[QtonPi] going to refuse the "free" one

[Anderson Lizardo]

Hi Jesus,

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Jesus Sanchez-Palencia
<jesus.palencia at openbossa.org> wrote:
> I just got the UPS notice that my board has arrived in Brazil but I
> will refuse mine as well.
>
> It is NOT that the board itself is not worthy the cost. I had the
> chance to hack on a board already for a week or so and it surely
> rocks!
>
> My reasons are more related to "moral" than to money. I can't stand
> paying 100 dollars of taxes on something that cost 35 dollars to the
> final customer. This is killing the entire point of Raspberry Pi
> boards being cheap and accessible, IMHO.

My plan is to pay for whatever taxes they come with, and complain
loudly to some government representative (maybe they pay attention due
to elections this year). Not sure if it will make any difference, but
it will surely cost me much less than a RPi in Brazil to try.

I think I have enough evidence to at least describe how awful is the
process to get something *for free* in Brazil: the mail letter with
notification saying I'm a "importer" (how much lucrative is to resell
a single $35 product?) and that I'm importing "electronic components -
memory" (??), discrepancies between weights on departure and arrival,
no clear explanation for the "administrative cost" and where it comes
from or how it is calculated (and why it is varying so much), voice
call from UPS saying clearly that shipping cost was paid by sender,
although I will pay taxes with this value included etc.

BTW, I haven't received mine yet (it already arrived in Manaus, so
should be delivered today), so I need to get the product, accept it
properly to get all receipts and then proceed with the tedious
complaint. I do not expect to get reimbursed, just add noise to the
matter (which is only affecting me now, I seemed to be "lucky" so far
and not get taxed for other things I bought in the past).

It's worthy noting that the RPi is already selling in Brazil by a
Farnell reseller, but it is also very expensive.

Best Regards,
-- 
Anderson Lizardo
Instituto Nokia de Tecnologia - INdT
Manaus - Brazil