Hello Annamarie,
Yes, we have a company credit card and so make all our purchases that way
and have had no problems at all.
I haven't looked in to this in the last six months, but in terms of duty,
the rule was that if the value of the item was £ 18 or less (about $ 25 or
so) then there is no duty to pay - so we make sure that we only order one
item at a time!
However, the items ordered through PLAY, MOVIETYME and ENTERPRISES are not
prone to this as they are UK companies anyway and they are do not stamp the
contents as being originally from outside the UK (which is the only time
that duty etc will apply).
Personally I have never ever had to pay any additional duty on items ordered
from these three companies.
Regards,
Sergio
************
Sergio Angelini
Library and Database Manager
British Universities Film & Video Council
77 Wells Street
London
W1T 3QJ
Tel: 020 7393 1506
Fax: 020 7393 1555
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Annamarie McKie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "'Sergio Angelini'" <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 1:13 PM
Subject: RE: buying videos and dvds from North America
Hello Sergio,
This looks very good info, but how do you pay for the items? We find that
when we check a website initially, the items are in, but by the time the
money has reached the company (usually 2/3 weeks in the case of our Finance
department), the items are no longer in stock, and we end up with the
company being in credit, and us not having received the goods. Do you have
a Visa card which you use?
Also, how do you get round paying import duty? I ordered some CD's from the
States recently (Anamolous Records) and paid shipping and postage, etc.
However, when the goods arrived (delivered by Parcel Force), I was told I
had to pay £40, for import and clearance duty. When I filled out the
original order, I was not told about this. Have you ever had a similar
situation?
Annamarie McKie
Librarian
Kent Institute of Art and Design - Maidstone
-----Original Message-----
From: Sergio Angelini [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 January 2003 12:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: buying videos and dvds from North America
Hello there,
At the office we use PLAY.COM (http://www.playserver5.com/play247.asp)
It is based in Jersey so you can talk to them on the phone if there any
problems - they stock Region 1 (US) and Region 2 (UK) discs.
Personally, the only two other British-based companies that I would
recommend to get US
material are:
ENTERPRISES DVD
http://dvdenterprises.co.uk/
MOVIETYME USA (which have a British office)
http://www.movietyme.com/
The reason I rarely use these companies is that they are rather slow - but
being able to phone them and return damaged goods easily is a great bonus.
For less usual US stuff I always first go to DIGITAL EYES
http://www.digitaleyes.net/
I think this a really good company, very reliable and the stock is
competitively priced and I use them almost always.
I find Amazon.com in the US a bit over priced, but they are very reliable.
Also, you may find it useful to compare US prices at DVDPRICESEARCH
http://dvdpricesearch.com/cgi-bin/dvdhtml2
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Sergio Angelini
Library and Database Manager
British Universities Film & Video Council
77 Wells Street
London
W1T 3QJ
Tel: 020 7393 1506
Fax: 020 7393 1555
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sylvia Carlyle" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 6:38 PM
Subject: buying videos and dvds from North America
> Hello,
> We are trying to build up our dvd/video library and many of the titles we
> need are fairly rare or specialised and are only available from North
> America. Does anyone know of a good supplier for such videos and dvds? We
> need to have the ability to set up an account with them. We use the net
alot
> individually, but there are problems when we try to use those kind of
> sources as an institution. Any advice?
> Best wishes
> Sylvia
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Sylvia Carlyle
> Visual Resources Manager
> School of History of Art, Film & Visual Media
> Birkbeck College 43 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PD
> tel: 020 7631 6101 fax: 020 7631 6107
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
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