Giant Shark - what's happening?

[Bob Cotsford]

Giant Cod worked and thrived because Rob Carpenter got off his backside and hunted down direct suppliers in China, in fact often if you phoned you would find yourself speaking to him IN China. My impression is that MHS management just didn't invest as much effort in running GS so it gradually declined and became unprofitable.

[kc]

Giant Cod worked because you bought from China and therefore they didnt charge VAT. When it became Giant Shark it was therefore 20 percent dearer because they had to charge VAT. That's why it may have been less popular. So many items being out of stock cannot have helped.

Anyway my order arrived today from GiantShark, ordered Monday evening 8pm- delivered Friday 10am. Good service! Maybe I am the last customer?

[Alan Randall]

Giant Cod must have had an excellent relationship with the postal service then. Most of my items came return of post, which from China is amazing and much quicker than HK manage.

[kc]

Alan, it's well known that Giant Cod posted their stuff from Cornwall. However we bought from China. After I received an order I asked for a VAT invoice and the reply was we cannot issue a VAT invoice as we are a Hong Kong company. So there was no VAT.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Why is it that people assume that because a company imports from China that they "don't pay VAT"? Unless orders are under £15 in value, the VAT man grabs his 20% there and then. No company is going to order stuff in small quantities so VAT WILL have been paid on import. There's no way round that (unless they run it ashore in the middle of the night in a smugglers' cove)

[Erfolg]

KC

WE have been here many times before, I know it no longer matters, but GC will have paid vat where applicable.

Every single one of the UK model importers, be it Ripmax or Perkins et al, purchase from China or the Far East. They to will pay duties and vat as appropriate.

I will accept that many businesses off-shore much of their clerical, administrative and intellectual properties, to take them out of the UK and EU from the perspective of such aspects tax and ownership, where the tasks take place outside the EU etc. Most if not all major businesses do this, from Banks, Car Supplies, if advantageous.

Possibly the big difference with GC and many other businesses in the model trade, there was no middle men such as Ripmax. Also I would guess that essentially the UK was just a sales and distribution point.

Just as many others, I am disappointed that GS did not succeed. It could have failed due to many aspects. From the overheads of being a division of a larger business, business structure, not having the contacts and business nouse of a small self sufficient and independent businessman. I always thought part of the sites shortcomings was that so many pages carried items that were out of stock, had never been replaced, and were listed as special order, in short poor web page housekeeping and maintenance.

Even the big boys such as Tesco have to keep running to keep ahead of the opposition, as the race is never won. For every Kwick Save that fails, an Aldi and Lidl conceptually take their place. I hope that this will happen with respect to GS. Disappointing but there are customers are out there when the right offer is being made.

[Andy Green]

Just been informed of this - Out of the fire rises the Phoenix....

Andy

[kc]

What I said was we were not charged VAT from Giant Cod. They did not have a VAT number on their invoice ( they were based abroad) and therefore did not charge VAT

No doubt the firm who imported paid VAT on the declared value.. Someone then stored the goods & just posted the goods to us on behalf of Giant Cod when we ordered.. It is possible the importer may have had other business which charged VAT so they ( not Giant Cod) could probably have recovered the VAT by deducting the VAT they paid from the VAT they charged.. We don't know exactly but the result was low prices to us.

 

 

Edited By kc on 29/05/2015 12:31:24

[Masher]

Thanks for that Andy - X8R's for £20!!!

[Bob Cotsford]

You beat me to it Andy - Look at the 'about us' link at the bottom of the main page, quite interesting. Well done Graham. Prices look good, and so are postage rates. I've just ordered a couple of receivers, postage rates start from 73p!

[Andy Green]

Thought there may have been a few to see Iain's email

A

[Erfolg]

I can see that RClife use Hermes and Royal Mail, although I cannot find the postal etc. charges? Is there a chart somewhere?

From my perspective it is good to see that Fasst Rxs are stocked. Also a good range of motors.

[Bob Cotsford]

I saw the charges when checking out a couple of receivers

[GrahamC]

Lets see how it goes. I've made an order [number 28!]

You have to wonder if that's where all the half price Giant Shark FRSky stuff went!

[Mark Stringer]

Not all of it .. I got my four 7 channel receivers .. and RCLIFE haven't had all of the stock as that is up for offer ... out of my reach though

[Masher]

RCLife early indications are good. The 3 X8R's I ordered a few hours ago have been shipped!

[Mark Stringer]

Fancy having these offers just after payday....will never get to the end of the month

[Erfolg]

There is one aspect that has bothered me for some time with GS. When the business was called GC, the business constantly received high praise from customers. It managed to top the RCM&E Internet supplier satisfaction survey. Mtr Rob Carpenter was seen as a mythical being, almost saint like.

I know that there were some detractors such as KC, who suspected some underhand dealings.

Yet for most of us GC were the Bees Knees.

It is almost as if MyHobbystore , set out destroy this standing in the market place.

The stock levels became increasingly poor, the site was not looked after properly. The prices seemed to remain reasonable for the section of the market they were supporting.

For the section of the market that takes the view that prices should be "reassuringly high", the rather rough and ready site , must have confirmed that GS were not the place or label that they would go to.

HK have shown that there is a choice, that you can pay an arm and a leg for the same thing in fancy packaging or purchase the same item for often a tenth of the price in a simple plastic bag. But then again the HK web site is slick. There are the detractors, although I have often wondered are they vested interests that are trying dirty tricks to besmirch the budget, good quality retailer.

I wonder what the inquest results are by MYHobbyStore?

[John Privett]

Posted by Andy Green on 29/05/2015 12:23:42:

Just been informed of this - Out of the fire rises the Phoenix....

Andy

Interesting! Very interesting... Thanks for that Andy.

It looks like a bit of thought has gone into this. Too often we see online sellers appear whose T&Cs drive a horse and cart through UK consumer legislation and distance selling regulations. Probably because many just take an 'off the shelf' web package and keep the default T&Cs. At least rclife haven't done that.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Not looked yet but knowing how you lot like a bargain I expect to see the "backorder" pop up shortly

Off for a browse

John

[Dave Hopkin]

Looks a good site, just ordered a Frsky 8ch RX as a test.... we shall see how it works out

[WolstonFlyer]

It does look like a good site, I just placed a order with them as well

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Me also I bought a few frsky rx's ...thanks

John

[Bob Cotsford]

email received timed at 14:42 -

 

Order ID: 18
Date Ordered: 29pm31Europe/London_f2015Fri, 29 May 2015 12:16:48 +010005pm31_48122015Fri, 29 May 2015 12:16:48 +010031

Your order has been updated to the following status:

Shipped

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 29/05/2015 19:56:45

[kc]

Erfolg please get it straight I did not sugest anything was underhand! Several years ago I took the trouble to ask GC if they would supply a VAT invoice. Their reply was to the effect that they could not as they were a Hong Kong company. I copied an exact quote of their reply onto the forum at that time. By buying from the website people were buying from Hong Kong so there was no VAT. Goods were despatched from Cornwall though. How this was arranged we dont know but no doubt it was legal.

It's similar I think to the current situation with another major discount online retailer -you buy from the website which is located outside UK so no VAT is charged yet the goods are despatched from Essex. You don't get a VAT invoice.