UK Buyers

treebeard

I'm intending to order a Vollaphone to be delivered to the UK, which is no longer in the EU.

It looks like I should buy the Indiegogo 'world perk' which is cheaper to allow for import duty, and then pay import duty when it arrives in the UK, but this perk does not ship to the UK.

Alternatively I could order the European perk at full price but may then have to pay duty on top.

What have been people's experiences ordering Vollaphone for delivery to the UK?

Also have there been any issues with 'european' phones being turned back at customs? I'm assuming not?

I've asked Volla directly and they were looking into adding further perks to make it clearer.

Lakotaubp

@treebeard Just out of intrest is this the new X rugged Volla or the originl one. Last time I looked only the first one was available for non European buyers.

treebeard

@lakotaubp The original. I believe white ones are sold out but grey are still available.

treebeard

My UBPorts Volla phone arrived safely in the UK today, and I thought I'd post some useful information for others in the UK thinking of buying one from Hello Welt, and to give Hello Welt useful feedback on the buying experience from a customers point of view. Before getting into the details let me say Hello Welt have been very helpful with any questions or issues I had and I'm thrilled with the phone and happy to pay a premium to get a modern daily-driver UBPorts phone.

I ordered through Indiegogo on 31st July. the phone was dispatched from DusselDorf on 12th August through DHL, who provided full tracking info and it arrived in my hands on 13th August morning.
When ordering through Indiegogo, technically you are making a donation, in return for which you can expect to get a phone as a 'perk' to reward you for donating. I found this a little nerve-wracking and there was no confirmation directly from Hello Welt that they had received my 'order'. However the Indiegogo site shows the status of your perk and this updated after a few days. I think a a brief 'order received' email from Hello Welt with an approximate dispatch date would be a big improvement to the customer experience at this point.
I wondered if Brexit regulations would cause issues importing an EU 'CE' certified phone. It turns out this could in theory but not until January 2022. See this article on how the rules will change then, but I think it means companies in the EU wanting to export would then have to obtain UK product approval before selling the items. https://www.sgs.com/en/news/2020/10/conformity-assessment-in-europe-and-the-uk-from-january-1-2021
The interesting part that gives peace of mind the phone won't be turned back for technical reasons at customs is: The UK Government has agreed that for manufacturers wishing to supply goods into the UK, the ‘CE’ mark, including the results of conformity assessment activities performed by an EU27 Notified Body, will continue to be recognized until January 1, 2022. This means that for most situations, manufacturers will be able to continue to rely on the CE Marking of a product, as long as the technical rules remain aligned between the EU and UK.
I wasn't sure how best to order at first as the EU perk on Indiegogo was shipping to the UK at full price, but the lower priced 'World Perk' (offsetting I think 30EUR due to the import duty anticipated shipping outside the EU) was not available to order to the UK. I assume this was an oversight by Hello Welt as this would have been correct before Brexit. I let Hello Welt know and they helpfully offered to update the perk countries, which they have now done.
I had no idea what to expect the duty to be or even if it would be charged or how I would pay. It turned out that the package was clearly marked 'duty to be paid by recipient' and DHL messaged me with a link to a payment page before the phone left Germany.
The bad news is you will be charged an £11 admin fee plus 20% VAT on the total cost of the phone, postage, and admin fee, but the good news in theory is that is because (I believe) you should not be charged German VAT by Hello Welt, which is where the cheaper 'world perk' comes in. I think this area is still a little confusing and the current World Perk has quite a high delivery charge which may be to cover import duty costs. I don't know.
The phone arrived well packaged with all the promised extras including a clear soft plastic protective cover. I decided to order one of the better covers from the Hello Welt shop but delivery charges are currently very high as DHL is the delivery option available, and I quickly discovered there are a wide range of Gigaset GS290 covers available from many suppliers in the UK, so you may want to order your case at the same time as the phone if you want Hello Welt supply it.
The phone was due for some software updates on arrival which don't take long to apply. I noticed the phone was quite sluggish before the updates but is very snappy afterwards so definitely do the updates shortly after receiving the phone and charging it up.
To me the phone feels very good quality, solid but not heavy.
I omitted to mention above I was too impatient to wait long enough for Hello Welt to update the World perk, and I paid full price plus the duty I had hoped wouldn't be charged. I also missed out on the recent price reduction and an additional 10 EUR reduction currently being offered on the Hello Welt site. I talked it over with Hello Welt and they quickly offered to bring the cost down to what I would have paid if I'd ordered today. So I'm very happy with the understanding shown by the sales support and the personal service being provided.
Phone calls and SMS messages are working fine for me. I'm on the iDMobile network, which is really the Three network. There is information elsewhere on this forum about the frequencies supported by the phone which are basically the same ones as used in the UK.
In short I'm very pleased with the phone. There are a few features of UBPorts still to be polished up on the Vollaphone but we all know its a work in progress.
I think the updated world perk delivery charge is confusing vs the import duty to be paid so maybe Hello Welt can clarify this further and whether the delivery charge is intended to be instead of paying duty?
I was an early adopter of Ubuntu Touch on a BQ E4.5 using it as my daily driver for several years until the need for work related android apps forced me into the wilderness of android for the last few years. Having worn out my android phone I realised there was always a wireless network available when I needed to use android apps so now the android phone has been relegated to being a wireless-only gadget kept in my bag where it deserves to be. Very soon anbox/waydroid may make it completely redundant.

Lakotaubp

@treebeard Thanks for that very useful info.The import in to the UK issue is I admit very confusing, new to most and I'm sure many are not ready for import duty etc. Including many SMO's inside and outside of Europe. Lets see if things get clearer in a few months time. I quite like the look of the X but every parcel that arrives here gets the -is that another/how many phones do you need- look from everyone