On 02/08/2023 20:54, elecraft-requ...@mailman.qth.net wrote:
Call Elecraft and see what they tell you. Why is this not obvious?
For one, it is not obvious because Elecraft does not have (and can not
have) expertise in the complex and fast-changing world of international
customs regulations. The post office says that this is "the
responsibility of the receiver" even if the post office screws up, which
often happens.
Just one example: a few years ago, a small item could be sent as
"letter" and as long as the value was low, it just went through. These
days, anything not on paper is a "parcel", requires a boatload of
customs administration both at the sender's (USPS won't touch it
without) and again at the receiver's end (that means *you* doing the
complex customs admin paperwork!), and you get to pay the post office
for the processing of said paperwork in addition to other charges,
customs and taxes.
I also dare you to look up the costs of sending something trivial to EU
or UK via USPS or any of the other carriers. You will not be pleased.
Having had some bad experiences with self-import I can see where the
question comes from. Having been burned before I'm gladly paying the
markup of a local distributor even though in some cases the cost goes up
by as much as 3dB.
I have trouble with these offside remarks "just call elecraft". I dare
you to ship something to the UK or EU, using current, recent regulations
and see what happens.
Elecraft's supply problems have been hard, very hard on DX distributors.
A customer orders something and then the distributor is told to wait for
a year or more on the order. For a distributor, one way to make revenue
is to get combined orders which doesn't work for these very long, and
unpredictable lead times.
Meanwhile, while the customer is waiting, he may cancel the order and
the distributor is left with very little way to make revenue. The one in
Berlin I used to use, closed shop end of last year because the low sales
volume made things unsustainable.
As to W&S - I think there have been some major changes. Note that W&S
didn't advertize in the RSGB RadCom magazine for several months.
Typically these are small, one or two-person shops and if something
happens (circumstances or health) things quickly go sour.
In brief, "just call elecraft" is entirely too simple. I hope you see
that now. And I, too, don't have a quick and easy way to order a K4 in
the UK.
Geert Jan
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