To Rent or To Buy - dont know what to do

[Max250]

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[pdean44]

Sometimes you cant put a price on peace of mind and service. I would explore the rent to buy option i would be surprised if that was not an option. A great deal is not much use the first time you have problems and need support and can not locally have it rectified. That would concern me unless i could afford to have a back up machine.

[cflame1]

Max, make sure that you talk to DSM and Billbolton (both Aussies). DSM for sure has bought from overseas, so knows the ins and outs... I think that Bill might have as well.

[dsm]

I just sent this as a PM to the original poster


Notes include ...
> If the item is over $A1000 in value you have to register with customs & fill in an importer form.
This can be done online. It is an irritation but not totally onerous & I think you have to pay about
$50 processing fee.
> Cpaps don't attract GST. There is a customs / tax section that explicitly excludes them. I tried to
find it again a few weeks back but couldn't. Asking customs can help but they don't always give
you the right answers & being able to quote the tax exemption helps greatly. I know I posted all
this in cpaptalk about 2-3 years ago but danged if I can locate it. But I did find a ref to section 127
of some govt docs

My tips would include ...
> You can buy from cpap.com & have them ship to Australia but they use UPS or Fedex both of whom
charge like wounded bulls & who hit you with extra fees such as customs clearance.
> By far the cheapest and best service for parcels to Aust is USPS (United States Postal Service) and
they provide door to door tracking. If the item is under $1000, customs should let it through.
Some US online cpap sales places will uses USPS. You need to ask them if they do.

I was very lucky though in that I had a very good friend in Seattle who would receive my machines & repack & ship them to me in Australia. That made it easy and allowed us to learn the best services to Australia.

I got into a nasty dispute with UPS who tried to hit me with extra charges & I refused to pay them. They threatened me with debt collection but I held out on them after pointing out how their extra charges were never mentioned in the start and how they were way higher than anyone else. I then never used them again. Also they took weeks to deliver vs days with USPS. Fedex seem to be similar to UPS. I avoid them both.

Just found the GST exemption code look for code B124 here ...
http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/minis ... ptions.htm


DSM

[poshaus]

You could consider secondwind dot com, I just bought a NEW F&P HC245 APAP from him, landed in Aus for $AU620 and arrived in just 5 days
Mark is a great guy giving great service. [HC245 is rrp $AU 1,995, secondwind use USPS]

The price of equipment in Aus and NZ is just insane, and the sleep industry has many shysters whose preoccupation is skimming your money rather than offering you good service and information.
That is a generalisation and of course there are also many excellent practioners out there.

I would be interested in other people's comments regarding regular maintenance and calibration, not something I've been aware of.

Good luck with it all
posh