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iPhone 3Gs - Italy and Belgium - unlocked?

Kelmon said:
Well, I guess we'd better hope that no one uses any foul language then. If this is a reference to my earlier post then I think you'll find it hard to characterise that as "foul language". Abusive, possibly, if it is taken out of context, but certainly not foul.
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I understand your frustration. If i was in your shoe, i would have been even more angry. The issue is not about whether what have been said is abusive or foul. It is about trying to moderate to prevent the issue escalating which may end in some problems.

Remember we all here for the same cause (or at least most of us) :)
 
daleski75 said:
Ordered as a precaution a 32gb 3GS from the Apple store in HK to my friends address in HK

Found this website which calculates the duty http://www.dutycalculator.com/ and it comes to with shipping about £620 with insurance.

Just a shame it wont be delivered into HK until 21-23rd of July then the additional time of 2 days to send it to the UK.

If handtec keep making excuses then I will cancel my order with them and just wait longer!
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So it is a bit cheaper than handtec. Seems like very good deal to me (especially as you said you visit HK very often). According to the guy above from HK it looks like there is high demand, so this is maybe the cause for the delay in shipping. Good luck ;)
 
u49aa2 said:
So it is a bit cheaper than handtec. Seems like very good deal to me (especially as you said you visit HK very often). According to the guy above from HK it looks like there is high demand, so this is maybe the cause for the delay in shipping. Good luck ;)
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Looks like it ;)
if handtec come through with the order I will cancel the one from HK this is like my safety net!

Just more and more waiting... ordering iphones is a time consuming business lol
 
I think for me, i will wait for handtec. If this order fail, i have two other options. first to ask my cousin (the relative i mentioned before that he is going to France and Italy on the beginning of August). My other option is to use my friend from Australia but then i need to calculate all the additional cost of shipment. Dale, the link you provided, is it reliable for duty calculation?
 
daleski75 said:
Looks like it ;)
if handtec come through with the order I will cancel the one from HK this is like my safety net!

Just more and more waiting... ordering iphones is a time consuming business lol
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Quack to that. monday 6pm will be our 2 week waiting point. from then we will attack handtec with e-mails and phone calls. this approach is called the 'dream' approach.

next week could be a long week.
 
u49aa2 said:
I think for me, i will wait for handtec. If this order fail, i have two other options. first to ask my cousin (the relative i mentioned before that he is going to France and Italy on the beginning of August). My other option is to use my friend from Australia but then i need to calculate all the additional cost of shipment. Dale, the link you provided, is it reliable for duty calculation?
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It looks to be it had the vat down to 15% and you put in the cost of goods (currency of where you are buying from) cost of the shipping and insurance and it works out if you pay duty etc.

According to the site its £80 vat inc duty for the 32gb and £69.99 for the 16gb so not much of a saving really.

Even if it is not 100% accurate it does give you a good guide for the total cost and I also used DHL shipping calculator for the cost which is also factored into the customs duty as well.

If this fails my last backup plan is to get my Italian colleague at work to get me one when he goes back to Italy which will cost me about £620 with no shipping.

Choices choices!
 
Phycoduck said:
Quack to that. monday 6pm will be our 2 week waiting point. from then we will attack handtec with e-mails and phone calls. this approach is called the 'dream' approach.

next week could be a long week.
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Just to play the devil advocate; i am guessing there next excuse can potentially be: They meant two business weeks, which means the 2 weeks finish on Friday :rolleyes: (I am not going to assume that, and i will be calling and emailing as you guys)
 
daleski75 said:
It looks to be it had the vat down to 15% and you put in the cost of goods (currency of where you are buying from) cost of the shipping and insurance and it works out if you pay duty etc.

According to the site its £80 vat inc duty for the 32gb and £69.99 for the 16gb so not much of a saving really.

Even if it is not 100% accurate it does give you a good guide for the total cost and I also used DHL shipping calculator for the cost which is also factored into the customs duty as well.

If this fails my last backup plan is to get my Italian colleague at work to get me one when he goes back to Italy which will cost me about £620 with no shipping.

Choices choices!
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their so many problems with the iphone, there is a large percent it's going to go wrong is some way. i need to know i can send it back. HK is too far away.
 
Kelmon said:
I think part of the problem here is that Apple have made a right mess of the situation in Belgium. You cannot buy directly from them and their web site only tells customers that you can only buy from Mobistar; there isn't anything that says that you can also buy from Resellers. I tried putting in an order with Mobistar and was told that there was no stock available (story of the past few weeks now). It was only after I found this thread that I discovered that the Resellers were also selling them, by which time they'd all sold out.

I wouldn't mind what you were doing if stock was plentiful in Belgium. Heck, I did the same thing a few years back with Nintendo Wiis when you couldn't buy them in the UK but there was tons of stock on the continent. As it stands, however, the things here are like gold dust and no doubt you're selling them for a healthy profit so I am sure you can understand why I have got the hump.
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I understand. Though the profit margin really isn't that healthy, with VAT being 22% in Belgium etc. etc.

I hope you find one soon, Mobistar report by mid-week stock should be available and depending where you are some shops will actually let you pay a deposit and hold one for you.

P.S. I did the Wii thing too. Was a great idea.
 
newbuyer said:
I am waiting for my iphone 3gs from handtec like everybody else. I found this site, anybody knows anything about it is it real , legit.. , safe etc.
http://www.puremobile.co.uk/Apple/Apple-iPhone-3GS-32GB-Black-GSM-Phone/

they sell the phone for £529 and £476 :eek:
could that be factory unlocked ?
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My advise: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT:

1) The price is too good to be true.

2) If you follow the CNET sign, they are still not rated.

3) Yahoo link doesn't work.

4) Price grabber link has mixed reviews about their "Canadian" website, however check this link about them: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/PureMobile

5) ebay feedback looks OK, however it is difficult to know if they are the same people (beside having the same name).

I wouldn't trust them myself.
 
u49aa2 said:
My advise: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT:

1) The price is too good to be true.

2) If you follow the CNET sign, they are still not rated.

3) Yahoo link doesn't work.

4) Price grabber link has mixed reviews about their "Canadian" website, however check this link about them: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/PureMobile

5) ebay feedback looks OK, however it is difficult to know if they are the same people (beside having the same name).

I wouldn't trust them myself.
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they also differentiate between sim-free and unlocked in vague way in ( what you should know )

" What is Sim Free? A sim free phone is a phone that is not locked to the sim card of a specific carrier.

What is Unlocked? An unlocked phone is a phone that can work with any sim card and/or GSM service provider. Please note that at least one of the GSM Bands in the phone should match the GSM service prodiver's bands."

could that mean the phone are originally locked and they unlocked them ( software or hardware )
 
My 3GS has finally shipped after waiting a week.

After looking at various ways to source it, I purchased from the Italian Apple store, with delivery to a customer in Italy. He is going to forward on to me when it arrives with him. Total cost 699 euros plus 20 euros for him to UPS to me.

I feel much happier having not lined the pockets of eBayers looking to clear £150 profit for doing just the same!
 
newbuyer said:
they also differentiate between sim-free and unlocked in vague way in ( what you should know )

" What is Sim Free? A sim free phone is a phone that is not locked to the sim card of a specific carrier.

What is Unlocked? An unlocked phone is a phone that can work with any sim card and/or GSM service provider. Please note that at least one of the GSM Bands in the phone should match the GSM service prodiver's bands."

could that mean the phone are originally locked and they unlocked them ( software or hardware )
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Looking at the rest of the definitions, i think they mean that some phone companies provide phones that don't use sim card and thus don't use GSM service. This means that the phones this company provides don't support this type of service. I never heard about this before, but then my understanding could be wrong. I agree with you it is very confusing way.

If what i said is right then from our point of view the iphones they offer are factory unlocked and should work with any sim card. Although, as i said before, i wouldn't trust them.
 
iPetey said:
My 3GS has finally shipped after waiting a week.

After looking at various ways to source it, I purchased from the Italian Apple store, with delivery to a customer in Italy. He is going to forward on to me when it arrives with him. Total cost 699 euros plus 20 euros for him to UPS to me.

I feel much happier having not lined the pockets of eBayers looking to clear £150 profit for doing just the same!
Click to expand...

Nice to hear a good experience here. Hope you get your iphone soon :)
 
iPetey said:
My 3GS has finally shipped after waiting a week.

After looking at various ways to source it, I purchased from the Italian Apple store, with delivery to a customer in Italy. He is going to forward on to me when it arrives with him. Total cost 699 euros plus 20 euros for him to UPS to me.

I feel much happier having not lined the pockets of eBayers looking to clear £150 profit for doing just the same!
Click to expand...

Is that next day delivery by midday?
I'm guessing he has a UPS account (with discounts set up)? Can you ask what his set discount % is?

The reason I ask, is because that's a very good rate! I've always been told that DHL are the same price in Italy, but they're roughly 29 Eur for one iPhone by next-day (midday) delivery.

If you don't want to pay insurance on the delivery (mobile phone insurance with UPS is about 6%), then tell your friend to not (under any circumstance) declare the value of the goods on the shipping form or they'll automatically charge him for insurance (sneaky hey?).

The declared value field is entirely optional so tell him not to feel like its a mandatory field (that's what I assumed until I was told otherwise). I've imported up to 500 iPhone 3G's from Italy at a time with no declared value (I use 3rd party goods-in-transit insurance which is significantly cheaper).
 
PhoneDevil said:
Is that next day delivery by midday?
I'm guessing he has a UPS account (with discounts set up)? Can you ask what his set discount % is?

The reason I ask, is because that's a very good rate! I've always been told that DHL are the same price in Italy, but they're roughly 29 Eur for one iPhone by next-day (midday) delivery.

If you don't want to pay insurance on the delivery (mobile phone insurance with UPS is about 6%), then tell your friend to not (under any circumstance) declare the value of the goods on the shipping form or they'll automatically charge him for insurance (sneaky hey?).

The declared value field is entirely optional so tell him not to feel like its a mandatory field (that's what I assumed until I was told otherwise). I've imported up to 500 iPhone 3G's from Italy at a time with no declared value (I use 3rd party goods-in-transit insurance which is significantly cheaper).
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I've just checked my last email from him and it's actually DPD he's sending with. My company also sends goods out via DPD, and I think our rate for a box up to 30kg to Italy is £15. This is the "classic" road service, so takes 2-3 days. I've had to wait over a week since placing the order for Apple to ship, so I can hold off a few more days!
 
iPetey said:
I've just checked my last email from him and it's actually DPD he's sending with. My company also sends goods out via DPD, and I think our rate for a box up to 30kg to Italy is £15. This is the "classic" road service, so takes 2-3 days. I've had to wait over a week since placing the order for Apple to ship, so I can hold off a few more days!
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Many thanks! :)
 
newbuyer said:
has anybody checked this site ,, it is only £600.. any suggestions ?

http://www.mitchman.co.uk/electronics/apple/3gs
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Stay well away :)

A guy in Amsterdam acting as an 'agent' for them wanted to sell me 1000 iPhones "pay today, collect tomorrow". He didn't have a clue what he was doing. it was obviously a scam.
(PhoneDevil is quite well mentioned as an iPhone trade supplier [even though I have never supplied to anyone who contacted me] and the power of Google means I get a lot of idiots trying it on with me).

Its fairly easy to identify an iPhone scammer if you know what to ask. These people know nothing about the products they're allegedly selling.

Their website used to sell property too...I think it was in the Caribbean :p

They're mentioned here and various other places as a very high risk.
http://aguido.com/
 
iPetey said:
My 3GS has finally shipped after waiting a week.

After looking at various ways to source it, I purchased from the Italian Apple store, with delivery to a customer in Italy. He is going to forward on to me when it arrives with him. Total cost 699 euros plus 20 euros for him to UPS to me.

I feel much happier having not lined the pockets of eBayers looking to clear £150 profit for doing just the same!
Click to expand...

I am beginning to think that I should have just asked one of my colleagues in Italy to buy me a 3GS there and ship it back to Belgium on their employee discount (working for a courier company has its perks). Unfortunately, I just didn't expect things to be so bad in Belgium. I guess I should have known better...
 
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