Is Import Tax to be paid on items bought from Germany?

[sk93]

The difference is, If you go to a Genuine established UK dealer, You will pay a fair price (always worth ringing up and asking if any discount

That's the stickler tho.. fair price for WHO?

As a consumer, paying nearly 30% more in the UK as apposed to Germany isn't what I'd count as fair!

You're only considering if the goods were sold at retail.
For a forum member I would offer a 10-15% discount on Eibach/Bilstein products off the retail price.

True, but you might get a discount if you rang up / emailed the EU companies too.
Whilst I don't want to attack you directly (nor imply you're fleecing anyone - as I understand you may well be at the short end when trying to set prices), having to spend time to ring up and ask for a discount takes time, and can often be totally fruitless (as per the post above regarding ringing demontweaks), and quite frankly, I'm happy to browse online to find what I want, as that's the point of online sales. If I have to ring up to get the best quote, it kinda goes against the whole point of online sales. Discount codes for forums (that are posted online like EuroCarParts used to do) are a better answer to that, but isn't offered by many.
Take for example insurance companies.. there's nothing more than getting a quote online from an insurer, then having to ring them up anyways to see if they'd offer an even better quote.. stick your best price up first time and stop being timewasting, moneygrabbing bellends! (talking directly about insurance here.. not yourself!)

Take into consideration that the manufacturer of these products is in Germany. Their overheads are paid for in the cost price of the goods going to the UK. There's then shipping prices to the UK for the UK distributor, as well as their building costs, rates, water, electricity, staff etc. Those things are not free.

Passing those costs though to a consumer, and expecting them to be happy to pick up the tab isn't really fair tho.
If a distributor cannot negotiate rates from their suppliers that allow them to sell goods at a competitive rate, then perhaps they shouldn't be a distributor for that supplier?
Once again, not a dig at you directly, merely talking economics on the whole.

As for your comparison regarding fridges, you may be right, but I'd be surprised if, say, HotPoint UK didn't pick up the item on behalf of HotPoint DE, considering that in the first six months, HotPoint DE would be picking up the tab for the cost of returning the fridge, ala sales of goods act:

They'd tell you to return to your retailer who you bought the item off... and when your retailer is Hans Scheiße Gesicht 1,000+ miles away, he's certainly not gonna be helpful, especially if you get on the phone speaking English.

God bless section 75 of the CCA then!
Insta-cashback and then it's up to the creditcard agency to get THEIR money back (not you).
I'm speaking from direct personal experience from buying a camera lens that inherited a fault with the auto stabilization feature 18 months after purchase. Polish supplier wouldn't take back, nor offer refund or replacement.
Got in touch with the credit card provider, told them I wanted to claim under section 75, and got the amount refunded to me from them in about 4 days.

Worth noting that MOST respectable banks offer similar protection on DEBIT cards too.

 

[nfbr]

Good for you.

 

[sk93]

Good for you.

Good for every consumer.
Practically zero risk buying from anywhere in the EU nowadays.
Heck.. someone on here was having worse problems with a UK based supplier very recently..

 

[nfbr]

That's 'box shifters' for you!

 

[pvr]

Assuming you pay in Euro, the purchase price from Germany for the dealers have also dropped by 20 - 30% due to the Euro. So only stock is affected by the higher original price, anything new is cheaper.

Not much different from petrol stations, on lowering costs their stock seems to be huge but on raising prices they had no stock at all.

 

[Roundozo]

So I thought I could put this to bed....

Bought from Germany, paid 19% tax, shipped on the 20th, received today.

I know some UK vendors who struggle to get parts to you that quickly.

 

[pvr]

Perfect

With the Euro value as it is today, it is like in the early 2000s where UK dealers were taking the mick with the cars and a lot of people imported those from Europe (including myself).