I used to buy RAM and such there until one of the hard disks I ordered was DOA. It was part of a combined order, to keep the shipping costs low. However, shipping back the one bad HD on itself was almost as expensive as shipping the package.
Worst of all, the shipping back almost doubled the price of the HD. So in effect, this HD would become twice as expensive as I bought it for.
A lot of hard disks and other hardware is Dead On Arrival and by law it's the problem of the seller. At least, in Europe it is.
If I buy something from OWC, I expect them to deliver a working product. That's not the same as also having to pay for shipping it back if it happens to be DOA.
They didn't agree and I didn't send it back. Theoretically, it could even be a DOA twice or more and I didn't want to take that risk.
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Apart from the DOA risk / double shipment costs, shipping from US to Europe is expensive. For example, a Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet at Amazon costs $309 today . That seems cheaper than the €310 it costs here ($395). However, shipping & handling adds another $60 and there is another $70 import fees. So in the end this Wacom Medium tablet really costs $440 if I order it from Amazon.com.
Quite a contrast with the cost of ordering hardware from the East. Ordering from China and the like is ofter only a few dollars/euro. Sending it back, from Europe to China on the other hand, is again very expensive..
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Besides the shipping prices there is the uncertain time of arrival. The same item can take a week, or can take two months to arrive.