ordering from hobbyking international

[james111]

So I am tempted on ordering some fpv gear ive never ordered from abroard what hidden charges are there or do I just pay the price I see

[Biffa]

There are no hidden charges as such, but you always run the risk of it being stopped by customs, then you will have to pay the handling fee to parcel force and the VAT.

[robshaw]

Ive only ordered a couple of small things from HK but had no probs. Have had a couple of largish orders from rctimer and they also arrived with no issues.

[cgcrute]

I';ve found that using ';UK Direct Channel'; as the delivery option gets stuff here quicker. From what I can work out they ship stuff en-mass to their warehouse and ship it on from there as mine arrived from the UK. This should negate any customs charges if I';m right!

[james111]

What sort of time am I looking on direct channel

[QuadBod]

10 days from order to delivery for HK direct, 3 days for European warehouse, next day or 48 hour (depending on what you pay for) for UK. Worth checking if they have stock of what you wan closer to home...

[james111]

Just international no stock in europe or uk 

[dazza22]

I have now used hobbyking over 30 times and only got hit by customs once , when ordering 4 of the same frames.
like already said 10 days is about the normal .
1 thing I  try to do is use up all postage weight , if 10grams left get some heat shrink  a servo ..etc

[powerlord]

Yeh.  They are quick.  Do be aware though that the customer bit at the end where it let';s you select what percentage to declare means that effectively you are breaking the law if you mark it less than 100 %,  not hobbyking. 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

[dp106]

Avoid using Parcel Force at all costs.  They seem to inspect every parcel and you will get charged for the VAT plus they even bill you a handling fee for the privilege!

[cgcrute]

What sort of time am I looking on direct channel

I placed 2 orders on 24/08/13 one via airmail and one Direct channel. Delivery dates:

Airmail: 04/09/13 (11 days)
Direct Channel 29/08/13 (5 days)

[fruitsalad]

good time to order at the moment too.
exchange rate is good..

[Tony Campbell]

I seem to remember reading somewhere a good while ago, that there was two main hubs in the uk for stuff coming in from abroad. One hub is run by Royal mail, and the other was run by one of the large courier companies.... fedex or UPS ( cant remember exactly). If it came into the Royal mail hub, you had only a 10% chance that it would be opened and checked (due to staffing levels) and an almost 100% chance of it being opened and checked for duty and vat in the other. Not sure if its really true, but the info came from a royal mail employee at my local sorting office. Also, using the slower surface mail options were far less likely to end up in your parcel being intercepted too. At the end of the day, I';m just relaying to you some interesting info, I';m not suggesting that anyone tries to avoid paying duty etc, thats entirely up to each persons morality.