Online shopping advice

[jxie93]

A somewhat late happy Christmas to you all.

I'd been planning to buy a laptop this year, it just so happens that I had the time to research and select the one I want right now. I'll be buying from online vendors which I find with good prices. The laptop in question would cost around 1000 - 1200 GBP.

My question is - since I live in the UK, the cheaper prices I find are almost certainly from US vendors, what complications would there be for me to buy and have it imported/delivered to me? I presume the US sales tax is already included in the prices and I was told most consumer electronics (including laptops) are duty free. I'd like some advice from people with experience.

Also, can anyone recommend some reputable US laptop retailers that ship overseas?

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[Crassus]

A somewhat late happy Christmas to you all.

I'd been planning to buy a laptop this year, it just so happens that I had the time to research and select the one I want right now. I'll be buying from online vendors which I find with good prices. The laptop in question would cost around 1000 - 1200 GBP.

My question is - since I live in the UK, the cheaper prices I find are almost certainly from US vendors, what complications would there be for me to buy and have it imported/delivered to me? I presume the US sales tax is already included in the prices and I was told most consumer electronics (including laptops) are duty free. I'd like some advice from people with experience.

Also, can anyone recommend some reputable US laptop retailers that ship overseas?

Don't know about US vendors but if you buy from outside the UK then you wont have a valid warranty.

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[Agmen of Eladesor]

Don't know about US vendors but if you buy from outside the UK then you wont have a valid warranty.

Unless you purchase directly from the International Sales division of the computer company, warranties are only valid in the country where you buy the darned thing. So if you had an issue with the laptop, you'd have to ship it back to the US.

You conceivably could purchase one here and then 'travel' with it. The nice thing is that the power supplies, other than picking up a plug, are universal - they don't care whether you're running 50 or 60 HZ, and 110 or 220. That IS something we see here all the time, every semester when new students come in and they bring their laptops from home. Then they come to our store and buy a universal plug so that laptop from India or Israel or England will work in the US.

Also don't forget that, probably until June or July at the earliest, and maybe later than that, you WILL be paying a premium for your laptop. Search on here about the hard drive shortage, that I posted a month or so ago. Now that the holidays are over, it's starting to hit, and hit hard, with new computers (and security DVR's, too) having a premium on HDD space.

Of course, it was nice today picking up an 8GB USB stick for $10. Nice to see the price on those down.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.