Hi,
I am sure that there are many Allie Express and Ebay vendors who do all sort of bad things and we as a community guide people away from them. Some of us (Special shout out to Slayers here) even contact the manufacturers to tell them where images are being used not representative of the girls being sold. We've chased down dodgy vendors using legitimate vendor details or selling girls that are not the girl in the image. We do police things as best we can to ensure that people buy through the correct channels where they are going to get the doll in the image and not get grief in the process.
We guide people towards UK based vendors wherever it is possible. The manufacturers of dolls that people want are not always advertised through UK vendors in which instance where one cannot get a vendor to do the importing for you then it may be necessary to import directly. I know several legitimate vendors that are not UK based and often its more cost effective to buy from them than direct from the manufacturer (that always seems strange to me. You would expect direct to be the cheapest but it seldom is).
We never guide people towards dodgy vendors or manufacturers. From my experience manufacturers and legitimate overseas vendors use the likes of DPD and UPS who handle all of the customs and then bill you (or them) for it.
Its still a lot of faffing around and better to just go straight to a vendor to get the doll that you want if at all possible.
As for Border force being more concerned with the individual thats completely understandable. If one is importing from a recognised vendor then its a fact that the vendor is not going to import anything dodgy where individuals purposefully or not may import a doll that they should not. Either because the doll is not the one they thought that they had purchased or they simply didn't know the rules. (The former is a defence, but ignorance of the law is not).
Thats another reason for importing through someone like The Doll House, Cloud Climax or Silicone Lovers (sure that you are ok with that. You have the off the peg market cornered. They have the made to measure market).
Think of it in terms of Porters five forces analysis. If the UK vendors did not exist the people that buy from them would not automatically come to Lucid but rather they would more likely start looking at the legitimate vendors in America and the Far East. That would be a real backwards step and cause all sorts of issues as there are many who have no idea who the legitate global vendors are. I know that they are upping their game with a eye on the UK and wider impact of the European markets as their products are now shown based on the IP address of the viewer to fix the old issue of dolls legal in one market not being legal in another.
Shamus.
|