June 5, 2008 at 12:05AM Ordering electronics in Ireland makes me want to cry
This is me:
And I’d like to buy one of these:
I waited weeks in anticipation for its release, and when it came out, I went here:
I didn’t go here:
Because apparently Irish money isn’t good enough for them.
So there’s me, ordering the nice shiny machine when I run into this:
Electronic or gadget items can only be delivered to UK addresses.
Right.
But I have friends in Northern Ireland, so I figure I’ll ask Grannymar if she minds taking a delivery for me. We had a nice friendly chat and she said she’d be happy to help me.
So I head back and enter her address as the delivery address, and lo-and-behold, I get this:
Electronic or gadget items valued at GBP50 or over must be delivered to your credit/debit card billing address, which must be in the UK.
Well, that’s no good to me, is it. It seems Irish money’s no good to them either.
With that shot down, I went back to finding another possible seller. I was left with three: PC World Business (spit!), LinITX.com, and LambdaTek. It wasn’t entirely obvious if LambdaTek would ship to Ireland, so I discarded them. That left PC World Business and LinITX.
I tried PCWB first, but hit two snags. First, Maestro/Switch is listed as one of the cards they’ll take, but not Laser. My Visa card hasn’t arrived yet, so as this is their Irish site, my assumption is that as a Laser card is also meant to be a Maestro card, my Laser card would be acceptable.
But further down is another hiccough.
The want a VAT number, and it’s compulsory. However, it’s not necessary for a business in Ireland to register for VAT unless their turnover is over EUR35,000, this shouldn’t be a required field, but it is. So, what do I do? Not much, it seems. Sorry PCWB, you suck.
So that leaves me with LinITX.com, who will, it appears, ship to Ireland. However, it’s unlikely they’ll accept a Laser card as a Maestro card, so I’m left waiting for AIB to get off their arses and send me out the card I ordered from them a fortnight ago.
Sigh.
1 On June 5, 2008 at 6:20, Revence wrote:
Sorry, Keith. But you ain’t seen nothing yet.
The first time I ever ordered stuff off the net without making anything up was with the first releases of Ubuntu. At least they didn’t ask me for my zip code. We don’t all have zip codes! Sheesh. Oh, and state. They ask me for my country and state. Hmm. We are all living on subcontinents, aren’t we?
When these internet services aren’t too Americentric, they are too Euro-Americentric. Or they are Chinese, with no English on the site. Or whatever. Stuck in a business model of the roadside while living on the internet. Sigh.
2 On June 5, 2008 at 11:40, Grannymar wrote:
Morning Sunshine,
Only special Toyboys have those privileges!
I hope the AIB sort things out for you quick sharp!
3 On June 5, 2008 at 13:53, Keith wrote:
@Revence: Concerning postcodes, we don’t have them here either, which can be a right pain, so most people type n/a, 00000 or something similar as their postcode. We’re meant to be getting them soon though, though considering how backwards the postal system is here, I question the likelihood of it really happening all that soon.
For states, surely you’d just use district or county names just to satisfy them?
@Grannymar: Fingers crossed! I think I’ll have to give them a ring to see what the hold-up is.