VKB UK stock?

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
Looking for a new HOTAS (or maybe HOSAS) to replace my TM4 - the VKB Gladiator seems to be the best option but I am struggling to find anywhere in the UK that sells them.
Does anyone know where I could get my hands on one? Or alternatively, any other recommendations for what to get?
 

InvisibleShadow

I
CMDR Shorty said:
They only offer shipping to US or Canada. There is an EU site which only ships to the EU (which no longer includes Britain :rolleyes:)
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The EU store still ships to the UK. However, things to note:

Once you create an account on the store with a UK address, the pricing will switch to excluding VAT, but the site will still say it includes EU VAT (they may fix this at some point, I imagine).

You will be required to pay UK VAT/customs duties to the courier company (UPS) when your shipment hits the UK before it will be released for delivery.

Some people who ordered in January, when shipping into the UK was in chaos, still haven't received their orders (UPS appear to have lost the packages); but my own order in March was delivered within a week (I was expecting and responded promptly to the demand for payment from UPS).
 

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
InvisibleShadow said:
The EU store still ships to the UK. However, things to note:

Once you create an account on the store with a UK address, the pricing will switch to excluding VAT, but the site will still say it includes EU VAT (they may fix this at some point, I imagine).

You will be required to pay UK VAT/customs duties to the courier company (UPS) when your shipment hits the UK before it will be released for delivery.

Some people who ordered in January, when shipping into the UK was in chaos, still haven't received their orders (UPS appear to have lost the packages); but my own order in March was delivered within a week (I was expecting and responded promptly to the demand for payment from UPS).
Click to expand...
Thanks you for taking the time to fill me in - much appreciated! I'll go and make an account and see what it says!
 

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
InvisibleShadow said:
The EU store still ships to the UK. However, things to note:

Once you create an account on the store with a UK address, the pricing will switch to excluding VAT, but the site will still say it includes EU VAT (they may fix this at some point, I imagine).

You will be required to pay UK VAT/customs duties to the courier company (UPS) when your shipment hits the UK before it will be released for delivery.

Some people who ordered in January, when shipping into the UK was in chaos, still haven't received their orders (UPS appear to have lost the packages); but my own order in March was delivered within a week (I was expecting and responded promptly to the demand for payment from UPS).
Click to expand...
Any idea how much the customs charge is? Thanks again!
 

Terekhov

Terekhov
I too am interested in knowing how the current shipping / additional charges to the UK thing works.
So from what I read above, the website might include EU vat in quoted price, but will not charge it.
I would need to pay duties and VAT to the shipping agent (UPS??) - Can you enumerate those?
Additionally the shipping agent (UPS?) will charge their own handling fee - Can you enumerate that?
 

InvisibleShadow

I
Terekhov said:
I too am interested in knowing how the current shipping / additional charges to the UK thing works.
So from what I read above, the website might include EU vat in quoted price, but will not charge it.
I would need to pay duties and VAT to the shipping agent (UPS??) - Can you enumerate those?
Additionally the shipping agent (UPS?) will charge their own handling fee - Can you enumerate that?
Click to expand...
CMDR Shorty said:
Any idea how much the customs charge is? Thanks again!
Click to expand...
If you go to the site "cold" (all coookies deleted), it will assume you are an EU customer. So, for example, the price for the Gladiator NXT Premium Right will be quoted as "€185,00 incl VAT for EU only".

If you then create an account and put in a UK delivery or billing address it will change the quoted prices to exclude VAT - the same stick will then have a price of "€152,89 incl VAT for EU only". Dutch VAT being 21%, that all adds up; but it seems they've got a website coding error that retains the "incl VAT..." text even when the price excludes VAT. Based on my experience this lower price is what you will be charged by VKB - their invoices don't mention VAT at all which makes it all the more confusing. You will be charged in Euro. The amount you end up paying in GBP will depend on whether you let PayPal do the currency conversion or your card provider and the rates they are charging at the time.

When UPS get the package into the UK, they will take the Euro total from the VKB invoice, convert it into GBP at some "official" rate (so probably different to the rate you paid from the transaction with VKB) and ask you to pay 20% of that plus an £11.50 admin charge. You need to create an account with UPS to make the payment.

Their next delivery of stock is probably stuck in the Suez Canal at the moment, but they have started offering an "air freight" option - that's the Gladiator NXT (CEA) category on the site. That's where small quantities are put on a plane from China based upon customer orders and are consequently more expensive. My order was from normal stock, so I don't know if that option changes anything. Probably not, as I think they just change the base price of the product to reflect the extra cost of air freight.

One final thing, to avoid surprises. Their process for the normal stock is to show items as "In Stock" before they actually have them - typically once the bulk shipment has been unloaded in Rotterdam or wherever. The upshot is that they might accept your order (and charge your card) and process the order to the extent of creating shipping labels (triggering emails to you from UPS) and then nothing will happen for a couple of days while the new stock makes its way to their warehouse and they unload it and start processing the order backlog.
 

Terekhov

Terekhov
InvisibleShadow said:
If you go to the site "cold" (all coookies deleted), it will assume you are an EU customer. So, for example, the price for the Gladiator NXT Premium Right will be quoted as "€185,00 incl VAT for EU only".

If you then create an account and put in a UK delivery or billing address it will change the quoted prices to exclude VAT - the same stick will then have a price of "€152,89 incl VAT for EU only". Dutch VAT being 21%, that all adds up; but it seems they've got a website coding error that retains the "incl VAT..." text even when the price excludes VAT. Based on my experience this lower price is what you will be charged by VKB - their invoices don't mention VAT at all which makes it all the more confusing. You will be charged in Euro. The amount you end up paying in GBP will depend on whether you let PayPal do the currency conversion or your card provider and the rates they are charging at the time.

When UPS get the package into the UK, they will take the Euro total from the VKB invoice, convert it into GBP at some "official" rate (so probably different to the rate you paid from the transaction with VKB) and ask you to pay 20% of that plus an £11.50 admin charge. You need to create an account with UPS to make the payment.

Their next delivery of stock is probably stuck in the Suez Canal at the moment, but they have started offering an "air freight" option - that's the Gladiator NXT (CEA) category on the site. That's where small quantities are put on a plane from China based upon customer orders and are consequently more expensive. My order was from normal stock, so I don't know if that option changes anything. Probably not, as I think they just change the base price of the product to reflect the extra cost of air freight.

One final thing, to avoid surprises. Their process for the normal stock is to show items as "In Stock" before they actually have them - typically once the bulk shipment has been unloaded in Rotterdam or wherever. The upshot is that they might accept your order (and charge your card) and process the order to the extent of creating shipping labels (triggering emails to you from UPS) and then nothing will happen for a couple of days while the new stock makes its way to their warehouse and they unload it and start processing the order backlog.
Click to expand...
Thank you - that is a very useful response - I actually feel that I know what to expect now..

Now I just need to find a way to get all of the drool out of my keyboard from when I was last on the VKB website, plus make a visit to my sofa to look for loose change that has fallen down the back :). The X-52pro I purchased a year ago has been a disaster reliability-wise. I'm feeling the pressure to move on.
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
After playing ED for years using the X-55, X-56 blue and the X-56 grey I'm loving the VKB gladiator NXT. It is so precise that the X-56 cannot compare. I don't need the fancy version. Given how vendors have tripled the cost for a HOTAS I'll buy another one as a backup!

UPDATE: Oh well I got excited and bought the fancy one for $415.00 with shipping. Per my last order I'll get it in about 5 days to the USA. That offers other opportunities to purchase other VKB joysticks. It is only money.

Anyone need a Warthog and throttle or a Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS?. I bought these to see how they work in ED so I could make intelligent posts on the Forum, No more than an hour for each in ED so we're talkin' brand new. Maybe I should put them on eBay selling them at the price before all the vendors went nuts. Yes. I'm an ED nerd.
 
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