gift. So yea I may be able to get them direct from jh audio for the equivelent of £90 cheaper but the chances of paying vat and customs is strong - I was stung for £20 just from $139 jvc victors.

Plus if there are fitting or warranty issues then it lies with hha, they will have to rectify it and not leave me with extra £30 a time shipping costs back to america. Sure they may be £90 more expensive on the surface but for peace of mind knowing that my first point of contact is 20mins down the road not thousands of miles away plus all the shipping is handled by them, bearing in mind these aren't £200 iem's I find paying the £90 extra (which I may have to pay any way in taxes) is not an issue

 

[mark2410]

customs charges would be in place of VAT, if you pay VAT on it then its already been taxed in the uk. as its not in the uk you would end up paying customs charges hence you should in no way be paying VAT.

they either charge you VAT and they cover import costs or they arent actually paying VAT on them they are just scamming you.

Mig yes £750 should be fine but the op gives the figures hes been told as JH13 Pro - £750 + VAT (£862.50)

ie they are taking £110 for posting things on your behalf and that seems like rather alot to be.

 

[digivate]

Fair point. I've not moved into the world of customs yet but one of my main worries has always been the cost of international postage if sending them back and forth to get refits. I've also wondered what happens if customs intercept your gear on the way back into the country if you've already paid the VAT/customs charges already.

 

[MiG(TM)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif customs charges would be in place of VAT, if you pay VAT on it then its already been taxed in the uk. as its not in the uk you would end up paying customs charges hence you should in no way be paying VAT. they either charge you VAT and they cover import costs or they arent actually paying VAT on them they are just scamming you. Mig yes £750 should be fine but the op gives the figures hes been told as JH13 Pro - £750 + VAT (£862.50) ie they are taking £110 for posting things on your behalf and that seems like rather alot to be.

I would have thought it would been there charge for handling the whole process for you? It is expensive yes but it seems fair if you don't want to mess about.

I don't know exactly what they do, but whatever, £750 or £862, its mucho coin either way!

Sorry about the VAT! Thought they stuck it on everything

 

[digivate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif customs charges would be in place of VAT, if you pay VAT on it then its already been taxed in the uk. as its not in the uk you would end up paying customs charges hence you should in no way be paying VAT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiG™ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry about the VAT! Thought they stuck it on everything

I'm not sure mark2410 is right.

As far as I'm aware you DO pay VAT AND customs charges when importing items worth more than £120 ...

Straight from the horse's mouth ... HM Revenue & Customs

 

[barleyguy]

The thread title makes me want to sing:

I... wanna play... JH Audio.

(JH Audio in the UK)

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digivate /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not sure mark2410 is right. As far as I'm aware you DO pay VAT AND customs charges when importing items worth more than £120 ... Straight from the horse's mouth ... HM Revenue & Customs

read it carefully, its badly worded.

if you have paid VAT it means you have bought something in the UK and paid tax on it. your agreement of sale is between you and handheld audio and as you are both in the uk you are not responsible for importing anything hence you are not responsible for any customs charges.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

sure as hell dont pay VAT and any customs charges.

What planet are you from? I've bought DVD boxsets and I got custom charge and royal mail surcharge.

 

[timmyGCSE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif read it carefully, its badly worded. if you have paid VAT it means you have bought something in the UK and paid tax on it. your agreement of sale is between you and handheld audio and as you are both in the uk you are not responsible for importing anything hence you are not responsible for any customs charges.

yea thats what I was thinking you meant, like in effect they are asking you to pay VAT ontop of VAT.
But if you break down the figures they look like this:

buying direct from JH Audio

JH13 Pro - $1099/£665.29
Fedex shipping from JH audio to the UK - $75/£45.39
Ear impressions - £39
DHL shipping the impressions from UK to JH Audio in Florida - £27
Customs charges (see below) - $203.10/£122.96

Total - £899.64

buying through HHA

JH 13 Pro, ear impressions, shipping of impressions to US, & shipping back from US - Total £862.50 done with nothing more to pay.

So I go to JH audio direct, and assuming HM Revenue and customs wish to take their cut which I have to, it works out more expensive, regardless of how HHA have worked out their pricing structure. Yes, of course there may be a chance that I don't have to pay HMR&C making me £85 in pocket, but its a gamble that I don't and if JH audio are declaring the proper cost of the item on the customs form, sure as hell HMR&C will be on it like a hawk, especially for an item of that value. Plus, like I say, £85 gives me peace of mind that any problems, fitting issues (which was a big worry reading through the JH threads), warranty, whatever, is in the hands of HHA audio and they have to pay to rectify it. One fitting issue with JH Audio direct means another £30 bill to send them back..see where I'm going with this?
And then of course we're assuming JH Audio will take orders direct from the UK. The e-mail I got back from Jaime didn't point blank refuse me but words to the effect 'for all enquiries please contact our UK distributor Hand Held Audio' i.e. we have a UK dealer, so use them.
Sad fact is that we live in the UK where alot of stuff is more expensive than the states, look at Westone products - certainly a month ago the cheapest you could get a UM3X in the UK from a UK retailer (excluding ebay) was £299.99 vs less than $400 in the states. The price may be inflated but when you're paying out £800+ paying the extra £85 to deal with a UK company to me is shrewd, plus if the customs charges come in to play I would pay more overall anyway.

And a note about the customs charges. I went into this at length with a customs officer when looking to import some UM3X's, and I have used the fedex tools on a number of occasions and the calculations always work out correct
Anything over £18, you pay VAT (£36 for gifts). Then if the item is valued at £120 or more, you pay customs duty on the cost of the item including VAT AND the shipping cost. If it is less that 7quid they waiver it.
The customs duty varies with different types of products but for earphones its 2%.
I have just done this calculation using the fedex UK customs charges calculator with the exact values for the JH13 Pro:

so you can see there from fedex themselves, you import the JH13's to the UK you pay $203.10/£122.96 in import tax, which fits in with my calcs above.

 

[xiaoipower]

hey all,

I just spoke to Handheld Audio and it seems that they have not heard anything about this from JHAudio and will most likely NOT be running a similar promotion

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif What planet are you from? I've bought DVD boxsets and I got custom charge and royal mail surcharge.

yes and you did not in addition then pay VAT, did you? VAT is a tax on the sale of goods or services within the UK. you dont pay it on goods bought out side the country.

royal mails rip off charges for doing their job are nothing to do with anything