HTC Desire for ~ 16K is a reality! But how?!

Probably, many of you, like me, were “pleasantly” surprised by the official recommended price (RRP) of HTC Desire in Russia. 25990 rubles - a rather big amount for a phone based on a young, developing free OS.

The recommended price for the Nexus One suggested that the HTC Desire should have been an order of magnitude less. A quick inspection of foreign online stores showed that the price of HTC Desire ranges around 18-20K for monsters like Amazon.de, and 16-17K for online e-Tailers. Truly, hello Russian taxes and greed of local retailers ...

Thinking about the warranty and the total amount of the phone, I decided to buy.

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As a store, the British online store Clove checked by many was chosen. The beauty of this store is that it has international delivery, plus VAT is paid only by buyers from EU countries. Clove provides two types of delivery:

• Royal Mail Int. Signed For - delivery by the British Royal Mail will cost you 18 pounds. In Russia, this parcel will be delivered by the “beloved” by many Russian Post.
• Parcel Force - delivery is carried out by a courier service, which in the territory of the CIS countries miraculously turns into EMS. Such delivery is worth - 30 pounds.

So, I chose Royal Mail as the delivery. The total cost of HTC Desire with delivery was 348 pounds, or 15600 rubles at the rate of Alfa Bank. When placing an order, Clove, as true gentlemen, will ask about the authenticity of your credit card, so they will offer you several possible ways of verification:

• Or you will need to send them a scan of your driver’s license / passport or any other document confirming your identity.
• Alternatively, you will be offered to send a 6-digit transaction number, which you will need to find out via Internet banking or at the bank office.

But what about customs fees, you ask? Clove does not underestimate the cost of the invoice, so there is every chance of getting to customs. However, firstly, for Russia this amount will not be so great (about 1.6-1.7K), and secondly - up to 80% of all shipments from Clove go through customs completely without any requisitions. There is another option: for example, such a large e-Tailer, like Handtec , agrees to understate the invoice amount.

Delivery of your desired parcel sent by Royal Mail in Russian realities can take quite a lot of time (1-1.5 months), but for Ukraine everything is completely different - 5-10 days. Parcel Force will work much faster, and deliver your package in 14-21 days.

Only 5 days of anxious waiting, and my friend found the package with Clove in his mailbox (in Ukraine). You know, this is a really good option to bypass our Russian mail side =)