Shop at Shanghai


ataraxist

Member
Dec 23, 2010
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anyone know where is the best place to buy camera equipment in Shanghai? thanks.
 

Huan long building at shanghai railway station area. 2nd/3rd floor.

Orient photo has a store there.

Alternatively, xin guang building at lu ban road also has many sores
 

I will suggest sticking to buying locally branded stuff like yongnuo ...seen some fake canon battery grips, not too comfortable about buying imported stuff.
 

Huan long building at shanghai railway station area. 2nd/3rd floor.

Orient photo has a store there.

Alternatively, xin guang building at lu ban road also has many sores

both are at Puxi side of shanghai
 

thanks..just came back... some prices are ok...
 

Any idea if the prices are cheaper? Might be looking to get a lens/two if the prices are attractive. Of course, recommendations for decent stores would be great...

EDIT: Googled for a couple of Chinese forums, and seems that the service standards at Xin Guang aren't that great. And apparently there's this shady practice of issuing hand-written receipts for your purchase (from what I read, always insist on machine-printed receipts).

Indicative prices are somewhat on par with HK, but you get ease of mind when getting them from HK..
 

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SNAG said:
Any idea if the prices are cheaper? Might be looking to get a lens/two if the prices are attractive. Of course, recommendations for decent stores would be great...

EDIT: Googled for a couple of Chinese forums, and seems that the service standards at Xin Guang aren't that great. And apparently there's this shady practice of issuing hand-written receipts for your purchase (from what I read, always insist on machine-printed receipts).

Indicative prices are somewhat on par with HK, but you get ease of mind when getting them from HK..

Reason being that official invoice is tax inclusive.... if u want to pay more. Common practice. Can't have it both ways...cheap n official invoice.
 

Any idea if the prices are cheaper? Might be looking to get a lens/two if the prices are attractive. Of course, recommendations for decent stores would be great...

EDIT: Googled for a couple of Chinese forums, and seems that the service standards at Xin Guang aren't that great. And apparently there's this shady practice of issuing hand-written receipts for your purchase (from what I read, always insist on machine-printed receipts).

Indicative prices are somewhat on par with HK, but you get ease of mind when getting them from HK..

It is not shady practice. It is standard practice. Please at least try to understand how business in China work before coming to a conclusion that it is "shady".

If you do not want the official tax reciept, you will be issued the hand written receipt. This is called Shou Ju (收据)

If you want the official tax receipt, (necessary if you want international warranty but not necessary for local warranty), you need to pay 4 to 4.5% more and you will receive the computer printed tax receipt with computer generated anti-forgery code. This is called Fa Piao (发票).

Two different things.
 

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daredevil123 said:
It is not shady practice. It is standard practice. Please at least try to understand how business in China work before coming to a conclusion that it is "shady".

If you do not want the official tax reciept, you will be issued the hand written receipt. This is called Shou Ju (收据)

If you want the official tax receipt, (necessary if you want international warranty but not necessary for local warranty), you need to pay 4 to 4.5% more and you will receive the computer printed tax receipt with computer generated anti-forgery code. This is called Fa Piao (发票).

Two different things.

From a tax compliance perspective it is technically illegal and perhaps that is why someone labeled this as a shady practice...

For us consumers i guess as long as manufacturer honors the hand written receipt...it doesnt make much diff
 

From a tax compliance perspective it is technically illegal and perhaps that is why someone labeled this as a shady practice...

For us consumers i guess as long as manufacturer honors the hand written receipt...it doesnt make much diff

If you read what I was responding to, you will know what you are saying is not what the original is posting about. SInce he is correlating it to quality of SERVICE to customers...

And there are tons of stuff that are technically illegal in China and Singapore... but no one calls them "shady"... It is a well known and accepted practice in China. You can either be legal and get the tax reciept.. or if you prefer to save money, you can opt to go without the tax reciept. You still have the choice... to save money, or to be tax compliant. You as the customer has the choice AT ALL TIMES. So the stores are not shady, but the customers are.. since they are the ones requesting to save money by forgoing the tax receipts.

See below..

Any idea if the prices are cheaper? Might be looking to get a lens/two if the prices are attractive. Of course, recommendations for decent stores would be great...

EDIT: Googled for a couple of Chinese forums, and seems that the service standards at Xin Guang aren't that great. And apparently there's this shady practice of issuing hand-written receipts for your purchase (from what I read, always insist on machine-printed receipts).

Indicative prices are somewhat on par with HK, but you get ease of mind when getting them from HK..
 

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Indeed it is. The customer is the one that decides if he wants to evade paying the tax. The merchant is only the facilitator. And if you want to talk about "shadyness", the merchant can even give you a fake official receipt and you will not even know it in the very first instance. One needs to be there for a while to really understand their culture and practices. It is a very interesting place to be in.

If you read what I was responding to, you will know what you are saying is not what the original is posting about. SInce he is correlating it to quality of SERVICE to customers...

And there are tons of stuff that are technically illegal in China and Singapore... but no one calls them "shady"... It is a well known and accepted practice in China. You can either be legal and get the tax reciept.. or if you prefer to save money, you can opt to go without the tax reciept. You still have the choice... to save money, or to be tax compliant. You as the customer has the choice AT ALL TIMES. So the stores are not shady, but the customers are.. since they are the ones requesting to save money by forgoing the tax receipts.

See below..
 

If you read what I was responding to, you will know what you are saying is not what the original is posting about. SInce he is correlating it to quality of SERVICE to customers...

And there are tons of stuff that are technically illegal in China and Singapore... but no one calls them "shady"... It is a well known and accepted practice in China. You can either be legal and get the tax reciept.. or if you prefer to save money, you can opt to go without the tax reciept. You still have the choice... to save money, or to be tax compliant. You as the customer has the choice AT ALL TIMES. So the stores are not shady, but the customers are.. since they are the ones requesting to save money by forgoing the tax receipts.

See below..

Didn't realize that my comments generated so much discussion, so will add my 2 cents worth:

I came to the conclusion that the practice was 'shady' because there were instances (or so I hear/read) that some shops were issuing informal receipts to the unsuspecting consumer w/o notifying them of the potential warranty implications. Believe that the averaged discount for an informal receipt is at 4-5%, but the underlying motivation for them to do this is present as the actual VAT levies (should a formal receipt be issued) is even higher (believe it's 17%?). Also understand that it's not entirely a 100% pass-through (e.g. the store absorbs some of the tax charges.)

While the informed consumer has a choice, not all stores are that upfront in informing the consumer on this arrangement. That's why the government implements a "lucky draw" system on official receipts to encourage consumers to request for one.

I can't claim myself to fully understand the Chinese business environments, but when my local business counterpart says the same thing, I see no reason to believe otherwise. Anyway, don't see the point on the need to get so defensive - am happy to stand corrected on what I say.
 

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Didn't realize that my comments generated so much discussion, so will add my 2 cents worth:

I came to the conclusion that the practice was 'shady' because there were instances (or so I hear/read) that some shops were issuing informal receipts to the unsuspecting consumer w/o notifying them of the potential warranty implications. Believe that the averaged discount for an informal receipt is at 4-5%, but the underlying motivation for them to do this is present as the actual VAT levies (should a formal receipt be issued) is even higher (believe it's 17%?). Also understand that it's not entirely a 100% pass-through (e.g. the store absorbs some of the tax charges.)

While the informed consumer has a choice, not all stores are that upfront in informing the consumer on this arrangement. That's why the government implements a "lucky draw" system on official receipts to encourage consumers to request for one.

I can't claim myself to fully understand the Chinese business environments, but when my local business counterpart says the same thing, I see no reason to believe otherwise. Anyway, don't see the point on the need to get so defensive - am happy to stand corrected on what I say.

For people claiming warranty for camera gear within Greater China, the informal receipts are sufficient. Only when you are dealing with international warranty do you need the Tax receipts. Sellers in China will always assume the former when the customers are chinese looking and speak mandarin. Only when you ask them about international warranty will they tell you that you need to pay extra for the tax receipt.

For laptop computers, where even local warranty require tax receipt, it is automatically issued since it is already priced into the final prices.

As for VAT, it is even a lot more complex than you mentioned. Most of the VAT is already paid when the product is imported. At the retail level, VAT is only calculated for the difference between the retail price and the loaded import price. So it is not 17% of the price of the product you bought. And that is only for bigger businesses. For smaller businesses, VAT is not collected at all, only a business tax of 4-6% is collected. So if you work out the numbers, the 4.5-5.5% discount is pretty much a fair value for both situations (big business or small business).

I am not getting defensive. Just that people need to understand what is really going on before using terms as negative as "shady". And from my experience, locals do not fully understand the tax system as well, if they do not come into contact with it constantly like those in the import/export and retail lines.