How I bought my IBM PC110

I am in the UK, so I had to find a Japanese vendor who would ship internationally. After reading some recommendations in the various FAQs, I chose T-Zone. I did all my business by email with Tania Horvat, who has been very helpful.

I ordered and paid for by credit card:


        1 x PC110 YDT 20Mb/360Mb	 128,000   640.00
        1 x Port replicator & FDD	  15,000    75.00
        1 x Lithium battery		   8,000    40.00
        1 x Keyboard adapter		   3,200    16.00
        1 x Carrying case		   5,300    26.50
	    Insurance+Shipping to U.K.    15,870    79.35
	    Total charged to credit card 175,370   876.85

This assumes an exchange rate of 200 yen = 1 UKP, which is about right as of 14 April 1997.

There was additional money to pay on delivery to U.K. Customs. I believe this was calculated as 4% duty and 17.5% VAT of the declared value of goods, plus a 10 UKP handling fee.

						      UKP
	    Total charged to credit card	   876.85
	    Duty+VAT paid by cheque on delivery	   198.46
	    Total				  1075.31

Delivery was reasonably fast; I ordered by email on 24 March 1997 and the package came 9 days later by Parcel Force on 2 April. I suspect it would have been even faster had the Easter Bank Holiday weekend not intervened.

The keyboard adapter I ordered wasn't in the parcel, but I had some email from Tania apologising and promising to send it on.

I placed a subsequent order for another complete system and a spare docking station. This took a rather longer time: I first tried to place an order on 14 April while T-Zone were in the process of moving premises, so I didn't get confirmation of the order until 5 May. It was then delivered on 14 May 1997. This time, I got the same 5 items as before, plus two extras:


        1 x PC110 YDT 20Mb/360Mb	 128,000   640.00
        1 x Port replicator & FDD	  15,000    75.00
        1 x Lithium battery		   8,000    40.00
        1 x Keyboard adapter		   3,200    16.00
        1 x Carrying case		   5,300    26.50
        1 x Port replicator		  15,800    79.00
        1 x Hard carrying case		   9,980    49.90
	    Insurance+Shipping to U.K.    23,300   116.50
	    Total charged to credit card 208,580  1042.90

	    Duty+VAT paid by cheque on delivery	   284.41
	    Total				  1327.31