talkmagic.co.uk

I'm a bit cheesed off right now...

I don't normally pre-order things, but when Osterlind released Intimate Impossibilities, I couldn't wait, and pre-ordered...

And I just picked it up at the post office now. I'm sure that it's going to be a great DVD, and the product or the service from Richard Osterlind and Jim Sisti isn't the problem.

The problem is that the post office have just charged me £13:13 to collect it!

Apparently anything that comes in to the UK valued at over £15 is subject to VAT, which comes for £5:13. I'm not best pleased at that, but that's how it goes... But on top of that, there's an £8 handling fee. A sort of charge for charging me money! The man at the post office explained it as paying for them to shift it around at the airport, work out how much the VAT would be, bring it to the post office, and for filling in the form to tell me how much I owed them! (He also explained that not every plane load of goods gets checked, so if I'd ordered before and not got charged, then I was just lucky, as I should have been!)

As the DVD was only $39, this extra is quite a lump on top.

It's certainly made me not want to order anything from the States again. Next time I'll just wait for it to be released in the UK...

OK, rant over... And hopefully this might avoid someone else getting charged a similar fee.

Yup, that's normal I'm afraid. It's a bit hit or miss if they'll actually charge you for VAT or handling, quite often for lower value or smaller items they don't tend to bother but they are entitled to. I've imported various things from the Middle East and North Africa and sometimes I've been charged and sometimes not, there doesn't really seem to be any pattern to when they do and when they don't.

Same thing happens here if you order from outside the USA. Not everything gets checked, Companies like UPS have their own clearing houses to ship across customs so you usually don't get hit with those charges but you can't count on it. Once it is in the hands of the customs then it is out of the hands of everyone else.

I had a feeling it was the norm, but at least now I'm aware of this... And hopefully a few others are to!

Still feels like a bit of a con by the tax people though!

Sadly all imports from outside the EU are subject to import tax, VAT and a rip off handling fee. For that reason I always check UK dealers and ask if they will be distributing a particular item before buying direct - unless its below the £15 including postage level.

I'm reasonably sure that if a US supplier insures the goods in transit, that also counts as part of the taxable value!

It's also worth knowing that different items can have different import and VAT rates applied to them, for example books are exempt from VAT where as DVDs aren't.

Now that I've had the weekend to watch the DVD in question....

Its rather good! Rather than a full review, here's my initial thoughts...

Its all close up mental magic, that will use 1 to 4 spectators.

There's a lot of card tricks on here, and its heavily slanted to using the Dynamo Deck, which there are full instructions on how too make. There's a decent version of out of this world, some basic billet work, a very easy to do spoon bend, and an excellent section at the end on contact mind reading (or muscle reading!) over the two discs.

And of course, being Richard Osterlind (assisted by Jim Sisti) its well shot, clearly taught, and impeccably well performed!