I would like to raise some points in regard to what you posted
What about when an individual buys something from an international retailers to be shipped to his home country? For example, when I order an item from an online retailer that offers international shipping, then I pay customs duty on the item. Why should the product still be tagged as a "grey area" import, if customs duty is paid?Guillermo Navarrete wrote:Hello all,
We definitely didn't created the term Grey Area importthe term is widely use when importing goods that are unavailable or more expensive in a certain country and unissued securities that are not yet traded in official markets.
There are many hidden pitfalls with this imports:
Products sourced from foreign markets will not usually include the valuable addition of any (local country) distributor's extended (place your country here) warranty, offering maybe an extra two years free of charge to provide an unrivalled three years' peace of mind.
Let me point out, that in many cases, it is necessary to order from a foreign country, and price difference may not be the only reason. Firstly, the product may not be available at all locally, or may have a very long delivery time. There have been cases where items I purchased had waiting times of upto 3 months in my country, but were delivered within 4-5 days from another country.
In some cases, the after sales service offered by more competitive markets is far better than locally. For example, my monitors have only a 1 year warranty in my country, and the official company warranty of 5 years does not apply. You may have to pay extra shipping costs for shipping the item back and forth, but in some cases this cost is offset by the superior service.
See above comment about individual buyers paying import duty. In my case, import duty is a hefty 30%. Again, does an item on which import duty has been paid also classify as a "grey area" import? If the tariff paid is so hefty, then why should it be classified as such?Retailers operating outside your country may not include VAT in the price of goods, so at first glance their offers may appear very attractive. However the purchaser then has to transport the item back to your country, with two obvious disadvantages:
a) If the goods go missing during transportation then the responsibility of tracing or replacing them - if the purchaser has been prudent enough to take out expensive insurance cover - falls to the customer. The vendor has received his money and will show no further interest.
b) As a EU (As an example) resident the purchaser is legally required, upon receipt of the goods, to pay import duty and VAT at 19% (in Germany). For peace of mind it is advisable to check the small print of the vendor's documentation. According to customs and Excise, unscrupulous overseas suppliers may falsely describe or value items to evade import duty. If the Customs declaration form on the parcel is found to be misleading then the recipient may be liable to financial penalty or prosecution. Purchasers may even have to forfeit the goods.
Does this mean that I will be able to buy an upgrade to 7.5 or 8 upon release. My license was a cubase 6.5 upgrade from LE, with which I also received a free C7 grace period upgrade. It was bought from a US retailer and shipped to my home country (India).If your local distributor does not want to give support or assistance then you can always request support to the Steinberg Headquarters.
Thanks
