Purchase Experience and International Shipping with B&O Sheffield

Folks

I am starting a new thread to share our collective purchase / shipping experiences for B&O purchases. 

I personally purchased a pair of BL 50 from B&O Sheffield and the purchase experience was top notch. From my first contact with them to actually receiving the speakers was 3 weeks in all and majority of that time was B&O Sheffield waiting for B&O Denmark to ship the speakers. 

B&O Sheffield also helped in arranging the shipping from UK to US via Fedex and I was surprised to see how reasonable the costs were. Speakers were delivered directly inside my apartment and though the packaging came a bit damaged, Speakers came in perfect. B&O does a great job in developing the packaging solutions.

There was a bit of additional process with Fedex (A custom form was required to identify the importer) but was absolutely easy. In Future, Now since I know this is a requirement, I will pre fill the form and provide this to shipper so that Fedex has it with them from the start.

This was my very first experience in purchasing a large item (Both size wise and money wise) and dealing with B&O Sheffield, whom, I had only met via Beo world and cannot say enough good things about them. Nick from B&O Sheffield was available at all times to guide and help and has become a personal friend in the process. If you are planning anything, do not hesitate to go this route. It has been absolutely worthwhile for me and I hope for you all as well.

Unless things have changed since my dealer days, I'm not sure they will thank you for flagging up " shipping from UK to US" of brand new boxed products.

Did you personally visit the Sheffield showroom or even the UK during the sales process?

So how does the import/export duty thing work for one off private sales?

Puncher:

So how does the import/export duty thing work for one off private sales?

The US custom duty was directly charged by Fedex to me. Total custom duty was only 2.4% of the commercial invoice. Not bad at all.

svinaik:

Puncher:

So how does the import/export duty thing work for one off private sales?

The US custom duty was directly charged by Fedex to me. Total custom duty was only 2.4% of the commercial invoice. Not bad at all.

More importantly if the worst should happen, will the dealer from Sheffield come and service the speakers? Or are they relying on some idiot who made no profit on the original purchase to repair them under international warranty?

On a more positive note, enjoy your new purchase, truly superb!

I assume a B&O service center/repair guy is paid by B&O....

folkdeejay:

Unless things have changed since my dealer days, I'm not sure they will thank you for flagging up " shipping from UK to US" of brand new boxed products.

There are only 11 dealers in the US.  I don't think anybody cares what a dealer thinks because for many the dealer could be 1000 miles from one's home.

Also because the price of the Beolab 50 is so much lower in the UK, the US purchaser could afford to pay the UK dealer to fly a service person to the US and still be money ahead.  The Beolab 50 is $39000 before taxes.  I think the UK price without VAT is  about £19000,  I might be wrong on that price but it is close.

If I were to purchase Beolab 50 from a US dealer, the price including taxes would be £34000.  As much as I would like the Beolab 50, I refuse to pay the B&O US price.

 

linder:

 As much as I would like the Beolab 50, I refuse to pay the B&O US price.

I'm curious how many potential US buyers B&O has given up on with this pricing difference...

Was there a price difference between US and exUS for BL90 / BL5? If so, how much?

kallasr:

I assume a B&O service center/repair guy is paid by B&O....

Not very much, and in the uk afaik recently the third party national service centre went bust having been paid by B&O but leaving some poor engineers out of pocket.

Also, unless the dealer distribution contract has been changed recently it specifically forbids a dealer to sell out of country. In the US service agents could refuse to repair the items if the knew they were purchased elsewhere.

I would like be clarification on these points as we have some South African clients pestering us to have B&O shipped there through our dealer contacts in the u.k.

linder:

There are only 11 dealers in the US.  I don't think anybody cares what a dealer thinks because for many the dealer could be 1000 miles from one's home.

 

It is so true. To be honest, I have moved around so much in the USA but I still always kept going back to my original dealer in one city because I liked him personally. It is no different say, living in California and buying from dealer on the east coast than it is living on the east coast and buying from a dealer in UK. In the case of BL 50 , even my long term dealer understood the situation and congratulated me on getting the speakers.

As for B&O brand, it is still a great success when another pair of BL 50 is sold. If I had stayed with the idea of buying from my original dealer in the USA, I would have never bought the BL 50 period.

svinaik:

It is so true. To be honest, I have moved around so much in the USA but I still always kept going back to my original dealer in one city because I liked him personally. It is no different say, living in California and buying from dealer on the east coast than it is living on the east coast and buying from a dealer in UK. In the case of BL 50 , even my long term dealer understood the situation and congratulated me on getting the speakers.

As for B&O brand, it is still a great success when another pair of BL 50 is sold. If I had stayed with the idea of buying from my original dealer in the USA, I would have never bought the BL 50 period.

I am pleased for you I really am.

But this seems all good for you, all good for B&O.

As for US dealerships.

It seems nobody cares..........

But you will not lose warranty if you move from UK to the US, won‘t you....?

Sal:

linder:

 As much as I would like the Beolab 50, I refuse to pay the B&O US price.

I'm curious how many potential US buyers B&O has given up on with this pricing difference...

Was there a price difference between US and exUS for BL90 / BL5? If so, how much?

There is some good news maybe.  At a dealer near me the price for a pair of Beolab 50 is $34590 which is about $5000 less that the announced price.

The Beolab 90 is $84990.

 

StUrrock:

As for US dealerships, It seems nobody cares....

Appreciate your comments. Regarding the statement that no body cares about the dealers, I think you are making an assumption here. I personally do care about the dealers and as I mentioned, I became a personal friend with my dealer in the USA. I do want them to stay well in business. I have never bargained on the any of my previous purchased but the magnitude of difference is just too much on BL 50. Despite having a generous heart with feelings, I really do not have wallet that large to be unmindful of the financial situation. At the US price, I would have totally stayed out. 

On the service, frankly, many / most B&O dealers do not have any qualified technician who can really service anything (speaking from personal experience). We have an external service center in Boston Area who are actually much better in servicing the B&O products. They are an authorized B&O repair facility. If anything were to go wrong, I will be calling them to schedule any help and not my B&O dealer.

 

 

 

kallasr:

But you will not lose warranty if you move from UK to the US, won‘t you....?

B&O warranty is worldwide. I have lived many years as Expat and moved around a lot with B&O purchased all over. Buying a B&O from one place does not mean you have to stay there for ever

kallasr:

But you will not lose warranty if you move from UK to the US, won‘t you....?

Move no. Unofficial import, who knows?

Congratulations on your purchase Svinaik. Thank you for letting us know about your experience. I will definitely reach out to B&O Sheffield should I be in position to purchase.

Personally I am in agreement with Svinaik. I try to support my favorite local dealer as much as I can - actually my favorite salesperson truthfully as he provides the real customer service to me. The apparent difference in the BeoLab 50 Australian price is however something I refuse accept. It feels like the bad old days of monopolistic pricing practice. I would never buy a BeoLab 50 with the Australian prices but the UK price is however quite acceptable to me. BTW I really hope the early guide on prices was wrong.

The way I see it, B&O and the selling agent wins by selling one BeoLab 50 but the local agent lost because of the overinflated pricing. To me it shows a lack of customer focus that B&O/local distributor think that they have the right to over-inflate Australian prices because of exclusivity. I work hard to earn my money, I do not see why local exclusivity means people think that can over charge me without giving me anything else in return. Can anyone explain why the Australian servicing will be nearly twice as valuable as UK service??? Surely costs in UK isn’t halved that of Sydney. The local agents don’t carry stocks of the item and it must be individually ordered anyway.

My Leica was bought in HK on my travels there, it is registered and covered by their international warranty. If Leica can accept international sales and warranty coverage so can B&O - yes B&O warranty is international. I compete on an international basis for my work and I see no reason why dealership should be exempted from that.

BillC:

...The apparent difference in the BeoLab 50 Australian price is however something I refuse accept. It feels like the bad old days of monopolistic pricing practice. I would never buy a BeoLab 50 with the Australian prices but the UK price is however quite acceptable to me. BTW I really hope the early guide on prices was wrong...

Same for Canada as well, CA$ prices are easily 2x if not 2.5x UK pricing, this is before sales tax! Currency has little excuse.

I had been quoted a BL5 from Germany, including shipping and import is still 1/3 of what's local, seriously. As much as I'd like to support local business, this makes no sense. Plus any dealer here doesn't "service" anything themselves as I learned with my BL2 - they simply refer you to a general AV repair shop.

Plus "service" in B&O terms means swapping entire board assemblies.

Purchased my BL9 from the UK for the exact same reason.

Anyway to OP, congrats. Shipping anything that large and costly, sight unseen is a scary thought.