Sadly importation charges, duties and taxes are common for this sort of expensive equipment.
A courier is often used as it is safer. They require a declared valuation of the item to set the insurance cover for loss or damage. If an item is undervalued, the insurance will mimic that fact. Not great for the seller if the item goes missing as you will likely claim for non delivery. Sellers will rarely provide false valuations on expensive kit as they are then taking all the risks, an untrue declaration, under insured and there is really no up side for them.
The Chinese seem to undervalue items on declarations but then many items are quite cheap. They are the exception and most commercial sellers will ignore requests to undervalue items.
In the UK, anything valued over £15 attracts at least VAT and a £8 paperwork fee (often higher charges from couriers). In the UK Postage is always considered part of the purchase price and on a large or heavy item that can seriously inflate the VAT amount
Duty charges are thankfully quite rare, or minor, in my experience.
Sadly, even second hand items attract VAT when importing into the UK, even for a private sale. Yet if you buy a used car off someone here..... no VAT..... go figure
It's the old story of one unavoidable constant in our lives lives ....... death and taxes
Fraser
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