Do you pay Import Duty Buying from SLR Hut? How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?

How much is Import Customs Duty with SLR Hut? How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?




Do you pay Import Duty Buying from SLR Hut?
How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?

Despite the .co.uk domain name SLR Hut is based in the USA so any goods ordered from them are liable for import duty consisting of VAT at 20% plus Customs duty. It has been reported that SLR Hut illegally declare extremely low values for goods they send to the UK in order to evade UK taxes and duties.

If you are caught with packages that have been declared of low value but are actually worth more then you could be liable for the additional VAT and duty that has been underpaid. Even if the value is declared low then you are still obliged to pay the duty and handling fee for the goods before you can receive them.

As an example we ordered some equipment costing £160 from Hong Kong and the duty including the shipping agents charge was £35 on top of the cost of the goods. It also appears that SLR Hut will sell you overpriced accessories and warranties which make their prices no cheaper than the goods you can buy in the UK without the same pressure selling techniques or hassle of ordering from abroad.

Facebook Website Down 10 December 2012? Facebook DNS look-up failed

Looks like the Facebook website is currently down as of 10 December 2012. All other websites I use  are ok but Facebook is currently showing the following message on Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

and on Google Chrome the message given is:

This web page is not available

How to fix "Facebook DNS look-up failed" error

Unfortunately as the DNS look-up failed error is due to a problem with the Facebook servers then there is no fix you can use on your PC to resolve it. As mobile devices can sometimes use different methods and routes to access Facebook you may be able to connect using your cellphone/mobile phone or iPhone/iPad with the Facebook app instead.

Facebook Error Messages 

The server at www.facebook.com can't be found because the DNS look-up failed. DNS is the network service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the Internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accessing the network.



Facebook Website Down 10 December 2012? Facebook DNS look-up failed

This follows an outage on Google's Gmail service earlier today when the email platform used by millions worldwide was unavailable for around 15 minutes from 5pm GMT.

Previously this message has occured when Facebook's server database has failed meaning the servers controlling internet traffic lookups are unable to connect to it

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

• Internet connectivity has been lost.
• The website is temporarily unavailable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
• There might be a typing error in the address.
• If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

Baumatic B144SS Oven Not Heating Up - Fan Not Working

The Baumatic oven in our rental property seems to be a fairly unreliable piece of equipment. The fan has already failed once and I had a call from the tenants this week that the Baumatic B144SS electric oven was not working after the rear of the oven/fan started glowing hot and the Baumatic oven was no longer heating up.

It appears that the element has failed on the Baumatic oven and that the element needs to be replaced. There are 4 screws holding on the rear plate of the oven which covers the fan and element. On inspection the element had broken so was no longer a continuous loop. A replacement element was £25.



Baumatic Oven Not Heating Up - Element replacement

The element is straightforward to fit and is attached by 2 screws that are easily accessible.

Once the element is replaced then the rear plate can be fitted back with the 4 screws again.

Sumvision Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet Review

This is a review of the Cyclone Astro+ by Sumvision which is a 7" Android Tablet running Android 4.0.1 ICS that connects via WiFi.

The tablet is well constructed and allows access to the Google Play store. It has a slot to enable additional storage to be added using micro SD cards.


Sumvision Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet Review

The main downside that I have found with the Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet is the Wifi connection doesn't automatically restore when in range of a previously used network. There may be a software update to resolve this but it is frustrating to need to reset the WiFi every time you move back into range of a hotspot or the tablet wakes from sleep mode

Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP

Are you having problems with Microsoft Money where it crashes on startup ? The error given is APPCRASH and identifies NTDLL.DLL as being the cause.

I recently had a MS Money file that crashes everytime that it was opened, leaving an LRD file behind of the same name as the MNY file. MS Money closed as soon as the program loaded and it wasn't possible to update any settings in the file.

On further investigation it appears that there was an error with the reports that were being shown on the home screen. A different MS Money file could be opened successfully and data viewed. In addition the repair option within Money was tried and this didn't detect any errors in the file.

In order to resolve the problem I tried a number of different solutions suggested in various forums including changing DEP settings to exclude MS Money from being checked but none of these worked.

As I thought the problem was due to the home screen configuration trying to display some invalid data and other files opened ok, I thought that being able to change the home screen configuration may resolve the problem of MS Money crashing on startup if the settings applied to any MS Money file not just the one open at the time.

The solution I found was as below:

Step 1:
Run MS Money with a new or blank file

Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP

Step2:
Go to the Tools menu and select Settings.

Step 3:
In MS Money settings, choose the Homepage Display options

Step 4:
Remove all the items in the list so the homepage will be blank.


Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP

Step 5:
Close MS Money and re-open the file that was generating the error.

Hopefully your MS Money file will now open successfully.

This experience has reminded me of the benefits of having multiple version backups of your MS Money files so that you can restore back to a recent timepoint rather than needing to input masses of  data again.

Canon Pixma MG6150 Scanner Error 214550 WiFi

I've recently started getting Error Code 2,145,50 on my Canon Pixma MG6150 Printer/Scanner when scanning multi page documents back to my PC using WiFi. This has never happened before but is now happening routinely whenever scanning. The PC is running Windows Vista 64 bit.

The last scan I successfully did was at the start of Oct so I am wondering if one of the Microsoft updates in mid October has affected security or some internal settings.



Canon Pixma MG6150 Scanner Error 214550 WiFi

As soon as I find a solution I will post it here but if anyone has a fix please post a reply below.

Newsnight PPI Scam Claim Company Ripoffs

Rather appropriately after I posted on the blog earlier today about the PPI Text message scams that are annoying mobile users across the country BBC Newsnight ran a report this evening about the PPI Claims industry and their methods for gaining customers.

PPI Claims Spam Text SMS message companies
Entitlement Agency PPI Claim ripoff



Newsnight PPI Scam Claim Company Ripoffs