Eric, Many thanks for giving this your attention. Moonraker is potentially an excellent choice as the UK market is rapidly becoming a duopoly, with Moonraker emerging as one of those two. I am not aware of any UK repair persons that are already familiar with Elecraft products. An outfit like Castle Electronics, suggested by G3UNA, most likely has the technical skills, but would need training on the Elecraft product line. In my previous note I renamed Carlo Bianconi as Claudio – my apologies. It is Carlo that demonstrated first class repair and customer skills for multiple members of our 6Gs DXpedition group. I spoke with Lutz at some length while at Friedrichshafen. They have special arrangements that allow shipping either to Germany or direct to their Swiss HQ. The difference from the UK in the cost of shipping to Germany, Switzerland or Italy is negligible, but the cost and admin complexity is substantial; a K4, fully insured, will cost $520-600 to ship to Italy or Germany, depending on which carrier is chosen. The cost to ship to Watsonville is the same. This is clearly one of the drivers that causes me and others to encourage Elecraft to appoint a UK distributor/service centre.
The confusion over the Elecraft US list price and the landed price in the UK is a very familiar one. Many people really don’t understand the calculations/requirements. In particular, there are frequent complaints about having to pay ‘duty’ when in fact the charges are simply VAT (required by law) and customs clearance costs (levied by the carrier to help cover their admin costs in clearing the shipment through customs). Amateur radio equipment has an import duty rate of zero in the UK. In my previous post I mentioned that ordering direct from Elecraft had always delivered a savings relative to buying from the former UK dealer. That calculation was to add the Elecraft list price and shipping cost in $ (converted to GBP at the best rate I could find (hint: few credit cards will give you this)); then add VAT at 20% to this GBP total; then add the clearance fee also in GBP. It is the sum of all those items that must be compared with the UK dealer price. I’m likely to be preaching to the converted on this reflector, but I am constantly having to educate folks on this simple arithmetic. 73, David G3WGN M6O From: Eric Swartz <e...@elecraft.com> Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2023 1:49 AM To: David Aslin G3WGN <da...@aslinvc.com> Cc: Dave <dave.g4...@gmail.com>; Elecraft Discussion List <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Buying a K4 in UK I am currently in contact with Justin at Moonraker. We also met at the Friedrichshafen Ham Radio show in June. I'll report here as soon as I have additional information on both the local sales and service for our products in the U.K. One note - For the reasons others have noted, we are also interested in supporting independent repair persons inside the U.K who are familiar with our products. Please contact me directly. eric(at)elecraft.com<http://elecraft.com> Also, in addition to our in and out of warranty repair center for the Eu since 2011, Carlo Bianconi in Bologna, Italy, who has an excellent lab and does expert work, we have also added our Swiss Distributor, Lutz Electronics as an additional repair center for in and out of warranty products. The feedback from customers who have repairs done there has also been excellent. Lutz speaks vey good English, German and French and also has an expedited method for shipping to them from Germany. On buying directly from us, one area of confusion among some international buyers in the UK and elsewhere in the EU is that while quoted prices for our products at local retail stores in Eu and the UK already include the addition of your local VAT and the cost of shipping and insurance to them from the U.S., the on-line prices on orders shipped directly from us do not include the VAT or import duty. That is required by the international authorities on your end to be paid by the buyer upon receipt. (Shipping cost and insurance is also added by us to the invoice at the time of billing prior to shipment.) 72, Eric elecraft.com<http://elecraft.com> On Wed, Aug 2, 2023 at 2:05 PM David Aslin G3WGN <da...@aslinvc.com<mailto:da...@aslinvc.com>> wrote: All my Elecraft kit (K3 + 'S' upgrades, P3, KPA500, KAT500, KX3, K2, W2 etc) was bought via mostly separate orders direct from Elecraft, so multiple experience of this buying route. No hassles with any of the shipments, but a week or so delay while the VAT/customs process completed. Even at today's elevated shipping prices, cost was always less than the W & S price. More concerning is the lack of accessible service facilities. Claudio in Bologna is a great engineer and did an exemplary job of upgrading and checking over the the KPA500s owned by members of the 6Gs DXpeditions group; BUT, shipping a returnable item to Italy (or elsewhere in the EU) is now a huge bureaucratic nightmare. I would hope that Eric and Justin Godefroy (who I do not know, but I understand owns & runs Moonraker) are in conversation. If not, does anyone on here know Justin well enough to encourage that to happen? Checking with Eric would be easy, but there may be need for 'encouragement' at the UK end. Moonraker would get loads of brownie points if they hired an engineer and had them trained on Elecraft products - and given the lack of other service facilities in UK, could have them trained on other products too, to make the hire cost-effective. 73, David G3WGN M6O -----Original Message----- From: Dave <dave.g4...@gmail.com<mailto:dave.g4...@gmail.com>> Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 1:12 PM To: Elecraft Discussion List <elecraft@mailman.qth.net<mailto:elecraft@mailman.qth.net>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Buying a K4 in UK I bought my K4D from W&S 2 years ago, but they no longer list much Elecraft equipment and seem to have lost interest. All my other Elecraft kit came direct from Elecraft. W&S are unlikely to handle warranty or repairs for items bought elsewhere, which is a pity as the only place outside of the UK for service is either Italy or back to the factory. 73 Dave G4AON -- Sent from my iPhone SE ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net<mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to eric.swa...@elecraft.com<mailto:eric.swa...@elecraft.com> ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
