Buying a Macbook from the US

[shu82]

That would be wonderful if they sold macs at the duty free store. When I travel, I usually have an extra bag full of liquor and chocolate anyway

 

[00hkelly]

i got a friend to bring over my macbook pro C2D, 2.33, 15" ...
wheras it was £1699 in the UK i paid £1380 a significant saving.

Although i didn't bring the computer into the UK myself i still got it in the protective sleeve and the seal hadnt been broken (if you are bringing it in yourself you get to open it, lucky)

As to the UK power.
get the world travel adaptor kit for £20 which gives you the adaptor for the main brick so that works fine. the only way to get a UK extention is to buy a whole new power brick.etc -£60+, instead i just got a small adaptor from boots for £3 it looks a bit funny but i dont really use it out of the house.

if you have any further specific questions feel free to pm me.

 

[richard4339]

There is nothing illegal about exporting a US laptop to the UK. What is illegal is not paying taxes on it to the UK when you enter the country. The worst they will do is make you pay a couple hundred in VAT when you go through customs.

Just reading around the 'net now, I found several things of note about this.

First off, Apple couldn't sell G3s in a lot of countries because they were classified as supercomputers, and it is still illegal to export those from the US to many countries. It also was illegal to export anything with encryption software running or installed on it, which includes MacBooks, apparently.

www.export.gov used to have all this info, but does not anymore.

Of course, most of this could simply be old wives tales.

I will mention that when I bought an AMD processor last fall, I got a letter with it that said it was illegal to ship processors outside of America, and that it was enforced by the Department of Defense (of course, this was MonarchComputer, and I'm sure many of you know they've gone under).

I do agree that more than likely nothing would happen, but still, if they do enforce this and you're caught, you could end up in trouble.

 

[smashingly]

Just reading around the 'net now, I found several things of note about this.

First off, Apple couldn't sell G3s in a lot of countries because they were classified as supercomputers, and it is still illegal to export those from the US to many countries. It also was illegal to export anything with encryption software running or installed on it, which includes MacBooks, apparently.

I do agree that more than likely nothing would happen, but still, if they do enforce this and you're caught, you could end up in trouble.

Hmm thanks for this info mate, this reminds me of the story that ran about Sony Playstation 2s, "launch was delayed because the US Govt deemed them too powerful and they could be used for example to control missiles". Which most people thought was either US Govt paranoia, or for most kids they probably just immediately started fantasising about how *cool* it would be to control a *missile* with your PS2! Many people thought it was just b.s. to make the PS2 sound ultra powerful, but it could be true.

AFAIK, encryption software is classed as Munitions under some convention (Geneva?) so like with weapons, it's illegal to export it to any country on the baddies list, e.g. Middle Eastern countries. In the really basic sense, what sane country would want to make really effective weapons and then allow them to freely be sold to other countries that are enemies or potential enemies... makes sense to me. But it's funny how a piece of intellectual property like an encryption algorithm, or a bit of software, can be legally classed under that category.

Anyone had any issues walking out of the US with a laptop in their bag (whether or not it was new, or one they came in with?) ???

I'm happy about the DVD region protection issue, OK with buying an international power adapter (I'll be travelling around Europe for 6 months afterwards, so buying that makes sense), any US keyboard layout is cool cos I'm from New Zealand originally anyway, our keyboard layout is the same... anyone think of any other nasty fish-hook issues?

thanks again

Ash

 

[smashingly]

FYI, I've emailed the US Department of Commerce to find out what the story is with regards to 'exporting' a Macbook. I'll let you know what they say.

regards
Ash

 

[smashingly]

Response from the US Department of Commerce

Good news! I heard back from them. An informative and slightly belittling response

"From: name_removed@ita.doc.gov On Behalf Of TIC@ita.doc.gov
Sent: 22 March 2007 11:41
To: [address removed]
Subject: Re: Query about exporting a laptop to Uk

Buying a laptop and taking it back to the UK is not illegal. This is done hundreds of time on a regular basis. Regards"

So I guess that settles that then. I also mentioned buying an iPod and a digital SLR just in case that flagged any weird laws etc.

Hope that's useful to anyone else out there.

regards
Ash