Anyone used Octopus Electronics?

[domk275]

hi. I've been looking for quite some time now for a particular lens (Sony 50mm f1.8), and the cheapest I can find anywhere in the UK is £130 from LambdaTek. There are also a few HK dealers on eBay that have it at around the £105 mark, but I'm wary of buying from HK for ear of import tax etc. The price in the US of this lens is equivalent to £90.

Anyway, I've been pretty annoyed at the ridiculously high pricing of the lens in the UK, when I searched it on Google Product search for the billionth time, and found that a dealer called Octopus Electronics had suddenly dropped their prices by quite a bit. Before, it was £125. They now have it for £89, actually less than the US price. It comes with an international warranty, so it's not grey market, and it's a .co.uk domain, so they seem like they're a UK dealer.

I've looked on resellerratings.com, and I've found nothing, so that's sort of a plus, since they appear not to have any angry customers, but none singing their praises, either. I've run Google searches for them, trying to find customers, pleased or otherwise, and found ziltch. Not a thing.

So, my question is, has anyone used them before, and if so, how was the experience? If they're legit, then great, I can finally get the lens for a decent price. Otherwise, I'll probably wait a few months to see if it drops in price in other stores.

Thanks.

 

[domk275]

no text

 

[Leswick]

Apparently this place has no track record; therefore, I'd stay away. Pay little more and go to a reliable outlet....well, unless you're willing to risk and be a victim.
Your call.

Leswick

 

[Leejay Wu]

http://octopuselectronics.co.uk/contacts/?SID=8bb7bd27806b4422244078df3fbe8dd8
Octopus Electronics
Building 26
Knapp Park Road
Paignton
Devon
TQ4 7LA

http://www.mouseprice.com/property-information/ref-21604388/

Knapp Park Road in Paignton TQ4 comprises 40 homes. All of them are residential. This means that there is no commercial property in Knapp Park Road. The information below is taken from many different sources, e.g. Mouseprice.com, third-parties and the general public. There is a wealth of property market information on Mouseprice.com which you might find useful, including valuation estimates for every property in England and Wales and the data we hold on every postcode district in our area guide section.

[Querying whois.nic.uk]
[whois.nic.uk]

Domain name:
octopuselectronics.co.uk

Registrant:
Lazy Tycoon

Registrant type:
UK Sole Trader

Registrant's address:
26 knapp park road
paignton
TQ4 7LA
United Kingdom

Registrar:
GX Networks Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 28-Jul-2009
Renewal date: 28-Jul-2011
Last updated: 28-Jul-2009

Dubious.

Incidentally, that's not even an OCTOPUS on their home page; it's a squid. Whole 'nother kettle of cephalopod.

 

[WilsonEPhillips]

No text

 

[Tom_N]

It comes with an international warranty, so it's not grey market

Here in the U.S., "international warranty" is usually an indication of grey market merchandise (as in, if it breaks, you'll have to send it to a different country to get it fixed!)

 

[Tom_N]

At least the firm isn't named "Doc Ock Electronics", and isn't headquartered in New York City.

 

[Leswick]

Leejay, thanks for tracking that......us older folks are still on the learning curve.

Leswick

 

[octopuselectronics]

Hi my name is Andy and I own Octopus Electronics. I noticed some traffic coming from here on Google Analytics and thought I would check it out.

I want to clear a couple of things up and answer any questions you may have.

We have a supply deal with one of the largest distributors in Asia, which is why we are getting some of the best priced in the world. Most of the time items are sent straight form our dispatch centre in Hong Kong. Unfortunately most items do not carry a manufacturers warranty for use in the UK, Sigma is the exception to this, and as such we are purchasing 3rd party warranties from our distributor. In the very rare event that there was a problem you would send to us in the UK and we take care of the rest of the procedure.

We have changed our pricing structure and as a result now have some of the cheapest prices available in a lot of cases 5-10% cheaper than Plemix and Simply Electronics. Our original strategy was to rebate all customs charges our customers, this pushed our prices to around the same as other HK dealers but also near UK prices. We found that you would rather spend an extra 10% and get it from UK than take the risk. We decided to discontinue the customs offer which meant we could reduce our prices by a further 15-20% Our prices are now up to 50% cheaper than UK prices with the average at around 25%.

I am based in the UK at the address shown, it is a residential address as there is no need for dedicated business premises. My main tasks are answering emails, paper work and answering questions on Live Chat. In my opinion thats not worth £10k per year.

I hope I have answered your questions.

Andy

 

[WilsonEPhillips]

Please excuse the "Tentacles Reaching Into Your Pocket" comment, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the name. It was an immediate visual.

Hi my name is Andy and I own Octopus Electronics. I noticed some traffic coming from here on Google Analytics and thought I would check it out.

I want to clear a couple of things up and answer any questions you may have.

We have a supply deal with one of the largest distributors in Asia, which is why we are getting some of the best priced in the world. Most of the time items are sent straight form our dispatch centre in Hong Kong. Unfortunately most items do not carry a manufacturers warranty for use in the UK, Sigma is the exception to this, and as such we are purchasing 3rd party warranties from our distributor. In the very rare event that there was a problem you would send to us in the UK and we take care of the rest of the procedure.

We have changed our pricing structure and as a result now have some of the cheapest prices available in a lot of cases 5-10% cheaper than Plemix and Simply Electronics. Our original strategy was to rebate all customs charges our customers, this pushed our prices to around the same as other HK dealers but also near UK prices. We found that you would rather spend an extra 10% and get it from UK than take the risk. We decided to discontinue the customs offer which meant we could reduce our prices by a further 15-20% Our prices are now up to 50% cheaper than UK prices with the average at around 25%.

I am based in the UK at the address shown, it is a residential address as there is no need for dedicated business premises. My main tasks are answering emails, paper work and answering questions on Live Chat. In my opinion thats not worth £10k per year.

I hope I have answered your questions.

Andy

 

[octopuselectronics]

No worries.

I know there is a general negative feeling towards us HK dealers, especially a one new on the scene. That is why I have systems set up to monitor everything said about us almost anywhere on the web so I can open a dialog and hopefully reassure potential customers. We will be working hard to prevent a PR disaster similar to Simply Electronics or Crazy Cameras. Google their names to see what I mean.

Andy

 

[Beemer2]

Andy,

I tried to reach you today before 5pm using your chat service but hung up after 7 minutes after leaving a message.

regards,

 

[octopuselectronics]

Hi

Sorry about that, Livechat is normally live with someone at the other end. I guess we must have been on a break.

I am online now.

 

[thestyrofoam]

Hi there,

I'm an amateur photographer based in London and I've just bought a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 (Sony) from Octopus and they couldn't have been more helpful or speedy.

Their price was by far the cheapest and once I'd seen that Andy - the site's owner - had written on this forum explaining who they were, I felt a lot more confident about ordering from them. Andy was happy to answer any of my questions about import duty etc and the warranty so I went with them and got the lens for about £480. In UK shops it's normally about £699.

It was sent by FedEx from Hong Kong and arrived the next day.

The only thing worth bearing in mind with importing from abroad is that the warranty is only valid if you've paid full customs, import duty and VAT. However, Octopus say they have their own warranty for the first year and will replace or fix any defects anyway so the warranty doesn't really matter. After the first year you'd be on your own anyway.

If anyone has any questions feel free to contact me through my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77827383@N00/

best

J

 

[aardvark7]

It is very unusual, to say the least, for anyone to actively promote a business to which they have no connection.

For you to sign up as a user, for no other apprent motive, is extraordinary. In addition you claim to be in London yet your profile indicates America. Pardon me if my suspicion is misplaced, but in light of the evidence your assertion is quite ridiculous. I just hope no-one gets scammed as a consequence.
--
Get busy living, or get busy dying...

 

[thestyrofoam]

My user profile probably says America because I haven't got round to changing it yet - I only joined as a contributor to dpreview earlier today before heading into work.

The reason I wrote my response was because I too was a little suspicious of using Octopus Electronics and a Google search a few weeks back had brought up this forum discussion. I could see that others had reservations, but also that the owner had taken the time to answer some of those reservations.

I thought that seeing as I'd actually used Octopus and had a positive experience it'd be worth imparting that knowledge to other people. In my mind I saw it as no different to writing a seller review on something like eBay and hoped it would help people. Apologies if it's not the done thing on this forum but in my mind the more consumers give feedback - whether positive or negative - the more sellers have to make sure they give a good service.

In the interests of transparancey I also gave a link to my Flickr account for anyone to contact me. From that you can easily see who I am and where I work (I just didn't want to publicise that too widely on an open forum).

Hope that helps clear things up. I'm not some Octopus stooge, just simply someone who used their services, was impressed by them and wanted to tell fellow photographers that - from my own experiences - they're worth considering.

 

[aardvark7]

I just made the point because one usually needs to see a good history of a poster to gauge their sense and honesty. All too often these days people fall foul of unscrupulous traders from far-flung shores and these forums are a constant witness to it.

I am glad that you have had an excellent experience and, as long as the company looks after its customers, ensures that they know the goods are sourced abroad, the shipping times involved with possible delays for clearance and that customs duty is liable, then they should do nicely.
I have no axe to grind if we can get good service and better prices!
--
Get busy living, or get busy dying...

 

[thestyrofoam]

Absolutely, and I agree that people buying from abroad should be very aware of warranty and import issues. Check out the UK distributor, ask them what guarantees they can give you and if you feel in anyway uncomfortable go to a High Street store instead.

The online shops know they have to earn people's trust so make them earn it! ;-)

 

[octopuselectronics]

Hi

Thanks for the excellent review, it's nice knowing our efforts are appreciated. Nice shots btw, you really know how to capture a moment.

Andy