Gondor's Grumblings

[Gondor]

I have actually managed to get onto the workbench, not much room for myself, but figuratively speaking I got onto the workbench today. Bits of plastic have even been glued together!

Maybe I should be buying my lottery tickets today rather than yesterday?

Gondor

[Gondor]

So I was online looking for some decals for a future build, nothing unusual about that. What got me was that once I found what I was looking for I could not check out the item. Very odd I thought. So as they had contact information on their web page I dropped them an email asking about the reason why the UK was not listed, nor could I register with their site.

The answer was this:

"Hi Alistair,

Sorry, but as of January 1, 2021 we can no longer sell to the United Kingdom from our website because the United Kingdom now requires all on-line companies outside of the UK to register and collect UK VAT.  We are not interested in collecting another country's taxes for them for free, therefore Ultracast will no longer accept website orders from the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately, the UK is the only country in the world that has this policy.  Other countries would like you to collect their taxes for them, but if you do not, their customs service will simply charge the customer the required taxes once the order arrives in their country."

I didn't know about this, but it does explain why when ordering items from outside the UK I can't always buy from a company.

Gondor

[Pellson]

So I was online looking for some decals for a future build, nothing unusual about that. What got me was that once I found what I was looking for I could not check out the item. Very odd I thought. So as they had contact information on their web page I dropped them an email asking about the reason why the UK was not listed, nor could I register with their site.

The answer was this:

"Hi Alistair,

Sorry, but as of January 1, 2021 we can no longer sell to the United Kingdom from our website because the United Kingdom now requires all on-line companies outside of the UK to register and collect UK VAT.  We are not interested in collecting another country's taxes for them for free, therefore Ultracast will no longer accept website orders from the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately, the UK is the only country in the world that has this policy.  Other countries would like you to collect their taxes for them, but if you do not, their customs service will simply charge the customer the required taxes once the order arrives in their country."

I didn't know about this, but it does explain why when ordering items from outside the UK I can't always buy from a company.

Gondor

I'm so not going to comment on this matter.. 

Anyway - If I can help with ordering something for you and sending it on, let me know.

[Gondor]

So I was online looking for some decals for a future build, nothing unusual about that. What got me was that once I found what I was looking for I could not check out the item. Very odd I thought. So as they had contact information on their web page I dropped them an email asking about the reason why the UK was not listed, nor could I register with their site.

The answer was this:

"Hi Alistair,

Sorry, but as of January 1, 2021 we can no longer sell to the United Kingdom from our website because the United Kingdom now requires all on-line companies outside of the UK to register and collect UK VAT.  We are not interested in collecting another country's taxes for them for free, therefore Ultracast will no longer accept website orders from the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately, the UK is the only country in the world that has this policy.  Other countries would like you to collect their taxes for them, but if you do not, their customs service will simply charge the customer the required taxes once the order arrives in their country."

I didn't know about this, but it does explain why when ordering items from outside the UK I can't always buy from a company.

Gondor

I'm so not going to comment on this matter.. 

Anyway - If I can help with ordering something for you and sending it on, let me know.

Thanks for that offer, Pellson. I managed to get the item I was after, as that company sells on eBay, and they were very helpful by adding the item I was after to that outlet.

Gondor

[The Rat]

I'm so not going to comment on this matter.. 

Anyway - If I can help with ordering something for you and sending it on, let me know.

Agreed, we can all help out with this problem. If anyone needs anything re-routed, just let us know. 

[Gondor]

The thing about this problem is that it's not all companies in a country. It's a case-by-case decision by individual companies, and I don't really blame them. It's a bit like self-checkout as a supermarket but with companies doing the work for the UK government rather than the individual doing the work for the supermarket.
Most of the time I am looking for an out-of-production item so the options od where to get said item can be rather limited.

Gondor