hey, iam no visa expert, but i doubt sites charge an extra fee when using a credit card. much easier for them than using other methods of payment. if you drag your bill for two long hten you have a rate to pay, but thats pretty low and isnt realy worht bothering with unless your card is full

Frank

I was more thinking about the credit card compagny itself. They have to earn their money too! Do they ask money for the use of their cc's, or do they just invest money etc like banks?

Grt

Dear Martin,

Yes, the bank charges for transaction. But charge to merchant. Just like you purchase on retail outlet.


Raymond

as i know of, some poeple have hungry credit cards and have a realy tiny income, so the cards get loaded and ten you have to pay more money in interest so the yend up paying loads of interest. and i guess if the person declares bankrupty they are covered by there insurance, just taking a guess on that one

i'd doubt them making you pay money fro the use of hte card

Frank

(lol, my dads going to call the bank about that verified by visa thing :-) i might be able to order from the internet if they say its pretty safe )

I just ordered by Luckymodel and the bank charged me € 0.11 for the transaction with my Mastercard.

This is the first time that I know the credit card issuing bank get charges ??? I will check with our banker to learn more on this. I have ordered from Japan, US using my credit card (VISA and Master) and I don't have any charges incurred. (But I guess the bank make profit from the exchange difference).


Raymond

Raymond,

I think it is a small exchange rate from HKD to EUR


Jaap

Jaap, do you know from what age you can have a CC in the Netherlands? I was hoping for 18...

And does it cost anything to get a Visa card here?

To all of you: thank you very much for all the replies...you guys are a great help!

Martin,

Take a look here (dutch link):

Postbank Card voor studenten

[Dutch] Dit is een Mastercard, maar ik denk dat de andere banken soortgelijke regelingen hebben met een VISA card [/Ducth]

You need to be 18 years to get it.

Jaap

First off to answer Bilko's question i have never payed gst on anyting that i have brought from overseas, and depending on what you buy and how much you buy is a factor in savings versus buying local, i usually try and keep orders under 1.2kg from hobbyeasy and this keeps the freight cost down, As for card companies charging fees for the transaction i use a visa debit card and when i buy in aus there is no charge to me but when i buy overseas they do add a charge for the transaction, eg i just compleated order which was 114.56 aus and was charged 118.00aus by visa, this is not the first time this has happened to me and have spoken to my bank who offer no explanation other than differance in exchange rates which i have checked and it dosn't work out so i have to assume visa are charging a fee to do the exchange. Cheers Bob.

Hi Jaap,

Thanks for the link! Sounds good, and it doesn't cost too much. I'll be 18 this februar (13th) so then I can get me such a card and try HobbyEasy or LuckyModels etc.

Grt

please any one deals with hobbyeasy , informs with somepost the others so we all know the details of the purchase and if theyre fast and efficient

Just to clarify one or two points here.

First of all, to clear up a piece of real stupidity. None of the companies mentioned are using posting/packing as an additional source of income. Someone in a previous thread suggested this. Take a recent experience of mine for example:

I bought a Sherman from Lucky Model a couple of weeks ago. The day after submitting the order, I got an e-mail from them to say it had been dispatched. Included in the e-mail was a scan of the certificate from the post office in Hong Kong with what the postage had cost. The kit duly arrived, in a stout cardboard box , the kit itself protected by bubble-wrap - very well protected indeed. Time from order to receipt? around FIVE working days...

Total cost - €28.00. Cost here in Spain (basic kit) around €45.00 - PLUS €10-15 in postage....

None of the companies in HK or Japan to my knowledge are using the postage packing as an additional source of income. If you have evidence for that, present it. Otherwise, please stop causing trouble.

Second point, with changes in currency there are always going to be some 'conversion' charges incurred. That is part of life i'm afraid...

Final point, do I owe any loyalty to a LHS? Nope, as I don't have any - simple! Why should I not give my business to one of the hobby stores here in Spain? Again, a simple answer. When the distributors stop ripping off both the customers and the stores in excessive charging I will. Until that happens.... Also when some of the large (and internationally known) sompanies here, change their policy and actually get something akin to efficiency and competence, then I'll buy gun-barrels from them.... Until that happy day arrives...Jim

Well adding up to what Jim already said , my usual convertation to LHS owners in Greece asking why they sell so expensive robbing us, when internet sales are cheaper, they say " u and many others buy from internet , we dont have much movement so we raise prices to get enough money " But when internet was not available they also used to sell very very high.
My answer is that i buy from internet since u re too expensive for my wallet , and thats the true, If i could find a Greek shop to get my stuff even paying 3-4 euros more per item , i d surely do this , but ...unfortunatelu it doesnt happen like that .
Any afv kit costs here 44-46 euros on the time i can get them from Hong Kong no more than 20-22 with the shipping cost included . So we talk on a huge difference that i cannot carry and most of us cant. Further more if i could pay that money why shouldnt i get 2 kits in the price of one here in Greece, even if i have to wait 5-10 days for arrival of pack .

Well our hobby if u do it like most of us do , in open fields of imrpovement is expensive less or more. And if u deal with figures even more expensive. An average metal 54 mm figure Lattore, Pegaso, Elite, Andrea costs in Greece 22-26 euros depending the series and release date . Thats more than the M88 Nam costs in Hong Kong e-shops. Then read and compare ....what else to say . Unfortunately sometimes u re forced to do some different than u d like to but ....

thats modelling life

@ Jim: I agree with what you say. If this thread raised the idea of online hobby shops making money with shipping costs, that was not what I meant.

@ Jim & Costas: I'm not sure what LHS means, but I think you mean local hobby shop or something like that? Anyway, I like my hobbyshop here, very nice owner etc. When I get there, I always get a cup of coffee and we have a chat.

But the shop also has same prices as every hobby shop here. And that is what's bothering me....this hobby is very expensive in my own country, and because of the prices, it's sometimes almost impossible to build what I want.

So, if I can get the same thing somewhere else for less money, I will get it there, also if that means I have to wait a week for it....

Anyway, I'll get myself a mastercard CC (and because I'm a student I can get the CC cheaper hehe) and I'll give it a try.....

Have made a list of models already :-)

Greetings

Dear Martin, Jim, Costas,

Well, hobby industries is following the I.T. industry - Globalization.

First of all, I would like to share my personal experience. I "was" an I.T. guy (selling computer system, networking stuff and writing program for customer to earn my living). In 1993, when we sold PC server to a company in HK/China, we can have 400-500% margin! (i486 server with 16M RAM). And the margin from related accessories (cabling, hard drive) can have 100%-200% margin and a respected wage for installation, training and support.

At that era, most computer is manufactured in Taiwan, Japan and for high-end machine in U.S. The usual customer does not know the price it should be. Or they don't know how to "configure" the purchasing list for their needs. So, we can have a good reward from making this.

This "golden" era came to 1994 when Compaq start a price war and starting to "globalization" on the manufacturing of a PC (casing, power supply, keyboard from China, Taiwan, CPU from Far East), the price drop 30-40% in one year. And also, all manufacturer started to list out the price on standard configuration machine (pre-configure such as 8M RAM, 500M hard disk). We changed ourself to configure "non-usual" configuration to make our money. But it seems I.T. industry leads the design of "Supply-Chain-Integration" when Michael Dell started his idea of "on-demand production" where it can cut the excessive stock, inaccurate sales forecast. By listing the customer order directly into the manufacturing plant in almost real-time fashion. Nowadays, when you order a PC from Dell.com, their manufacturing plant "start" to order the parts require for your order and make every items available on next day. So, you can have your PC shipped on the 3rd day. 5-7 days later, the PC is on your desk!

Besides, the starting of configurable PC make the order customization possible. Therefore, you can have your exact configuration.

This series of changes make "me" to have the margin on 300-400% to 0.003% margin! Now, if I doing the same business as before, I can only earn US$15 per PC including installation, shipping on site. While Dell.com can offer 3-years on-site warranty (no more room for my job!)


I think something similar (no exactly) happens on other industrial (scale, R/C model) is on the same track. The tranparent of information makes the consumer more information (more power) and competition is going on country to country level, not on the street to street level.

Thanks to nature of scale model, the scale model cannot be "made-on-order", so that the game falls to keep inventory in a "smart" way to maintain the competitivness.

Just my 0.2 cents

Best Regards
Raymond Chung
LuckyModel.com

This is a message to Raymond Chung:
I ordered several kits at luckymodel.com on 18th October 2004. I received a mail confirming ship date was 6th November. Then waited till 17th January, when sent an e-mail asking for some feedback. Got an answer saying my case would be handled properly. Asked again on 24th January, and no answer this time.
Sorry if any incovenience for posting about this, but I am really worried for my order.
May I have some feedback from you?
thx in advance
drkabuto
P.D. Order Number is CM0410-001976

Martin,
I've order from Tristar,Hobbyeasyand Ray's shop Lucky model . I've ordered from them on a Monday night around 11pm GMT and had the kit on my door Friday morning! check their feedback on their home page. I've never had to worry about CC fraud once or twice I've had to verify my acct from Natwest/visa but not an issue.
On another note dont go daft with your CC ionce you get it . You can quite easily get carried away with it set yourself a monthly limit that you can afford to repay

drkabuto - I suggest you mail them again. I have had no problems ordering with them. What there is, and this is NOT the fault of Luckymodel, is that if (as your profile indicates) you are in Madrid, I would seriously be questioning the Post Office - I get stuff by mail quicker from U.S.A. and HK than I do from Madrid, there is one serious problem with Correos in Madrid...

Yes, MY profile is correct, I live in Lugo, which (in theory) is more isolated than Madrid...Jim

Dear drkabuto,

Our CS has received your case and we have made enquiry to HK Post Office. Your order shipped via Surface Mail and it would probably rearch you 1-2.5 months. However, due to the period between has the X'Mas. To our past experience, we have some customers will delay shipment up to 3.5 months.

But we have a "norm" (not promises) that we will reship the entire orders (if the stuff is in stock) via air mail to customer if the orders does not arrive after 3 months. Or refund if the customer want to cancel the order.


Please email to our CS if you still not receive the order by 6th Feb 2005. We will take our course of action.


Best Regards
Raymond Chung
LuckyModel.com

Following up with my previous comments. Armorama does not exist as a platform for problems which could have been resolved with a simple e-mail....Jim

Raymond Chung: thank you very much for feedback. I didn´t want to "start start bad-mouthing ", I just wanted to get some feedback, wich now I have. Thx again
jimbrae:
first: you are complaining because I didn't read shipping page, and you didn`t even read my post wich is in THIS page.
Let`s have a look at my previous post: "Asked again on 24th January, and no answer this time."
and now yours: "could have been resolved with a simple e-mail"
second: I DID read shipping conditions at luckymodel.com, "Surface Mail by HK Post: 1 to 2.5 months", and I asked for some feedback after 2.5 months.
So mind your own business and let me mind mine.

Actually, I have just had the opposite experience with LuckyModel. Items listed as in stock did not ship for weeks (never did get them), so after a complete lack of responsiveness to inquiries, I finally cancelled the order.

I think experiences with most online shops can run hot or cold. The only one I have found to be consistent is Hobbylink Japan, but of course they do not carry everything.

Dear nickthegrub,

Sorry to learn your case. We will do it better next time. In fact, for those aftermarket resin or other PE stuff, the supply performance is not good as other plastics kit.

The major reason is that the local demand for such items falls to limited demand. So, the restocking of the items take 1-2 months. The most importantly, the supplier will never give us any "hints" if the items will be available until the items are shipped into our warehouse.

For many customers on aftermarket items, they do want it as the items may be out of stock locally. And we are being the secondary channel if any "un-sold" items left in Asia.

We do recongize the occurance of "in-stock" but not ship the order issue. This is because the item is really "in-stock", but the total demand is larger than the stock level and sometimes difficult to jude if particular order is going to be released. We are working on it to improve the information to the customer.

At last, I am surprise that you have the experience of "lack of responsiveness" that you encounted. Just to my mail server tracking records, (we are using MS exchange server, so we can trace every in-bound mail directly into our office), we have reply all your email including the order cancellation one (we refund and cancel the order within 5 mins after receving the order cancellation in this case). Therefore, I would like to know if you have any case that you send us an email without getting response ?

Best Regards
Raymond Chung
LuckyModel.com