Comments

TOURIST TO UK FYI I was in UK for vacation for a couple of weeks back in 2008. Looked up the yellow pages for guitar shops that can get me a Italia Mondial in a hurry. Steve was the only one that can do it. Moreover He was nice enough to give me a discount on the hard cast and throw in some courtesy cables and picks : ) He also reassured me that I can get the 17.5% tax back at the airport with the receipt (it was a good 70+GBP worth of tax on that guitar). At the airport, I wasn't able to get anything back. Apparently I lacked some critical documents, and Steve lacked some common knowledge on how tax refund for tourists work in UK. Exchanged some emails afterwards when I got back to my home country. My impression from Steve in the emails was " I tried but it wasn't any good with the government (fair enough, I thought). The sale is a done deal and the money doesn't go into my pocket, so tough luck. " No comment on business ethics, morals or anything of the sort. By all mean, Steve was as surprise as I was that I can't get the tax money back. With that said, I was the visitor, foreign to UK, and he was the shop owner that operated out of that country. I think there was a lack negligence and responsibility on his part.

Posted on Mar 28, 2010 by Anonymous