Shipping a thinkpad to europe?

So here's the deal.

i bought a z61t two years ago when i went to college and it worked great. i am stydying in paris for a semester right now and two weeks into my time here my computer gets the blue screen of death every time i login (including safe mode) and all of ibm's r&r options can't be seen. i take it to a repair guy who seems legit and after paying him 100 euros he tells me my motherboard is fried and i need to buy a new comp. i asked him why; he said it was age and use. 2 years!!!

in any case he said all my data was safe and gave me my hard drive. i don't know what it could have been. i doubt it was the electricity because i used a transporter and the chord said it could handle anything up to something like 230v.

anyways, in spite of my frustration at my predicament, i really love thinkpads and i go on lenovo's website and buy myself a t400. obviously, lenovo can't ship it to france (that would be far too convenient) so i am having them ship it to my apartment in the states and i asked my roomates to ship it to france. however i was talking to some people and they said i will have to pay massive amounts of taxes on my computer. can ia void this somehow. i'm only gonna be here for the next three months. if they just ship it in a ups boxm how are they gonna know it's a computer? any ideas?

p.s. i am really mad at thinkpads now.

 

Why not just buy from a third party retailer that ships internationally? I bought from Euclid Computers (in sig), there's also ProVantage.

 

Do I have this right? You're mad at ThinkPads because you're trying to circumvent the tax laws of the country you're living in?

 

no. i am mad at them because i paid close to 2000 dollars for a computer that only lasted me two years. i bought a 3 year warranty with the t400.

it is not that i want to circumvent france's tax laws. it is that i am not a resident of france and will be leaving in three months. if i am forced to pay the customs fee...i hear it is something like 20%...will i be able to get a refund when i return to the us?

 

Now that you've put it THAT way.......

 

the problem is that i already ordered it off of lenovo's website and it is shippign int wo days...or so they say.

 

Cancel?

(10 char)

 

I do like to cut to the chase! ;-)

 

One way you can pay less is by declaring a false value. When my computer was shipped to me, the vendor declared it was only 500 dollars, so that I didn't have to pay much..

 

nonny is the REAL fanboy =]

 

OK then, if your Z61t boots to the logon screen normally it would seem to me there's a good chance it's a software error and not a hardware issue. Why not try a Linux Live CD to see if you can get it to boot? It's worth a shot and don't cost nothing. If you can find a Windows discs, you could try to re-install it.

 

(Peers at my sig line and reflects on the 15 or so years since I joined IBM's CompuServe forum and the TP Mailing List looking for help with an MWave modem)

Was there ever a question about that?? However, I'm not a boy. ;-)

 

Oh! sorry.

Nonny is the REAL fangirl

 

Much better! ;-)

 

If I was in your situation I would cancel your current order and pop over to the UK and buy one here. UK Keyboards are superior to US ones too.

 

OT: Can you get Lenovo UK to ship to Denmark (and if so, what about warranty?)

 

how did you do that. Do all the companies do that for you or not? and do you know if some third person in US receives the laptop and removes the package, will it be still taxed in Europe?

 

some vendors does it they ship it without an invoice

 

Sounds good but If there is a lower price invoice there will be less VAT but what will happen if there is no invoice. How will the customs service specify the VAT or simply there will be no VAT at all .