semeraro

Hi folks,

I tried to buy some Brian Taylor plans and parts from Traplet publications this evening. The web page automatically converted the price from pounds to dollars since my mailing address is in the US. Unfortunately the conversion did not reflect the current exchange rate. A spinner for a MK1a spitfire that cost sixteen pounds converted to thirty two dollars. That is 2 to 1. Other items converted at different rates. Has anyone in the US purchased stuff from traplet and paid the current exchange rate, or even the same rate for each item they purchased. It is saturday and they are not open so I cant call them. Just thought I would ping the community to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. I will give them a call Monday and see what is up. They even have a US office. I would like to take advantage of the more reasonable exchange rate if I can. Traplet has the full line of Brian Taylor parts and plans.

Regards,
Dave Semeraro

R8893

My Feedback: (20)

I would think that paying by credit card would get you the exact exchange. Traplet gets Pounds from M/C, you get a bill in $. That's the system when I have traveled to Europe.

semeraro

That is what I thought. I have bought stuff from Europe on M/C before and the exchange rate was correct. When you check out at the traplet site they show you the conversion to US and it definitely is not correct. It ranges from 1.75 to 2.0 US to the pound. The current rate is about 1.4 or less. Like I say, I will call the US rep on Monday and see what is up.

Maybe they just charge us yanks a bit extra ...

I will let you know what I find out. I really like the BT stuff and have all I need to build the Spitfire MK1a except the spinner.

abufletcher

Maybe it's like the trip I did to Moscow in 1991 when the official exchange rate was 1 ruble was supposed to equal 2 dollars, while out of the street the going rate was 32 rubles to the dollar! It was just a sort of political madness trying to insist that "our money's better than yours."

Maybe the Brits just want to put us "colonials" in our place!

kdc

According to the UK Traplet site the CS3334 set is normally 20 pounds, and is now discounted to 16 pounds. So it's the discount price that is not being passed on.

It may be the US agents who set the dollar price. For several years the dollar prices looked cheaper than English prices when converting at the exchange rate current at the time.

I see that the actual plan prices on some plans are also at reduced prices in Sterling at the moment. Also the canopy price seems reduced & very reasonable.


(Abufletcher yes, we British always like to have the last laugh -remember how we sold you London Bridge!!!)

semeraro

I called the US rep for traplet and they said they had several inquiries about the pricing situation but had no reason for it. I am going to try and call the home office tomorrow and see what is up. I will probably spend more on the international phone call than the difference between the web price and the amount at the current exchange rate. Or the exchange rate will have gone back up by the time I get this resolved. At any rate I must satisfy my curiosity. I will probably end up buying the parts I need and some extra stuff anyway. I mean they are Brian Taylor plans after all. I was concerned when they became unavailable a while back and vowed to pick up what I wanted if they ever became available again.

cocobear

My Feedback: (2)

you should stop wasting time on this and get back to work on your fine WW1 projects!! :-)

Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

Have you checked with Bob Holman Plans. He's the US rep. for Brian Taylors plans. www.bhplans.com

Jim

semeraro

Yes I know, but I have to keep the airplane queue full. I bought some Brian Taylor plans a while back. Then they became unobtainable for a while. Once the plans and parts came back on the market I wanted to buy what I needed for the plans I have before the parts became unavailable again.

Now back to the Albatros...

semeraro

Hi Jim,

I bought my original plan sets from Bob. Then Brian went out of the plans business for a while and Bob could not get any more stock. I thought traplet was the only authorized dealer on earth so I contacted them. I will get in touch with Bob again and see what he has.

Dave

semeraro

So here is the end of the story. I called traplet in the UK this morning and explained about their web site. They were unaware that, for instance, they were charging 12 pounds for a set of MK1a plans and only 6 dollars according to their web site currency conversion. So, depending on what you buy the exchange rate could be 2 us dollars to 1 GBP or 2 GBP per us dollar. The person I talked to did not know if the web sit actually applied the conversion or if it charged you in pounds and let the credit card do the work. At any rate they were going to inform their IT guy.

I went ahead and ordered some stuff over the phone. They charged me in pounds and I put it on the M/C. The total came out to 64 pounds plus including shipping. I bought my spinner but could not resist buying a set of plans for the Kingfisher and the 71 inch mosquito with mossie canopy set. I will now have to go back and buy the spinners for the mossie but I might use that as a web site experiment.

All in all I probably spent as much on the phone call as I saved over the web exchange rate. But I got to talk to a very nice british woman on the other end who congratulated us on our history making election. I generally like ordering stuff over the phone rather than through a web site anyway. It is nice to talk to humans and talking to humans in another country is just a bonus.

So there it is for what it is worth. Now back to the building board.