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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

I used Bundlebox on US pre-order day and received my iPad here in the UK four days after the US launch. They had to do some voodoo to make it work since Apple cancelled most orders to freight forwarders (I believe it involved getting them sent to 101 random people in the same neighborhood if the postage labels are any indication).. Ultimately, it all worked out fine - they're not scam artists.

All that said, I bet they're getting some heavy demand due to this so if you want one, get in quick. People who ordered merely hours after me were disappointed as their orders had to be delayed due to Bundlebox's capacity to deal with the weird shipping arrangements. And it wouldn't surprise me if Apple is getting wise to these sorts of activities.

(I know someone who cancelled their order upon delay and got a refund quick, so I can't entirely vouch for these guys, but they seem legit.)

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FWIW, I've navigated this thread a few times and every comment left was voted down to 0 within a few minutes of being made. I voted them all back up to counter it, but someone's playing silly beggars here.

On the plus side, I've now been won over as to why down votes on stories aren't a good idea..

Out of interest, what was the charge on an ipad for their service? The rates are hard to figure out on their site.

I paid £390 for the iPad itself (including US sales tax of 6%) and the Bundlebox fee. This is about equivalent to the anticipated UK price of £399 for the 16GB Wifi iPad. Then I paid £120 for the VAT (a necessary evil, alas) and 2-3 day delivery. With slightly slower delivery, it'd have been £100.

So it was £500-520 in total. This seems reasonable considering I have an iPad almost two months early - gives me a nice head start on some things.

I thought to use bundlebox, you bought an item (in your case an ipad) had it shipped to the free bundlebox address they give you. When it arrives, they then send you an email saying there is something in your bundlebox and quote you a price on what it will cost to ship it to you. They also calculate your VAT/custom charges and factor that into the price. Only then do you give Bundlebox any money. Given that the VAT was £120 and you possibly didn't pay any customs handling fee, what was the remainder price they quoted you?

I used Bundlebox's "Buy it for me" service as I don't have a US card. Therefore, I paid up front for the iPad and their service fee for that. That's the £390 I mention.

The £120 part was the delivery plus the VAT on the purchase value and the delivery. So I think about £40 delivery and £80 VAT or something like that. No other fees were due, as the iPad attracts no duty.

ah, didn't know they did that - thanks.

So you paid the US sales tax and the UK VAT ?

It seems the Bundlebox guys didn't think this through -- they should perhaps relocate in a state without sales tax ? You are basically paying VAT twice.

Yes, this is the only downside, but I believe that would also apply if you bought direct and had it shipped to BB. At 6%, though, it's less onerous than our 17.5% VAT, and was about $24 in all (plus VAT..)

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