My daughter is in Sydney for a semester. I live in the US. Her computer crashed, and she has to get a new one. I would like to buy her one and ship it, but am concerned with customs and duty. She cant buy one there because she will mainly use in the US when she returns, so i want it to be configured to US power/systems etc. can anyone advise as to what the customs procedure/costs would be. It will likely be valued between 2-3k. Any wisdom out there??? Thanks very much

cathygreen,

most computers will work on both electrical systems (just look for 220/120 V) but you will need an adapter ($1) when she gets back to the US. If it has a DVD player/burner, that might be a problem as the disks are coded for various world regions. However, I bet a stand alone unit will cost less than what it takes to ship a new computer.

Cathy, I'm no PC expert, but I'd do the numbers first, like comparing the US and Australian prices of a given Dell laptop ordered online (then adding your shipping costs to the US number).

You may still decide to purchase and ship from the US, but I don't think the decision should be based on any perceived differences between laptops bought in different countries. Your daughter could certainly use any laptop she bought here in the US.

The transformer should be dual- voltage, so the only difference I can imagine would be the power plug. This should be easily fixed on her return to the US - depending on whether the power lead is detachable from the transformer or hard-wired.

There should be no other hardware or software differences between laptops bought in the US vis a vis Australia. They're mostly US, Japanese and Chinese (Lenovo) brands, manufactured somewhere in Asia, and will come with Microsoft's new Vista operating system, and if you wish Microsoft Office applications, pre-loaded.

If after all that you still decide to buy in the US, you'll need a freight company that knows how to handle computers and suchlike. It occurs to me though that as Dell PCs are (I understand) all shipped ex Malaysia, you could be saving it a Pacific round-trip by letting your daughter order in Australia, assuming you buy from Dell.

Disclaimer - this is a layman's opinion. Comments from any experts out there are welcomed.

Good point about the DVD player, tampatramp. Regular home DVD players sold in Australia are usually all-region (else how would people play all the $1 rip-offs bought during Asian trips?) Don't know about DVD players fitted to laptops, but it should be easy to establish.

Neil_Oz

US DVDs and players are region code 1 (Australia is 4). rip-off DVDs may not be coded-I don't know.

Being a Mac techie, here's what Apple says:
"Changing the region code of your DVD drive:

Many DVD discs include a region code. The first time you play one of these discs, your DVD drive is set to the region code of the disc. The drive's region code restricts DVD Player to playing discs with the same region code or with no region code.

Generally, the region code of your DVD drive matches the region code of the DVD discs available in the region where you live. However, if you insert a disc with a different region code from the one set for your DVD drive, a dialog appears to let you change your drive's region code.


You can only change the region code of your DVD drive five times. After that, the region code is set permanently and you cannot change it.


You should only change the region code of your DVD drive if you plan to play only discs with the new region code in the future."

So I'd buy the computer in Sydney, but not bring back any DVDs (unless playable in region 1) and change the code in the states. Besides, she should be Studying and not watching movies anyway!

tampa, it's messy, ain't it? The region code business was introduced at the behest of Hollywood, to allow more control over the production an distribution of DVDs. But it seems to be widely ignored - I'm told that most home players sold in Australia have had their region code restrictions removed, and apparntly disabling codes for different models can be found on the Web. (Why am I not surprised - give a geek a challenge....)

Likewise the $1 rip-off DVDs are illegal of course, but few tourists would come back from China, Vietnam, Indonesia etc without a stash of new releases. Every so often the Chinese government announces (under US pressure) a crackdown, there are a few well-publicised raids, and business goes back to normal.

BTW, cathygreen, I'm told that Dell has factories in the US, China and Malaysia, for what that's worth.

BTW2, I just checked my daughter's new Compaq laptop, bought in Australia, and the transformer is dual voltage. The lead from the transformer to the wall socket is detachable, so that would be a straight and very cheap swap-out. As I say, if it's cheaper to buy in the US and ship to Australia do so by all means, but there appears to be no technical/operational reason at all why she couldn't buy one in Australia and bring it back to the US with her - subject only to the DVD issue tampa raised, which doesn't sound like a deal-breaker either.

Your original question was about Australian customs procedures and duties payable. Again I'm no expert, but you should only have to fill out a declaration supplied by the shipping company, listing it as a gift - I think. And I think that import duty should be 10% at most, but you'd better check that. The relevant Australian Customs Service site is
www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4226 - there are downloadable printable forms, and you'll see that they have an email contact address for queries. I bleieve they respond fairly promptly.

neil-

messy indeed. so how come they can sell it for $1 and still make money, yet hollywood wants $19.95. I bet every tourist believes hollywood deserves a FAIR profit and would never buy a rip-off DVD.

oh, did I say fair.

so who's ripping who off? And now that you already bought the DVD, you really should have the Directors cut version while you wait to buy the blue-ray disk of the same movie.

I second buying the laptop in Australia. If your daughter needs to put other software on it, she will have a problem with the US DVD player.

I'm pretty sure her Australian DVD player will play the US but not visa versa. However, I just checked on the Dell Australia site and they say you have 5 opportunities to change the region.

Also some students get a discount coupon from their school. Have your daughter check if the school participates.

Also look at Asus as they have two year global warranties.

I have both an Asus and a Dell Inspiron 6400 which is identical to the US Dell Inspiron E1505. I have found the service excellent on both.

I'm not sure on the customs and duty - it is a large sum and it may be questioned.

Good luck.

tampa, I hope I didn't give the impression that I'd even think of buying one of those illegal DVD copies. Taking the bread out of the starving mouths of Rupert Murdoch, Sony and all the other deserving cases? Perish the thought.

never thought you did, as you're too smart to waste $1 on such awful hollywood movies.