Oscilloscope from China. Taxes, fees and UK dealers. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Tone Deaf
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 12, 2021, 12:54:56 pm
content: Hi Troops.I'm looking to buy a Hantek DSO5102P. I'm new to electronics and, as a novice, have been drawn to the direct deals from China. It seems that they're not so cheap when you add 20% VAT and the import duty on top of that. Then there is the issue of warranty in the event of a problem with the unit. Potential cost of returning the unit to China etc. On the flipside I'm struggling to find a UK supplier. Any thoughts and advice from those more experienced in buying equipment would be appreciated. I did buy an old Telequipment D66 to get started with but this packed up soon after I started using it. (Maybe a repair project down the line). As I know so little at the moment I'd be worried about repeating this mistake buying second hand again.Kind regards. Tony.

author: bob91343
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2021, 06:31:11 pm
content: Buying second hand is not a mistake. All of my lab is second and more hand. Yes I have to make occasional repairs and live with discrepancies but the bottom line is that I save money and learn a lot. I have gear that has cost me a miniscule fraction of its original cost, and works well.Retired, deceased, upgrading, and loss-of-interest people can supply an amazing amount of useful gear.Anything you buy is likely to fail some day. You need to be prepared to repair most of your equipment no matter how you acquired it.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2021, 06:59:06 pm
content: Quote from: Tone Deaf on March 12, 2021, 12:54:56 pmHantek may not be the best choice (their reputation is not stellar) but it depends on the budget. In my experience you should only buy gear from China which you can't buy locally. If you look around a bit you can usually find a reseller closer by which offers the item for a better price compared to buying from China. There are lots of equipment sellers in Europe however you'll have to pay a few percent extra of "Boris' & Nigel's big adventure tax" on it.

author: nightfire
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2021, 04:26:03 am
content: Just had a look and amazon UK is available as supplier. As an alternative the Rigol DS1102Z-E is similar in price, and at least amazon germany supplies it (where I bought my unit)My general experience with buying stuff over the last year: If you can ppossibly source it from a reputable seller in your country, stick with them. Only go for self-import if ne distributor can provide it for a reasonable price AND a direct import including import tax, shipping and handling fees are significantly cheaper to make up for potential hassle in the future.My Rigol scope could be had by buying directly from Rigol EU- would have saved me less than 10 €€€. Same for my power supply- I ended by buying some german "brand" that is known not to be total crap, but still cheap. Direct import of some low-level chinese stuff would not have made the day, and the old trick of marking some parcel as "gift" to get around import taxes is so old and is overused/abused, that customs really looks for it...

author: threephase
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2021, 12:07:37 pm
content: There are a few UK suppliers on Amazon and eBay that sell Hantek scopes, so you should just pay the price seen and not be hit with import costs. Remember as well as the VAT and duties you may also be charged a handling fee by the courier for items imported from China and new mainland Europe.For Rigol, Siglent and Micsig, there is Telonic Instruments in the UK, who stock a number of their items. I have purchased from them several times and they have always been good.

author: Sighound36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2021, 09:20:50 am
content: Quote from: threephase on March 14, 2021, 12:07:37 pmBoth Bob and three phase have made some good suggestions, Doug @ Telonic is decent chap have been dealing with them for maybe eight years. Always great service and helpful to.My lab has a mixture of new and used equipment to suit our needs, sometimes it's worth looking outside the envelope to find that certain piece. I recently acquired a loaded Lecroy labmaster for quite sensible money (In relation to their purchase price at least!).Like Bob have made on repairs to Agilent VSG over time etc.If you are looking for basic good quality entry level scope with service back up and assistance then either Rigol, Siglent would be worth looking at.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2021, 09:32:51 am
content: On the warranty front, I've had a number of pieces of Chinese T&M kit. While software bugs are common, none have ever properly died on me, so I have never needed to use the warranty. The worst was a broken rotary encoder on an old Rigol scope but if you're an EE that's not a difficult job to fix.