Billbrown1982

Adam, thank you for your reply but unfortunately you have truly missed the point, a point I tried to explain in my last reply to support which sadly went ignored.

In the hopes that this can at least reach someone with the ability to put a higher priority on fixing this issue and stop alienating UK buyers, I will try one more time to explain the issue here as I have been a long time follower of LTT and really believe in you, but your letting me down here big time.

You state, as did LTT support, that all duty & tax fees are payable by the buyer, which is normal, I totally get that.

However.

I purchased goods from a Canadian supplier (you guys) and goods that were made IN Canada. This means they are subject to the "UK - Canada Trade continuity act" which means goods of ANY VALUE (not just below £135) can be imported DUTY FREE. Feel free to correct me on this but as far as I'm aware, nothing has changed in this regard.

I paid VAT at checkout. Which can not be avoided and MUST be paid on all goods imported into the UK. 

I paid a higher shipping cost than I would normally, because I knew the goods were coming from Canada. It is what it is.

However, because you either were not supposed to charge me the VAT or because you didn't communicate that correctly to UK customs, it was flagged as unpaid VAT on arrival. You say this is being looked at as quickly as possible, but respectfully this has been going on for nearly 2 years at this point. Hardly seems a priority.

The courier that you used is also routing parcels through Germany, which is not that strange in its own right but they are mismanaging the imports and allowing duty to be charged as if the parcels came from Germany, NOT from Canada.

So, when the parcel finally landed on my doorstep I had a bill for VAT (Already paid at checkout) DUTY (Supposed to be exempt) and the couriers charges for letting me know how much I had to pay.

LTT refunded the VAT.

The Duty was refunded by uk borderforce, not due to luck as you seem to think, but its because border force looked at the parcel, saw that it actually came from Canada and not Germany and refunded me accordingly.

This still left me out of pocket due to the courier charges, which wouldn't have had to have been paid IF everything had gone as it was supposed to and it had been a straight forward delivery. Not to mention the hassle of emailing you, sending letters by post to uk borderforce and having to spend time digging through forums and internet posts to find out this information in the first place.

I sincerely hope someone takes a serious look at this and makes it a priority to get sorted. Granted the UK is a small fish in a large pond, but none the less, its hardly fair.

 

Based on my understanding, this is not correct for two reasons:
 
1. Free trade agreements like the one you're citing here just fundamentally do not work this way. While they do eliminate duty fees in many cases, it is not a blanket exemption of duty fees in all cases.
 
2. Our products are designed in Canada but, with few exceptions, not manufactured there, and thus do not under CETA rules (and UKCTCA, which just implements the provisions of CETA post-Brexit) qualify as being of "Canadian origin."
 
We have a very skilled (and expanding) accounting team that has explored (and is continuing to explore!) all of these options in great detail, so even if I'm not getting the above exactly right, you can trust that we are exercising all options available to us. With sincerity, your feedback is being heard loud and clear, but these limitations as we understand them today will prevent us from offering you a duty-free shopping experience for the foreseeable future.
 
 
I totally get why it might appear that way. The reality is, however, that the cause of the double-VAT issue is almost entirely outside of our ability to control (accounting tells me that it's due to a bug in the software that calculates VAT on our store, which is as-yet not fixed and for which no reasonable alternative exists right now), and we are not the only business encountering such problems. I've gone into a little more detail about this elsewhere on this forum, if you're interested and feel like peeping my post history.
 
None of what I'm saying here should be interpreted as an excuse, of course. We're as frustrated as you are about issues like these. But please know that it's not for lack of caring. 🙂

Adam, thank you for your reply but unfortunately you have truly missed the point, a point I tried to explain in my last reply to support which sadly went ignored.

In the hopes that this can at least reach someone with the ability to put a higher priority on fixing this issue and stop alienating UK buyers, I will try one more time to explain the issue here as I have been a long time follower of LTT and really believe in you, but your letting me down here big time.

You state, as did LTT support, that all duty & tax fees are payable by the buyer, which is normal, I totally get that.

However.

I purchased goods from a Canadian supplier (you guys) and goods that were made IN Canada. This means they are subject to the "UK - Canada Trade continuity act" which means goods of ANY VALUE (not just below £135) can be imported DUTY FREE. Feel free to correct me on this but as far as I'm aware, nothing has changed in this regard.

I paid VAT at checkout. Which can not be avoided and MUST be paid on all goods imported into the UK. 

I paid a higher shipping cost than I would normally, because I knew the goods were coming from Canada. It is what it is.

However, because you either were not supposed to charge me the VAT or because you didn't communicate that correctly to UK customs, it was flagged as unpaid VAT on arrival. You say this is being looked at as quickly as possible, but respectfully this has been going on for nearly 2 years at this point. Hardly seems a priority.

The courier that you used is also routing parcels through Germany, which is not that strange in its own right but they are mismanaging the imports and allowing duty to be charged as if the parcels came from Germany, NOT from Canada.

So, when the parcel finally landed on my doorstep I had a bill for VAT (Already paid at checkout) DUTY (Supposed to be exempt) and the couriers charges for letting me know how much I had to pay.

LTT refunded the VAT.

The Duty was refunded by uk borderforce, not due to luck as you seem to think, but its because border force looked at the parcel, saw that it actually came from Canada and not Germany and refunded me accordingly.

This still left me out of pocket due to the courier charges, which wouldn't have had to have been paid IF everything had gone as it was supposed to and it had been a straight forward delivery. Not to mention the hassle of emailing you, sending letters by post to uk borderforce and having to spend time digging through forums and internet posts to find out this information in the first place.

I sincerely hope someone takes a serious look at this and makes it a priority to get sorted. Granted the UK is a small fish in a large pond, but none the less, its hardly fair.

 

Adam, thank you for your reply but unfortunately you have truly missed the point, a point I tried to explain in my last reply to support which sadly went ignored.

In the hopes that this can at least reach someone with the ability to put a higher priority on fixing this issue and stop alienating UK buyers, I will try one more time to explain the issue here as I have been a long time follower of LTT and really believe in you, but your letting me down here big time.

You state, as did LTT support, that all duty & tax fees are payable by the buyer, which is normal, I totally get that.

However.

I purchased goods from a Canadian supplier (you guys) and goods that were made IN Canada. This means they are subject to the "UK - Canada Trade continuity act" which means goods of ANY VALUE (not just below £135) can be imported DUTY FREE. Feel free to correct me on this but as far as I'm aware, nothing has changed in this regard.

I paid VAT at checkout. Which can not be avoided and MUST be paid on all goods imported into the UK. 

I paid a higher shipping cost than I would normally, because I knew the goods were coming from Canada. It is what it is.

However, because you either were not supposed to charge me the VAT or because you didn't communicate that correctly to UK customs, it was flagged as unpaid VAT on arrival. You say this is being looked at as quickly as possible, but respectfully this has been going on for nearly 2 years at this point. Hardly seems a priority.

The courier that you used is also routing parcels through Germany, which is not that strange in its own right but they are mismanaging the imports and allowing duty to be charged as if the parcels came from Germany, NOT from Canada.

So, when the parcel finally landed on my doorstep I had a bill for VAT (Already paid at checkout) DUTY (Supposed to be exempt) and the couriers charges for letting me know how much I had to pay.

LTT refunded the VAT.

The Duty was refunded by uk borderforce, not due to luck as you seem to think, but its because border force looked at the parcel, saw that it actually came from Canada and not Germany and refunded me accordingly.

This still left me out of pocket due to the courier charges, which wouldn't have had to have been paid IF everything had gone as it was supposed to and it had been a straight forward delivery. Not to mention the hassle of emailing you, sending letters by post to uk borderforce and having to spend time digging through forums and internet posts to find out this information in the first place.

I sincerely hope someone takes a serious look at this and makes it a priority to get sorted. Granted the UK is a small fish in a large pond, but none the less, its hardly fair.

 

Final update from me. Just got a refund from border force of £41.87 so I've ended the game down £5.82 - which I can live with. 

LTT support never replied to my email. Very disappointing there. As good as the merch actually turned out to be, I won't be buying from them again.

Shame.

Found this old thread which has been extremely helpful to me when the same thing happened to me this month.

Nearly £1k of lttstore stuff ordered. Got sent in 2 seperate parcels, backpack & 2 screwdrivers - straight through no charges

The rest of the order however.

Customs Duty £35.69
VAT £66.62
Clearance Fee £12

Now in LTT's credit, within 24 hours of me emailing them the VAT had been refunded. Which is great and all but they seem to want to wash their hands of the rest as "all import charges are down to the customer" 

I've just sent a rather long email to them because I think at this point they are taking the p a bit. Its been over 2 years for this VAT issue to still be a thing and the couriers are still screwing up at least a year after the OP's post.

I'm totally ok with paying what needs to be paid, but paying stuff that shouldn't be paid because of someone elses mistake? Not fair. LTT need to have a serious word with their couriers to stop doing this and the store VAT thing needs to be fixed, otherwise its going to put people off from buying in the future.

So i'm still down £47.69 and now I have to go through the rigmarole of filling out forms and sending it off to HRMC. Its just a pita.

Yep definitely have been. Hopefully they are already on the case.
 
Few months ago they got corridor crew and now LTT. Unreal.
 

I mean...there was 3 of us in my house literally spamming refresh and watched the site go from, register your interest to sold out....immediately.
 
Then you've got guys selling on ebay for over 90k and climbing....
 
It drives me nuts.

Funny enough I was just reading up on the PSU pinned thread about its more than just wattage. Yeah and your dead right, totally makes sense now!
 
Saw Linus's video on the new gen Ryzen's, thats a whole lotta cores. I use PC for gaming but primarily as a Media server too so thats also a consideration.

Gamers Nexus....I'll head over there now. Cheers!

Because I'm assuming you've got a 5+ year old PSU, so if you're going to add pricey new components to the build, you should grab a new one.
There is a lot more to power supplies than just wattage.
 
As for Intel vs AMD, I personally wouldn't go Intel unless you're either getting a KILLER deal on the 8700K, or you plan to foot for a 9900K. (And even then a 3700X is still a great argument.)
The 9700k lacks Hypertheading, which will eventually hurt its frame drop performance (even if it's great now.)
The $200 3600 has 12 threads, is overclockable, and has pretty comparable gaming performance. I know AMD was a bad bet in the past, but even Intel fanboy Linus Sebastien is batting for team red on this most recent product line.
Check out Gamers Nexus reviews on the subject. IMO he's the tester to be looking at. 

The frame drops you speak of are likely due to too few cores/threads. And perhaps a bottleneck between your CPU and much beefier GPU.
In the current market, the 9700K and 9900K are really the only Intel pieces you might consider worth buying if you're looking at new pieces.
Otherwise, the 3600 and 3700X are neck and neck with the 8700K, (in most titles) better than the 7700K and way better priced.
PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor $329.00 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI B450-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard $89.99 @ Amazon Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory $72.99 @ Amazon Storage Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $0.00 Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card $0.00 Case GameMax FALCON WHITE RGB ATX Mid Tower Case $0.00 Power Supply BitFenix Formula Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply $79.00 @ Amazon Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit $0.00 Monitor Iiyama B2783QSU-B1 27.0" 2560x1440 70 Hz Monitor $0.00 Monitor Iiyama B2783QSU-B1 27.0" 2560x1440 70 Hz Monitor $0.00   Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts     Total $570.98   Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-23 16:32 EDT-0400   You could even grab the $200 Ryzen 5 3600 for very comparable gaming performance at a nice price cut.
No more frame drops.

the 7700k usually costs so much that you'd be better off going with a 3600+B450 board, so avoid it unless you can find it for cheap.

Feel free to reach out friend! I am on very often.

Yeah so my boy came home and told me to run this benchmark.

Looks to me like the "Brawn" achievement pretty much sums up the problem and its exactly as you said lol

Appreciate your help! I am going to start looking at those options and will definitely be back with more questions

Cool!
 
Your CPU and motherboard are definitely the first 2 things that gotta go if you're upgrading anything. I would say the PSU is next, and lastly the RAM. If you can overclock it to 2666 or higher I honestly wouldn't even bother with it.
 
DDR4 is still the current spec, so you don't strictly need to upgrade it even though it would help in performance. You said you didn't want to go too crazy on upgrade, so I would reccomend an i7-8700 and a nice H370 motherboard. That will bring you up to the current mainstream of 6c12t, and give you a healthy performance uplift over your non hyperthreaded 4 core CPU.

The weakest point of your system is definitely that motherboard and CPU. Could you do us, and yourself, a favor and throw your system together in PCPartPicker?