Purchasing
Buying an item listed on
the Heritage Guns Web Site
The combination of firearm retail legislation, the unique nature of
our products and rules concerning the cross border use of charge cards
means that you will not find a 'Buy It Now' button on our web site!
We regret that we do not have charge card facilities of any kind.
Stock levels of our accessories and the status of our larger items such
as cases or guns change day by day so we would invite you to contact
us in the first instance by email
to establish availability and current price.
Invoicing
Once the item's availability has been established, if you wish to proceed
with the purchase, we will issue an detailed invoice (including all
relevant taxes and shipping costs) and supply you with payment details.
In the case of firearms, the invoice will also incorporate an Insurance
Waiver which must be signed, dated and the original returned to ourselves
or our agent by recorded post before the firearms can be shipped.
Payment
Payment can only be made by cash in person or by cheque or wire transfer
to our banks in either the UK or USA. In the case of wire transfer,
we ask that ALL transfer charges are paid by the customer (at both the
originator and recipient banks). Some banking systems will have an option
to do this on the wire transfer instruction, others not, in which case
we can supply you with an invoice that includes the charges at our end.
Payments in currencies
other than UK Pounds Sterling
A short email
inquiry to us will result in a prompt price quotation in
your own currency.
Alternatively you can go to any of the web sites that give up to date
official exchange rates, eg. XE.Com,
apply the rate to the UK Pound Sterling price, add 5% to the result
for currency exchange charges and this will give you a reasonably accurate
price in your chosen currency.
Where the payment is made to our USA bank account, the invoice will
be issued in US Dollars and we will calculate the invoice to take account
of the international transfer charges that we incur moving the funds
back to the UK. These charges vary between banks and although we make
every effort to minimize them, if the sums are considerable, it way
be worth investigating if transferring the sum directly to our UK bank
would save you money.
If you opt for this, do not forget that you need to arrange for the
correct amount in UK Pounds to be credited to our UK bank account, almost
certainly a very different figure to the US Dollar amount divided by
the official government exchange rate!
The Dreaded VAT
All sales to customers
within the EU are subject to VAT. The rate is currently 20%.
Confusingly, there is also a rate of 5% for items over 100 years of age
but this is only applicable to IMPORT VAT. To keep prices for sales
within the UK and EU as low as possible, we use the 'VAT Margin'
scheme whereby the vendor only needs to charge VAT on the 'value added'
portion of the item, not the original cost. However, there is strict
rule that VAT can not be itemised in either the original purchase
invoice nor our sales invoice. This means that VAT can not be recovered
by a VAT registered business.
To be honest, it is best to ask for a price
including all costs and taxes and then there is no room for misunderstanding.
Sales to customers who reside outside the EU are generally 'Zero Rated'
for VAT, i.e. there is no VAT on that purchase.
However, this exception only applies to the 'sale of goods', not 'services'.
Therefore, if you ship a gun, case or accessory to us for any servicing
or repair, the bill will be subject to VAT @ 20%. Yes, we know that
is just plain weird but it is the law.
Cross Border Purchases
As described in Export
& Import, exporting items subject to export control such
as firearms can be complicated and costly so we export a majority of
such items in bulk to be exhibited at appropriate venues across the
USA. Those items not sold at the event are often left behind in the
USA on consignment with our trusted agents. These can then be purchased
directly from the agent for little more than the list price.
Three day, non-firing inspection
Generally firearms on consignment in the USA can be shipped subject
to a 3 day, non-firing inspection period.
Firstly we will issue an Invoice/Insurance Waiver which must be signed,
dated and returned by recorded mail to our agent. You will then pay
in full for the item plus the outbound insured shipping and once the
payment has cleared, the item will be shipped.
You then have three days from the day of receipt for you or your experts
to examine the item (but not test fire it with live ammunition). Unless
we hear from you before the end of the 3 days inspection period, the
sale becomes final. If you have a valid reason to believe that the gun
is substantially not as described and notify us within the 3 day inspection
period, you can return the gun IN ITS ORIGINAL CONDITION by insured
shipping at your own cost. If the gun arrives back with us in a reasonable
time, is totally unmarked and in its original condition, we will refund
the cost of the gun but not any shipping charges. Any damage to the
gun will be rectified in our workshops in the UK and an amount to cover
shipping to the UK and the labour/parts incurred will be deducted from
the sum originally paid.
Warrantees
Please see the Warrantees
page dedicated to this matter.