I need a medium telephoto lens and have decided on a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS and am considering a purchase from B&H. I have in most part used B&H because of the considerable savings compared to the prices here in Adelaide (and I suspect much of Australia) - however this is the first time my purchase will be >AUD1000 and hence import tax applies.

From those of you with experience could you share your experience with regards to taxation? Right now I am hearing horror stories from mates esp something about Visa CC not accepted by B&H above a certain amount, hidden brokerage fees with UPS - or was it Fed-Ex etc. Any clarification in this matter wld be greatly appreciated! Thx!

I have had products shipped from B&H to Switzerland with a value greater than $1,500 USD. They required a copy of the credit card (both sides), would only ship to the registered billing address, and verbally verified the billing address with my credit card issuer.

Hey Oliver, thx for that piece of info! I already 'validated' my CC with them ages ago... so will recheck to see if they wld req me to do it again.

Fellow Aussies!! Any help? BTW does anyone have experience with local websites like Photobuff and D-D-photographics? Just wondering that it may be less of a hassle to buy it through these guys?

Josh

DDPhoto is a small shop in North Sydney - run out of his apartment with a small room as the stock warehouse. My office is 5 min walk away, so I went there to pick up the purchase. Looked cramped, but had a lot of stock of a lot of stuff.
No complaints. They are perfectly legit business.
But you do get a "grey market" product. So if you need warranty work done, you need to send it back to DDPhoto.
I believe if you buy US version from BH, you get international warranty honored by Canon Aust. Not sure about the last part - I've never had a warranty issue, so never looked at it too closely.

tziwei wrote:
Hey Oliver, thx for that piece of info! I already 'validated' my CC with them ages ago... so will recheck to see if they wld req me to do it again.

If you're using the exact same credit card number, once is all you should need. Some card issuers change one digit when they send a new card upon the expiration of the old one. If so, our computer won't consider them the same.

Henry , thx. PM sent.

Actually, I am interested in this discussion because I commute between two countries (US and France) and was planning to order some stuff soon. Problem, I may have the money on one side of the fence and be on the other. Would it be a problem to have the stuff shipped to me where I am then ?

I understand they want to avoid issues with identity theft, but would just like to be prepared if what I would like to do will not work (then I would most likely delay the purchase, since international wire transfers are NOT cheap)...

I recently tried to order a heap of stuff from B&H, but something went wrong. There was what they call a "technical problem" and I ended up ordering elsewhere (Adorama) because B&H wasn't open when I tried to call them.

B&H have a $1,500 US limit on Australian credit cards. Don't know why, and validating the credit card doesn't change things. That pretty much stops me buying larger lenses from them so I guess it's off to Adorama instead.

My Adorama order was delayed by a day or three until the credit card was validated. Once sent, the order came in to Perth and was then held while UPS called me to arrange payment of GST and customs clearance and perhaps their own fee as well. It amounted to about $220 on a $1300US order that should have incurred about $150-160 Australian in GST. Unfortunately the receipt was not itemised so I'm guessing the clearance fee was about $60.

The conversion rate was about 81.6 US cents for my dollar, so I guess that means about 1.5 cents in the dollar went as a credit card fee. Not as bad as I had expected. Not sure how these conversion rates are worked out but our dollar is reported on the news as being worth about 83 US cents and has been for the past week or more.

Both Adorama and B&H seemed to want to send the order only to the address matching the credit card. They are more flexible for US based orders.

Alan321 wrote:B&H have a $1,500 US limit on Australian credit cards. Don't know why, and validating the credit card doesn't change things.

B&H does everything possible to deter credit card fraud and identity theft because we believe we're ethically bound to do so and because the merchant banks which permit is to accept credit cards encourage it.

With non-USA cards used for card-absent (web, phone, email etc.) transactions we use several techniques, most of which I cannot discuss for security reasons which I hope are obvious. One thing we do is to query the bank which issued the card. For reasons I am unable to determine, banks in Australia have proved remarkably and disappointingly unwilling to cooperate with these efforts.

The $1500.00 limit only applies to MasterCard and Visa. Customers who use AmEx or Discover (or an alternate payment method like wire transfer) are not limited.

Xavier Rival wrote:
Actually, I am interested in this discussion because I commute between two countries (US and France) and was planning to order some stuff soon. Problem, I may have the money on one side of the fence and be on the other. Would it be a problem to have the stuff shipped to me where I am then?

Our policy for international transactions is we'll ship to your home (credit card bill-to) address or to your job IF it's in the same country as your home, or to any verifiable USA residence address.

henryp wrote
Xavier Rival wrote:
Actually, I am interested in this discussion because I commute between two countries (US and France) and was planning to order some stuff soon. Problem, I may have the money on one side of the fence and be on the other. Would it be a problem to have the stuff shipped to me where I am then?

Our policy for international transactions is we'll ship to your home (credit card bill-to) address or to your job IF it's in the same country as your home, or to any verifiable USA residence address.

Thanks for the precision, Henry. Now I know exactly what I can expect, so it was very helpful.
Though, I guess it means no long lens until at least july or august (not too big a deal).

henryp wrote:
For reasons I am unable to determine, banks in Australia have proved remarkably and disappointingly unwilling to cooperate with these efforts.

Probably our relatively new privacy laws. They get in the way a lot but it's supposed to be for our own good.

The $1500.00 limit only applies to MasterCard and Visa. Customers who use AmEx or Discover (or an alternate payment method like wire transfer) are not limited.

Looks like I'll have to get an AmEx card. I don't know what it is like in the US but many Australian retailers hit AmEx purchasers with an extra fee of 2 or 3 percent, making AmEx unattractive for routine use. Presumably the AmEx fees to vendors are noticeably higher than the other cards.

I haven't come across Discover but I noted a while ago that Western Union transfers are quite expensive beyond the cost of currency conversion. That made it very unattractive.

Thank you Henry.

I've bought from DD Photographics as well as Photobuff and had no problems dealing with them. Photobuff also has a COD option so you don't pay until you go and pick up the item at your local post office.

Alan321 wrote:
Looks like I'll have to get an AmEx card. I don't know what it is like in the US but many Australian retailers hit AmEx purchasers with an extra fee of 2 or 3 percent, making AmEx unattractive for routine use. Presumably the AmEx fees to vendors are noticeably higher than the other cards.

Glad I could help. We came to AmEx relatively late because of their fees, but our price to the customer is the same, no matter what payment method you employ.

Well here is a thought, if you have any good friends in the US. Have them purchase it and mail it to you as a gift.
Is what I do with a few friends in perth.

Alan321 wrote:B&H have a $1,500 US limit on Australian credit cards. Don't know why, and validating the credit card doesn't change things.

The limit is only for MasterCard & Visa and only for six countries -- Australia, England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, France, and Denmark -- because (for reasons we are unable to determine) banks in those countries seem reluctant or unwilling to cooperate with efforts to deter credit card fraud and identity theft.

You can pay with a Discover or AmEx card or wire transfer.

Both Adorama and B&H seemed to want to send the order only to the address matching the credit card. They are more flexible for US based orders.


For non-US customers we'll ship to your home, your job if it's in the same country as your home or to a verifiable USA residence address.

I have just recieved a 70-200 f/2.8 VR from DDPhoto in Sydney,placed the order over the phone and it arived the following morning in Brisbane,it was packed very well........the lens in it's own box was in another box surounded by foam,I have only had it a week and I am very happy with it and very happy with the service.
As per the Australian Customs website anything over $1000.00 AUD is subject to import duty and possibly GST.