FYI - AquaComputer Not Shipping to the UK

ytene

ytene

ytene

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Hope this might be of interest to anyone who has bought / is thinking of buying Aquacomputer brand parts.

I have a bunch of AQ stuff in one of my machines - pump/res combos, an Aquero 6XT controller, Quadro, temperature sensors, etc, etc.

Doing some maintenance and I stripped down a machine to clean the loop... Went to the AquaComputer web site to order up a handful of spares [gaskets], only to discover there was no option to select a Courier. Dropped them an email and got a very nice note back from Sven to let me know that AquaComputer are not currently shipping to the UK. The exact wording of the email I received was,

"I am sorry but we do not ship to the UK at the moment and unfortunately I cannot tell when this will be possible again."

No other explanation was given - although tbh I suspect that it's most likely to be Brexit related - I'm seeing a lot of red tape being thrown up and a lot of excuses being banded around.

My last order direct to AquaComputer was over £900. I may have little choice but to go elsewhere if this continues, but wanted to share in case this is useful to people looking to buy.
 
Yep tryed to order a few weeks ago and got the same message that's what we get for brexit.
 
I've been ordering goods and shipping parcels to Europe over the last few months - probably 12-15 or more. I saw a few hiccups in the early weeks of January and February, but nothing that couldn't be resolved.

Whilst I don't disagree with you that "because Brexit" is absolutely a factor at play here, the picture I'm seeing coalesce is quite complicated.

For example, think about this happening with a different third party, some other country or trade bloc somewhere in the world signing up to take a trade agreement with the EU. Do you really think it would take 5 months to iron out the wrinkles in that new deal? Of course not. Note that I'm not apportioning blame on any one party. I read a fascinating and detailed report recently about fish catches sent from North Sea fishing towns along our East Coast to the EU by train. Something that has been happening without issue for *decades*. In January the catch was being off-loaded from trains in Europe and left to rot. The fishermen got very upset about this, but the EU officials calmly pointed out that, hang on, rules for the import of all fresh fish have existed since the EEC came in to effect. The issue was that the UK government had failed to communicate the post-Brexit requirements to the British businesses impacted by the change.

On the other hand, I'm also seeing cases of "sequential obstacles" being put down in front of British exporters - in other words an issue is raised, it gets resolved, only for the same party that raised the first issue to now raise a second, then a third. In other words, there is also the sniff of malice in some of the issues I've seen with my business activities. Obviously I don't have any evidence, but it sorta smells like the EU trying to take advantage of the transition to see if they can "encourage" EU companies and citizens to reduce the amount that they buy from the UK, mainly by switching the business to EU providers. That seems to be taking place through lots of obstacles and issues being raised. Obviously we have to expect teething problems, but you don't expect to see new issues raised 5 months in to new trading arrangements.

So, yes: Brexit.

But citizens on both sides of the Channel need to be taking their governments to task for incompetence and lax attitudes.
 
Same been going on since Brexit, i barely got my Heatkiller block from watercool as i ordered before brexit but was a nightmare getting it in my hands. Seems to be going on with a lot of companies...
 
Quite complicated at the moment.
I'm only ordering outside UK if can't find here, as double TAX/VAT and the headache, would cancel any possible savings.
But I think the issue isn't only for final customers.
Not talking about "blue eye white fly" GPU, but quite a lot of products haven't been available every now and then.
Lian Li cases for a while, EKWB GPU waterblocks and 3.2 DDC pump, Arctic P12, etc.
And those products where available in quite few EU retailers.
We can only hope that after the perfect storm of Brexit plus Covid-19, the whole process gets clearer.
At the moment, just headache.
 
It's not just goods and services. Brexit has a huge impact on cross border electronic transactions such as SEPA. Large corporate customers are moving payment operations to the EU out of the UK due to huge surcharges levied on transactions originating from the UK.
 
kenny saunders said:
So now we have to pay 25% extra for import duties ffs! £219 fittings from EK = £56 surcharge for import!
Click to expand...
Yeah annoying isn't it... I'm all for the UK should make and build their own things and not rely on imports so much but i can't see the UK making niche items like these and imports is becoming more and more of a pain especially with like you said the charges involved! Just not worth it.

I'm waiting on my brother to come over from HK to bring me over some watercooling parts from Taiwan instead, not paying these damn taxes.
 
kenny saunders said:
So now we have to pay 25% extra for import duties ffs! £219 fittings from EK = £56 surcharge for import!
Click to expand...
why are you buying direct from EK? Shipping was always stupid money which made it more expensive than just buying from OcUK and similar. Import duties just intensify a problem that existed already.
 
LePhuronn said:
Yeah, pretty sure he meant UK distributers...
Click to expand...

Ok but all companies have different styles of fittings and I'm not going to let a builds aesthetic depend on geography. I didn't realise that import taxes had started from EU. If I had I would have tried a bit harder to source the EK quantum fittings from uk distributors. Turns out that overclockers pretty much do everything I need, maybe I should watch the news more!
 
Fair enough, but even before Brexit and import duties, shipping direct from EK makes it, for me at least, prohibitively expensive, especially when EK kit has been available from every major UK retailer since the dawn of time.
 
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