Rip off britain

[ginsambo]

What a wonderfully expensive, wet, shitty, ripped off, subserviant nation we live in over here in the UK.

Take importing a guitar of $600.00 value, with $100 shipping and $20 insurance from the UK to the USA costs a mere $752.00. $30 of that is import tax, $2.00 is the customs handling fee.

Now reverse the tables:

Importing the same guitar from the USA to the UK costs $908.56, $155.66 MORE! The guitar stills costs $600, shipping is still $100 and insurance is still $20. However import tax is $149.15, Import Duty is $26.61 and guess what, the customs 'Handling charge' is $12.80. So basically a $600 guitar becomes £567.85. So expect to pay the same in sterling as you would dollars, and add profit margins and another dose of 20% Value Added Tax on top, if you want to buy over here. And they are hot on imports now, even if you go USPS-Parcelforce, labelled as 'Gift' which is illegal for the sender to put on the declaration, the chances are you will still be hit by HMRC.

And guess what, you pay Vat on the shipping as well!

And guns are banned so you can't do anything about it. FFS.

Feckin scammers our bloody UK government are! And even worse, is they have also done all they can to eliminate british industry and manufacturing or sell it off to the cheapest foreign investor with some backhanded deal who then promptly move production to Europe somewhere, so you can't even buy British anymore. Feckin expensive 'Vintage' Cheddar cheese, which is actuallyt the cheapest on the shelf, turns out its made in Germany and is about a week old. Feck this makes me angry. Even a local trade supplier chain was selling an electrical item for trade classed as 'IP68', turns out it was rated IP66, so wouldn't stand being underwater at all! False advertising, downright fecking dangerous, and who'd be liable - me! feck this country, its gone to the dogs.

[Newc]

See, this is why we ran you fuckers out

I suggest overthrowing your current government and installing a better one.

[Trussrod]

You folks had to have socialized health care. Guess we'll end up with all these extra taxes eventually. Where is the money going to come from for the 50 percent write down of Greek debt? It may take a while, but the fees you are complaining about will only get worse in the coming years...

[Jayster]

Unfortunately this is also where Amerika is headed and VAT has been bouncing around the halls of congress since the current administration took over. If there's one thing I've learned about politics is that horrible ideas continue to resurface until some fresh group of idiots think it's a new and improved idea.......

Only difference Ginsambo, is we're about 20 years or so behind y'all.

[ginsambo]

Yeah you guys are still polite, courteous, relatively switched on, with a fast turnaround and expect to work hard for your money, although I shouldn't generalise cause there are plenty of us left in the UK like that. Become a rare thing over here though. All Vat means is that home produce is killed, as fuel tax and tax on fertilizers and pesticides and other taxes are sky high and trade goes to the European super producers in Holland and Germany - people vote with their wallet. It is self defeating, I prefer the american model, where the higher price goes into local transport firms and regional producers.

I think all in all, its self levelling to an extent, once you live in the local economy and none of the benefits really are all they are cracked up to be. But tax, we are taxed to death and no one seems to know where it goes. Be plenty of pensioners freezing to death this winter too out of poverty, even though they have contributed to a pension all the 65 years of their able working life, and they don't tell you about the child poverty in the UK, or foreign beggars on the streets either or how its costs $15,000 for a Council team to remove a fly tipped mattress from the roadside.

No, sometimes I think it would be better living in Victorian USA, OZ or New Zealand. At least you people are still in denial.

Thing is an Australian can come over here for two years on a tourist Visa, we are only allowed one year over there. Its the same with everything, including European Directives that must be adopted into national legislation early, the UK government does ALL it can to disadvantage and disinfranchise the UK population and business with regulation and bureacracy, whilst doing ALL it can to encourage dirt cheap foreign privatisation buy outs of national infrastructure and major employers, and get encourage us to import all our goods, including all our gas. I thin the idea was to invest everything in a financial investment banking superstate. Look where that got us. Now we are fecked until about 3013. Meanwhile the lack of competition means that whilst wholesale prices fall, utility bills are going up 100% every 6 months. And they don't even invest it in the infrastructure, its all goes to dividends to shareholders, but mostly to bonuses for company Ceo's and executives. Its like the USA too, although unlike the US they do 'Pay' corporation tax, in reality, the big names and 99% of the companies on the FTSE are all in tax exile with foreign company accounts in tax havens and pay F all. The worst of it is now they want to get rid of employment protection laws, so you can get fired if someone takes a dislike to you for no reason after two years, even though the statistics state that only around 6000 people file industrial tribunials every year. We already have the worst employment rights in Europe FFS. And why are we paying towards Europe and the MEP's anyway?

Anyway, the way it is getting, you'll need a gun to protect your property soon. Damn pikies. Still at least we are all British with a British passport, not 'Irish' or 'Italian' or 'Swedish' or Danish...just because great, great Uncle Bertie came from Dublin. That is something, probably the only thing that especially annoys me about the USA. If you have an American passport and were born there, surely you are american, you sure as hell ain't Irish. (I have problems with my sisters husbands 'Irish' family....can't take a joke, take everything to heart and still think they are Irish, despite being third generation amercan...grrr. FFS my geneology is more Irish than theirs, but mention theiving Didycotts who steal you tools and rip off old ladies and don't pay any tax and they are all up i arms about how it is justice because of the potato famine and bloody sunday...WTF do they know about the Potato Famine and bloody sunday for christs sake. Maybe what they've seen on tv maybe. Feckin wouldn't even be potatoes in Ireland if it wasn't for the English anyway, the damn things come from Soiuth America FFS......Grrr well you know the type, maybe its not strictly a a nationality thing.

[Evol]

Here's a tip that works for me here, it's worth a shot... Instead of putting "gift" on the package, put "Replacement, not for resale".

[RacerX]

.....

[horns666]

Wow..we should be concerned about this. I can see the US adopting new ways to fuck you in the ass! That's the American way!!

I pledge allgiance like a fag to be sodomized in the United States of America!

I just wrote that...I like it!

.....

[Axegrinder87]

According to the Westboro Baptist Church, pledging allegiance DOES make you a fag. Good call Bill.

[Evol]

I pledge allgiance like a fag to be sodomized in the United States of America!

[horns666]

....

[horns666]

According to the Westboro Baptist Church, pledging allegiance DOES make you a fag. Good call Bill.

Ahhhh them. The island of misfit toys. Look at 'em..they are the perfect example why siblings should not fuck! But God bless 'em!!! They have the right to vote and shit. They are no different than the rest of us.

The Westboro Baptist Church are sooooooooooooooo fuggin' God blessed..it's ridiculous'!!!

Fuggums...

[Nightbat]

What a wonderfully expensive, wet, shitty, ripped off, subserviant nation we live in over here in the UK.

Take importing a guitar of $600.00 value, with $100 shipping and $20 insurance from the UK to the USA costs a mere $752.00. $30 of that is import tax, $2.00 is the customs handling fee.

Now reverse the tables:

Importing the same guitar from the USA to the UK costs $908.56, $155.66 MORE! The guitar stills costs $600, shipping is still $100 and insurance is still $20. However import tax is $149.15, Import Duty is $26.61 and guess what, the customs 'Handling charge' is $12.80. So basically a $600 guitar becomes £567.85. So expect to pay the same in sterling as you would dollars, and add profit margins and another dose of 20% Value Added Tax on top, if you want to buy over here. And they are hot on imports now, even if you go USPS-Parcelforce, labelled as 'Gift' which is illegal for the sender to put on the declaration, the chances are you will still be hit by HMRC.

And guess what, you pay Vat on the shipping as well!

And guns are banned so you can't do anything about it. FFS.

same here

20% VAT, which goes over the value/shipping/import duty

Feckin scammers our bloody UK government are! And even worse, is they have also done all they can to eliminate british industry and manufacturing or sell it off to the cheapest foreign investor with some backhanded deal who then promptly move production to Europe somewhere, so you can't even buy British anymore. Feckin expensive 'Vintage' Cheddar cheese, which is actuallyt the cheapest on the shelf, turns out its made in Germany and is about a week old. Feck this makes me angry. Even a local trade supplier chain was selling an electrical item for trade classed as 'IP68', turns out it was rated IP66, so wouldn't stand being underwater at all! False advertising, downright fecking dangerous, and who'd be liable - me! feck this country, its gone to the dogs.

heh, it's funny when I see Dutch cheese, fish and flowers cheaper in Germany than over here

[ginsambo]

same here
heh, it's funny when I see Dutch cheese, fish and flowers cheaper in Germany than over here

Maybe its only us then, I can't see the French, the Germans, the Italians or the Spanish buying into that, although that said tax is extortionately high in Germany too, but the foods all German. Think I'II immigrant to Greece. they are all feckless and laxy and retire at 40 with an easy life....hmm couldn't be anything to do with the IMF bailout fund going straight to the investers, who then withdraw all their capital then...Its like the Asian crisis all over again, first comes recession, then depression and the investment bankers can't loose as we keep them in pocket. Talking about Germans, they taught you all you now know about superior horticultural efficiency back in the WW2 days didn't they? I think that a lot of the European bureacracy and bullshite is actually manufactured by British MEP's, that is what they are good at. Making rules.

Anyway, how long does chilly sauce last for, I think I still have some from 1982.

[horns666]

I'm Italian..well Italian American...ahhhhhh who cares...fuggums.

Bitchin' never solved anything, except when your black. I would just write a letter to somebody and say .."fuggums"..that it. Oh, that what's goin on here? Ok, I'm in...fuggums!

..fuggums.