On Saturday 08 December 2012 16:52:55 Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: > Paul Boddie <[email protected]> writes: > > On Friday 07 December 2012 21:25:19 Andrea Bolognani wrote: > > > On Fri, Dec 07, 2012 at 11:46:26AM -0500, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: > > > > > No wonder. Order with Sharism is pain for EU-customers. > > > > > > > > How/why is the experience for EU customers so much worse? > > > > > > I ordered my Ben from Tuxbrain, and the experience has been pretty > > > standard: I reckon it took maybe a week for the shiny new gadget to > > > show up on my doorstep. > > > > > > Now that Tuxbrain is no more, things might actually be not as easy > > > or fast, though. > > > > I ordered mine from Pulster and although I was initially worried that I > > wouldn't be able to complete the order - I was travelling and needed to > > make a bank transfer via my Internet bank, which these days requires > > various extra gadgets - once I did so, the package arrived within about a > > day or so. So I can't fault the Pulster service at all! > > Neither of these answers my question (or Christoph's statement) about > bad experiences of EU residents ordering directly *from Sharism*....
I only wanted to state that for those wanting to order the product from an EU distributor, there is still a decent option thanks to Christoph. He said it was a "pain" which it might well be for a number of reasons not limited to things like... Shipping: if Pulster can dispatch from Germany and get it to the UK within 48 hours if I pay €15, which some might argue is expensive but then you often get what you pay for in terms of delivery services (including tracking and "sign-for" delivery), then that's pretty difficult to beat for anyone shipping stuff from further afield. Customs: not having to deal with packages being held for inspection, processed, held for import fees, processed, held for processing fees, and so on is a pretty big element in the pain reduction. Payment: I think that Pulster prefers or only supports bank transfers, which is potentially a disadvantage, but then anyone wanting to use this method of payment would struggle to do so as conveniently if they were sending money outside Europe. (It can be a pain for British people, too, but for reasons created by the country's stupid banking industry.) Warranty: keeping the transaction in the EU avoids some uncertainties around warranty or customer protection, plus reduces the inconvenience involved when returning defective goods (see "customs"). I don't think anyone said anything about specific bad experiences ordering from Sharism, but that doesn't mean that there's no value at all in having a local distributor for the EU. Paul _______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
