Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Received this email today
EVANS CYCLES SERVICE UPDATE ​​​​​​

With the Australian tax law policy changing on July 1st, 2018, we will no longer be able to meet our current pricing and level of service.
It is therefore with regret that we will stop shipping to Australia from June 14th, 2018.

WHAT HAPPENS TO CURRENT ORDERS?
Any orders that were placed before June 14th will be sent if the goods are in stock. The same applies to any outstanding backorders. Should this deadline not be met, we reserve the right to contact you to arrange a refund.

We will cease to send you marketing emails, however, you will receive transactional emails until any outstanding orders are completed.

Thank you for your choosing Evans Cycles in the past, we hope to be able to reverse this position at some point in the future.

A victim of the Gerry Harvey tax- Australians are disadvantaged in that our choices are becoming limited. So much for the level playing field.

Daus wrote:Received this email today
EVANS CYCLES SERVICE UPDATE ​​​​​​

With the Australian tax law policy changing on July 1st, 2018, we will no longer be able to meet our current pricing and level of service.
It is therefore with regret that we will stop shipping to Australia from June 14th, 2018.

WHAT HAPPENS TO CURRENT ORDERS?
Any orders that were placed before June 14th will be sent if the goods are in stock. The same applies to any outstanding backorders. Should this deadline not be met, we reserve the right to contact you to arrange a refund.

We will cease to send you marketing emails, however, you will receive transactional emails until any outstanding orders are completed.

Thank you for your choosing Evans Cycles in the past, we hope to be able to reverse this position at some point in the future.

A victim of the Gerry Harvey tax- Australians are disadvantaged in that our choices are becoming limited. So much for the level playing field.

I've not shopped at any of Gerry Harvey's stores for years and his meddling in the market doesn't make me change my mind.

I am not sad in the least. If a UK company wants to sell here, they shouldn't get a 10% advantage over the local bike shop.

AdelaidePeter wrote:I am not sad in the least. If a UK company wants to sell here, they shouldn't get a 10% advantage over the local bike shop.

It's not just about the 10% GST on items under $1000 but more importantly to me the restrictions on where we can purchase goods. Australian importers control what is imported and the pricing, look at the recent issues with the purchasing of sram equipment online outside of Australia. Amazon has now blocked our access to o/s pricing pushing Amazon customers to the Australian site with limited traders and increase in pricing certainly not just additional gst. The bottom line is less access to o/s markets with less retailers willing to collect the gst for our small market share. We will have less options when purchasing online and inevitably pay more.

It's also about what is available.

This applies to lots of things but for me it is the books and records which are most stark. Many just never appear here, if they do it is months after release, cost twice as much etc.

As for bike parts, I can get everything online within a couple of weeks, and it is cheaper. If I order something in Australia they take months (got to wait for the next container load) and costs twice as much.

The model is broken, we are getting screwed and it is dubious as to whether this will collect or cost money for the government (that was the reasoning behind the $1k threshold in the first place).

Stupid policy by a stupid government in thrall to idiotic businesses. If you espouse neo-liberalism at least practice what you preach.

DS

Daus wrote:... look at the recent issues with the purchasing of sram equipment online outside of Australia.

Regarding SRAM, it's got nothing to do with the local importers, it's a global policy from SRAM HQ. You'll find the same hurdle anywhere around the globe; you will only be able to source SRAM gear through that region's local network; the Americans can't buy from Europe/UK & vice versa, neither can buy from Asian sources or from here - not that they'd want to anyway, because due to our tiny share of the global market, our pricing is higher from the get-go.

Duck! wrote:

Daus wrote:... look at the recent issues with the purchasing of sram equipment online outside of Australia.

Regarding SRAM, it's got nothing to do with the local importers, it's a global policy from SRAM HQ. You'll find the same hurdle anywhere around the globe; you will only be able to source SRAM gear through that region's local network; the Americans can't buy from Europe/UK & vice versa, neither can buy from Asian sources or from here - not that they'd want to anyway, because due to our tiny share of the global market, our pricing is higher from the get-go.

You can still get SRAM stuff online if you know where to look, but it’s places with much smaller volumes that fly under the radar.

Regardless, the overall policy of SRAM doing this saw me revert to a Shimano build on my latest bike. Local pricing on Shimano kit has almost become on par with overseas pricing now too, so there’s not often much pressing need. It does depend on what you are after though.

AdelaidePeter wrote:I am not sad in the least. If a UK company wants to sell here, they shouldn't get a 10% advantage over the local bike shop.

I've purchased from Evans previously. Decision wasn't based on price. They were the only supplier I could find online or local of what I wanted.
Just yesterday received a delivery from Amazon US. Again a purchase of an item I could only find at Amazon US.

queequeg wrote:

Duck! wrote:

Daus wrote:... look at the recent issues with the purchasing of sram equipment online outside of Australia.

Regarding SRAM, it's got nothing to do with the local importers, it's a global policy from SRAM HQ. You'll find the same hurdle anywhere around the globe; you will only be able to source SRAM gear through that region's local network; the Americans can't buy from Europe/UK & vice versa, neither can buy from Asian sources or from here - not that they'd want to anyway, because due to our tiny share of the global market, our pricing is higher from the get-go.

You can still get SRAM stuff online if you know where to look, but it’s places with much smaller volumes that fly under the radar.

Not necessarily - I can still order SRAM from some of the biggest US online stores.

RonK wrote:

queequeg wrote:

Duck! wrote: Regarding SRAM, it's got nothing to do with the local importers, it's a global policy from SRAM HQ. You'll find the same hurdle anywhere around the globe; you will only be able to source SRAM gear through that region's local network; the Americans can't buy from Europe/UK & vice versa, neither can buy from Asian sources or from here - not that they'd want to anyway, because due to our tiny share of the global market, our pricing is higher from the get-go.

You can still get SRAM stuff online if you know where to look, but it’s places with much smaller volumes that fly under the radar.

Not necessarily - I can still order SRAM from some of the biggest US online stores.

I usually rule out the USA stores due to the insane shipping prices. I also had massive issues with a SRAM warranty issue where the original SRAM levers that came on my USA Made and assembled bike failed, and SRAM USA passed the buck to SRAM Australia, and SRAM Australia refused to help because I didn't buy the stuff locally. I ended up getting the Bike Manufacturer sending me another lever and they took the hit, because SRAM was useless.

The two bikes that I have with SRAM gear are only like that because it came with the bike, and the price was too good to refuse

I have tried contacting Evans Cycles a few times to see if they can share more details however as expected, they havn’t responded.

This is not unexpected, they never had any serious interest in serving Australian customers (based on their past activity and I don’t blame them).

None the less, for Australian consumers it still means reduced competition and choice.

I'll be interested in how Merlin, Ribble and SJS respond.
Whilst only making one or two minor purchases from Evans, Ribble and Merlin glady excepted wads of my cash over the years.
They were my preferred choice over Wiggle and c r c, at usually competitive prices.

I think many actually wont even know... and only if customers start to complain because there are holdups and confusion, will the make a call.

The clever companies can still continue sales and first when they hit $75,000 do they need to register (within 21 days) and begin collecting.

AUbicycles wrote: The clever companies can still continue sales and first when they hit $75,000 do they need to register (within 21 days) and begin collecting.

The wording seems to be "current month plus previous 11 months" and/or "projected income".

So that would seem to indicate that waiting for $75k this AU financial year or other part year method won't really fly.

But a lot of small sellers are probably genuinely under the limit if they only do a few AU sales a week.
And I doubt the Customs/ATO system is smart enough to really be tracking small seller package origin especially when they might use multiple trading names and unidentified drop shipping.

Stuff from AliExpress for example usually has no AliExpress identification on the parcel, just seller direct.
So how will ATO even know if GST is being forwarded or just pocketed by the Ali site with a token amount paid?

it's interesting thattheorigianl email (that I also recieved) says no more marketing emails,yet I still get the marketing emails, no idea on stuff, I haven't bought from them since (nothing need from them).
Idid just yesterday get stuff from Merlin, they now charge10% gst on orders, which is fine, just a bit of a surprise when you look at an item for $100, then go to cart and its $110... not used to the after taxing (got a big shock in the US, first morning after arriving, when to super runner store to buy some NB m2002, suddenly my $US250 running shoes were $280, I was like wth?... ah tax is added)
but no issues other than the extra 10%...but really adding 1-% to something 1/2 the price locally... hmmm not really an issue.