How to order from dell US for non US citizens

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How much are your Import taxt and duties?

 

Great thread, I know it should help out a lot of customers here since this is an international community and I see a lot of questions on it.

+1 Rep

 

thanks a lot for this information

 

This is exactly what i did to get mine too
When i was talking to the dell guy, i told him if you want to contact me, use my email which he did, that also works i guess.

 

Very nice you've given me a way to save 400 dollars!

Thank you sir, +rep.

 

Import tax is just 1% but there is also the equivalent of VAT which is 16%. So a total of 17%. But in my case I own a small consulting business so the taxes are business expense.

actually who called me is their financial department rep, trying to verify my details. She asked me the name of my bank, phone number of my bank and many more details.
I doubt she would authorize the transaction through email.
She also asked me to provide a corporate email address, gmail was not enough.

 

If they overprice the M11x as much as they did the M17x for international Dell (over US dell) I might just use this. I already have a US postbox that can post it to me.

The problems would be the phone and international credit card though.

I'd be interested to see if email confirmation was possible with this.

And even with high shipping costs you can make a saving. I live out in the Middle East and buying my M17 through Alienware UK (before the complete merge with Dell) cost me 193 euros shipping to where I live, but I still saved money over what it would have cost me in the UK because there was 15% tax there at the time and there's no tax here

 

There's also a wire transfer option available afaik.
And the phone number can be forwarded to your phone as i explained. Or do you have a problem i am not aware of ?

Hope I can help as many people as possible get their hands on their desired machines.

 

Nice thread, Have some Rep

 

thanks for the rep guys!!!

 

We are lucky in canada the conversion rate make for the price going up and even better the m15x is the same price in canada then in the us but in canada it's in can$

nice for othe people or if i ever decide to get a m17x with i7 befor it's availible in canada

 

Just to be clear, most warranties can be transfered internationally using the international transfer form on the site, what an actual "international" warranty does is allow you to get support when you are away from the country the warranty is registered with (but only if you are staying there less than 60 days). However, if parts need to be replaced, they may insist you transfer the warranty to the country you are visiting, depending on the reps mood.

I should note that I have some laptops registered with warranties in multiple countries. In other words, an international transfer doesn't always remove the warranty from the original country.

 

MyUS.com is quiet expensive. As far as I am concerned, I use Shipito, it is really cheaper. You pay only 8,5$ for each package. But as I couldn't buy with French credit card, I must use assisted purchase service, that means that their employee buy the item you want, but you must pay service fee(about 12% with shipito). But shipito was really too slow to answer all your request.

So I used AllAmericanBasic, which buy every item in the US for you. You pay 10% service fee too. They answer your questions and requests very fast and do nice job. One of their guy helped me to cancel my order and made a new one. I chose USPS Express Mail international which cost me 140$ to France.

I only paid 58 euros as custom duty, because I declared 201$ as computer reparing fee.

 

So does this mean that international warranty does not worth much ?
I find it quite comfortable (i travel a lot) to have the piece of mind that my system is under warranty everywhere i go.

I also tried shipito but stopped using them exactly because of their ridiculous response times. i don't want to send a 3000$ laptop their way knowing their response times can be 48 hours.
As for myus.com, i went with them because they were actually the cheapest for Israel. I think that for smaller packages they are expensive but for 10kg (or more) that M17x weights this was one of the cheaper options.
But hey, it's just me.. i will add your recommendation to the first post.
As for personal shopper option, it is convenient but for the 8-10% they charge it gets pretty expensive for a M17x....

Hey, can you point me out to AllAmericanBasic website? can't seem to find it...

 

I made a mistake. It is AllAmericanBasics. I forgot the "s"

Here is their siteweb. http://allamericanbasics.com/

Their service is economical only if you make big purchase over 500$. Because their service fee is 10% of the total price with a minimum of 50$...If you want to buy a DVD, it will be useless to use their service. Because you will pay at least 50$ as service fee. Also, they won't let you buy item yourself because they will do it for you. That's why they always charge 10%.

 

No, international warranty is still great for people who travel a lot, people who stay in one place would find it more convenient to transfer their warranty to the country they live in though.

CompleteCare doesn't directly mean international warranty though, its main feature is that it will allow you free repairs/replacements for accidental damage, like dropping or liquid spills. I was told by a tech that completecare allowed the screen to replaced on a laptop that had been stepped on by the owners daughter. So completecarer is very handy for laptops, and you will find many people on this forum recommend getting it.

It is annoying that some of the dell websites have so many options for the warranty you buy, forcing you to get unnecessary package deals. I just want NBD repair and Complete Care, that's all!

 

i agree with the fact that complete care is great but i just wanted to point out to international users that if they want international warranty (without having to transfer country) they should go for 3 years complete care.
I find Israeli Dell support terrible, so i wouldn't want my warranty transferred to Israel. But maybe for other countries that makes more sense.

 

mine moved to "In Production" status
Can't wait for it to get here !!

 

17% import tax... what a dream
Here in Brazil, we get 60% of declared price + shipping as import taxes

 

shipping as export tax is a problem here as well.. I think it's international.
I have actually lived in Brazil for 3 years in curitiba and in sao paulo so i remember how difficult it is to buy high end electronics.
Brazil ROX BTW!

Although, i actually have a friend in sao paulo that shipped his alienware with fedex and payed import taxes.

I'll ask him what he did but i think that he shipped it to US friend, and asked him to declare a much lower value for customs. That makes it impossible to insure your package for it's total cost, but knowing how reliable fedex is, it's a safe bet imho.

 

What did you give them as for "social security no." ? As far as I remember when I tried to order from Dell US they asked me for that SS no. which only U.S. citizens have..

 

I'm living in the U.S and they didn't ask me about my SSN. They did verify my name, address etc...

17% Tax is truly a dream. Remember when I was in VN the import tax is ridiculous lol They charged me $100 for a $199 PSP

+ Rep for OP when I can because I gave out too much rep in 24 hours lol

 

from another person here on NBR I got this reseller which does basically the same; you configure, they order and ship it to you.
http://www.hidevolution.com/

I havent used them but they look interesting and without the hassles of ordering directly.

 

In the Philippines, the tax for electronics used to be 10% (right now im not sure). But custom officers can variably appraise the value.

This is where corruption comes in; grease money to make them declare lower; or no grease money and they will declare it much higher.

In my case, it was alot cheaper to travel to HK to buy the machine than have it shipped here. Unfortunately, HK do not offer customization - i cant choose SSD or better CPU, GPU...

 

Haha its the same in my country. If you want invoice and other paper? You pay full tax and stuff. If you say "no I dont need those paper" you will be charged only 50% of the original fee but all of that money flows into those corrupted officers' pocket and the item will magically non-exist (government got nothing from that deal so its a win/win/lose deal

 

I never had to give any SSN.. i guess if they ask you politely explain that you are not US citizen but you have a shipping address inside US that you would like to ship to.
I don't see any problem with that.

This is ridiculous!! 100$ for 200$ product..
Thanks for the Rep

Thanks for the tip. i am adding it to the first post.
Although, there's a slight disadvantage with that option.
When buying directly from Dell there are certain perks available which become unavailable once you purchase through a third party. (a full refund for instance).

Reminds me of Brazil, where are you from ?

 

No Dell anywhere has asked for SSN style proof of belonging to the country your buying in, because they have don't have any reason to want to.

As far as customs goes, some international shippers will mark an item as a "gift" if you ask them to. This can sometimes reduce the import fee to nothing depending on the country you're in. I can't attest to it's effectiveness because I've never internationally bought something above Australia's threshold for getting import taxes($1,000).

 

What is Dell anywhere? And I thing that the gift option is well worth checking. I will ask my shipping company to do that. Thanks !

 

Would a 17", 6,5kg, $3000+ laptop be considered a gift at customs? Don't they scan these packages so they know what's in it?
I have heard this with DVD's and games but such a big package is a different ballgame. But then again, if you don't fire you'll certainly miss!

 

If you put the Laptop under 1000 Dollars on sending off if it breaks during its shipment you'll only get 1000 Dollars back as they Insure it for what you declare its worth. Usally for every 2000 Dollars Australian customs charge 375 Dollars. So with a 3000 + Laptop it would be around 450 - 500 Dollars tax.

 

that's about the same in Israel.. 17% off 3000 that's a little more than 500$.

 

If somebody who wants to take risk(as I did), just declare 201$ as laptop repair fee, and precise that the laptop is returning to your country. With fedex or ups it is really rare that your package is lost. I did it and I payed only 58€ for a 4500$ M17x.

But if, I said if, your package is lost or the plane crashed. You will receive only 201$ as insurance refund. Painful, isn't it?

 

in my case, i don't want to take this risk as i am going to report the taxes as my business expense (it is then deducted from my business taxes) so i really don't pay anything for it.

 

Note, this does NOT work in all countries. Some countries will ask you for proof that the laptop was shipped outside of the country first. This is the case in Switzerland

 

I think that if customs open the package they will see it is new and nor repair.

 

You guys can ask the reseller to reduce the list price and mark the item as gift at the same time. It will help reducing tax by a lot. For example: You bought a $3,500 M17x but the reseller will write down only $2,000 in the invoice and mark it as a gift.

 

i have done that with small things i ship to the UK and never had issues

 

It still comes down to the fact that if he shipped it it would only be insured for 2,000 not what its worth meaning if it broke during the postal you'd lose 1,500 Dollars.

 

I'd like to know which USA States have the lowest Sales Tax rates?

this way, we can choose the cheapest ones to where they can forward it.

 

this is an awesome idea..
I know some states have no tax at all, but can anybody from US help us out with it ??
Then we will just need to find a freight forwarding service company in that state and save us some $$$...

I am willing to help with the initiative, can someone tell us the list of the states with the lowest taxes ?

 

Ok, i understand that delaware does not have sales tax. But i can't seem to find any good freight forwarding service there..

 

http://www.hidevolution.com/ sells without tax afaik...

 

Ok, from what i see on their FAQ they do not charge sales tax for international purchases. But dell would still charge sales tax from them when they order you laptop so i don't see the point. Also, as i stated earlier, i think it is generally better to deal with Dell directly and not through a third party.

Edit : Ok, it does look like they can buy tax free.. I just emailed them with the exact config that i ordered. I want to see the quote i will get from them and compare it to the price i payed Dell.

 

So, the quote i got from hidevolution.com for the rig in my signature is USD $3283 which is give or take 20 bucks what i payed directly to Dell.
Plus the shipping which is 100$ more expensive than what myus.com offered.
I personally prefer to shop directly from Dell because if one day i have problems i can have a refund which is not an option if you buy through a third party.
The advantage of ordering from a third party is that it saves you all the hassle i detailed in the first post.

2 options, do your math

 

US State Sales Tax Rates - 2009
State State sales tax rate (July 1st, 2009)%
Alabama------------ 4.0
Alaska -------------- nil
Arizona -------------5.6
Arkansas ------------6.0
California ------------8.25
Colorado ------------2.9
Connecticut ---------6.0
Delaware ------------2.07
Florida --------------6.0
Georgia -------------4.0
Hawaii --------------4.0
Idaho ---------------6.0
Illinois ---------------6.25
Indiana --------------7.0
Iowa ----------------6.0
Kansas --------------5.3
Kentucky ------------6.0
Louisiana ------------4.0
Maine ---------------5.0
Maryland ------------6.0
Massachusetts-------6.25
Michigan ------------6.0
Minnesota -----------6.875
Mississippi -----------7.0
Missouri -------------4.225
Montana ------------- nil
Nebraska ------------5.5
Nevada --------------6.85
New Hampshire ------- nil
New Jersey -----------7.0
New Mexico -----------5.375
New York -------------4.0
North Carolina ---------4.5
North Dakota ----------5.0
Ohio ------------------5.5
Oklahoma -------------4.5
Oregon ---------------- nil
Pennsylvania ----------6.0
Rhode Island ----------7.0
South Carolina --------6.0
South Dakota ---------4.0
Tennessee ------------7.0
Texas ----------------6.25
Utah -----------------5.95
Vermont -------------6.0
Virginia ---------------5.0
West Virginia ----------6.0
Wisconsin -------------5.0
Washington -----------6.5
Washington DC --------5.75
Wyoming --------------4.0

 

Thanks DR650SE!
That's awesome, i will try and find freight forwarding companies in the non taxed areas

 

No prob, I'm at work so I got nothing but time.

 

Found one http://www.opas.com/ although i am not sure how reliable it is....

 

This was what they did to m11x in Hong Kong... US$1800+!! omg