stonewolf
USA
Asked
— Edited
Hello everyone :-}
I was just wondering who has received their developer kits, since they supposedly have already been sent out, I am just curious?
I still do not have a tracking number on mine as of yet :-{
Here in the states we pretty much ignore the lipo regulation because they allow businesses with mass shipping accounts waiver of those restrictions and then tell the individual its unsafe to return the same battery they just received from a hobby supplier. ::rolls eyes:: every cell phone shipped from my employer has a loose lipo for example and no padding at all to protect them in the event of a rough ride. Just a bubble mailer and a sticker on the outside declaring a lipo is inside.
no tracking number from ezrobot no even a comment when emailed this morning and asked where it is ......here is my copy of my waybill so they are about 200 km away so lets see ........payed for developement kit in november last year was told shipping was covered but no taxes and duties were mentioned ....not nice ......was given a gift of a 50 dollar credit so it could become a preorder and they could develop product which took almost 9 months ...was told if I want to use the 50 and order what i wanted that and order was going to be even longer wait ...so here I sit my order is 200 km away and dont know if I am going to have to pay the shipping from there but I already got a duty and taxes bill of
Payment logo Welcome to DHL My Payment
Pay your duties, taxes and fees securely to expedite your delivery.
Here are the duties, taxes and fees outstanding on your delivery.
Total Amount: $64.88
DHL Invoice #: 018933833-0
again not really happy .....
but got to pay cause that is why they came direct to us from china not from ezrobot in calgary they should have let people know when they order it last november from their website ...like I said nothing mentioned back then ......hope very thing is working good when it get here cause if it doesn't going to be some choked
guess only a 3 day wait now
a unhappy almost ezrobot user Andy brednow
Explanations have been provided as to why the customer is charged duty and tax too.
Also, the $50 store credit wasn't so it could become a pre-order. They were always pre-orders. The store credit was a gift to those who showed they had faith in EZ-Robot, nothing more, nothing less, it didn't change what the order was.
The order page also indicated that you were pre-ordering a product which was not yet complete. It did estimate 5-6 weeks for delivery, and at the time, that was what EZ-Robot believed the delivery would be. You have received numerous emails with updates on the challenges of meeting those estimates and could have cancelled your order at any time.
The credit email was sent on or about December 5th (that is when I got mine). It does not say that your order is being changed to a pre-order, it is a thank you for pre-ordering, and an explanation of some of the factors in them not being able to meet the original shipping estimates. I still have a copy of the email if you want to see it, but I can assure you that it was not telling you that the status of your order had changed.
Alan
The V4 has always been a pre-order since it was announced. All orders have had the notes attached to them and all dates on the website have always been estimated. At no point (even now) does it say any revolution product is in stock for immediate dispatch.
All delays have been announced and explained time after time. All delays were mentioned in email newsletters and in the forum. You were made aware of delays as best as can be done by EZ-Robot. Short of knocking on your door to tell you they made many attempts to let us all know what was going on.
It seems I am just repeating myself and EZ-Robots here. I cannot add anything further to this. I appreciate you may feel unsatisfied however you should have read the T&C properly. You are not the only one to have missed the taxes and duty information and Alan has stated that they will look at making this clearer in future.
Folks from the UK and other countries should have expected it, no doubt.
I guess USA customers are the only ones that are not having these charges added? I've not heard any USA folks mention it anyways.
With the V3 being shipped in a similar way but with no complaints about tax/duty that I am aware of I am sure EZ-Robots didn't realise this would be something that gets overlooked. Many Canadians have ordered and received the V3 EZ-B from China without complaint so I can see why this "problem" wouldn't have been noticed until now.
This tax and others are set and controlled by the Government the package is shipped to. The idea is by charging it's citizens a hefty "Extra" charge in the way a tax or fee they will buy local products instead of overseas products. They also feel it will force the companies to manufacture their products local. However this being mostly a free "Global" market we live in today local companies are either moving to countries where they don't have to pay high wages and high corporate taxes or having their products manufactured over there. Saves a huge amount of money and helps keep them in business. Sadly by the governments imposing these extra fees and taxes the consumer in the home country always ends up paying. It's a viscous circle and the house always wins (that's the government).
Some of the big companies like Apple or Microsoft pay these extra charges themselves and stock large amounts of products locally. However, nothing is free. These companies absorb the cost and charge more for the product to make up the loss. Again, the consumer pays in the end but it's never seen. EZ Robot does not have a billion dollar surplus to draw from and they cant stock all these new parts locally as demand is high. Maybe someday they will rival Microsoft or will sell out to them and they can do this same thing. However the price will go up and you will still be paying in the end.
Companies are not in business to serve us and help us save money. They serve us and help us save money (when possible) to make money so they can stay in business. Hopefully with the above formula and a great and wanted product, they will someday start making money for themselves and their employees.
I also need to say that DJ and EZ Robot has also added another factor; They have a heart. They seem truly interested and concerned in how our kids and we adults grow and learn the world of robotics. Pretty amazing mission and business strategy.
Hope this helps people understand this dry and mysterious world of profit, tax and control. However sadly most people stopped reading it 1/4 way through and will still gripe and blame what ever business is trying to supply wanted products to us. *tired*
Yes I also had taxes of 19.47 euro but what really suprised me was DHL added another
10.00 euro I presume just for processing & collecting the tax.
Pat
It's just a joke combining the items to say, "I'm not the brightest bulb, smartest cookie, or sharpest knife in the drawer." In other words I'm extra dumb.
A poor attempt at levity apparently.
Sales taxes are state based, and for most states (there are some changes occuring, mostly due to Amazon killing local businesses) you do not pay sales tax at the time of purchase for items ordered online or purchased out of your state if the vendor doesn't have a business presence in your state. You are still responsible for paying the taxes, but also get a rebate for taxes spent in other states. When preparing your yearly state income taxes, you can carefully itemize all purchases and pay accordingly, or you can use some income based rules to have this estimated. Most of us just use the estimated rules except for big ticket items (cars, boats, etc...) and many don't even realize they are paying this as part of their state taxes.
Import duty is only charged on items that compete substantially with USA products. Since you can't buy an equivalent to the EZ-B from a manufacturer making it in the USA, no import duty is collected. We do pay import duty on foreign cars, although it is typically embedded in the price of the car and paid by the dealer. I had to pay duty on clothing that I bought in Japan and brought home with me. I almost had to pay duty on some clothing that I already owned because I went on a combination business trip vacation and shipped my suits home half way through the trip. I wasn't clear on the customs form that I brought those clothes into Japan with me, so they got held at the customs warehouse at Dulles International Airport and I had to go in and file a revised form or pay $180 in import duty to have the box delivered (I chose to file a revised form and have the property inspected).
Alan
I am very impressed by the quality of the parts I ordered and by the packaging of the development kit, my work area has the smell of a brand new V4.
Now I guess it's time to start working on things and I will for sure be asking questions.