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Amazon will now sell electricals to Europe...


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[quote user="puzzled"]Is it that straight forward to change wires from UK to French? Serious question as I still use adaptor plugs;[/quote]

Yes it is.

The wiring colour code is exactly the same. Brown is live, blue is neutral and green/yellow is earth in both countries.

A UK plug has the brown connected to one side of the fuse carrier, on the right as you look at the plug with top removed, the blue (neutral) is connected to the left hand pin and the earth (if fitted) is connected to the top pin (at 12 0 clock position if you imagine the plug as a clock face)

If the UK plug is moulded in place, as many are these days, the plug will have to be cut off and the cores stripped back.

There are various types of French plugs but all share the common fact that none of them have a fuse in them, unlike UK plugs. Both live and neutral lines are protected at the ''fuse box'' ( not by fuses normally but by m.c.bs - mini circuit breakers (disjoncteurs) ) It is common practice to have the live (brown) connected to the right hand pin - viewed looking towards the wall socket with the earth at '12 o clock' This a practice but is not mandatory as the socket wiring may not in fact be done that way.

It would seem from the impression given by your question that you are not familiar with, or never have, fitted a plug to an appliance in UK, in that event I would suggest that you do not start now without one-on-one, hands on, face to face teaching by someone who is familiar with the operation, simple though it is.

This is not meant to be a derogatory comment but the basic fact is that messing about with electrics can be fatally dangerous and should only be done by those with the confidence and knowledge to do so.

If my assumption and impression is wrong, I apologise and you should have no problems.

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[quote user="puzzled"]Is it that straight forward to change wires from UK to French? Serious question as I still use adaptor plugs;[/quote]

Using adaptors on anything that is high wattage can be very dangerous as they can melt and catch fire. Adaptors are designed for temporary usage on low wattage appliances such as electric shavers, phone chargers, laptops etc. I would recommend that you consider changing you UK plugs to French plugs ASAP.

Baz

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I bought a Logitech universal remote from the UK website shipping to my French address sent from Amazon EU S.a.r.L (I assume thats in France) and came with a French/European charger. Bit of a pain if I wanted to take it back the UK but I don't so its not a problem.
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[quote user="puzzled"]

. I have fitted UK plugs in the past but now that most plugs ( in France and the UK) are already fitted with them , I really don't have any idea what goes on in a French plug but I did wonder as UK plugs have 3 pins and French ones, two, so thanks for your clear explanation.

[/quote]

For most appliances it does not matter which wire is connected to which pin. After all, you cannot guarantee that you will always insert the plug the same way round into a socket, can you? In many cases the only difference between a UK product and a French product is the plug - many UK plugs have a plastic pin where the earth pin should be. There are even some UK plugs in which when you remove the cover you find a secured two pin plug.

There are some products in France which require an earth, but these are designed to fit into earthed sockets which have a pin sticking out of the socket.

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[quote user="gosub"]"Amazon will now sell electricals to Europe... " Oh no they won't[6]

I tried this week to buy a Humax PVR recorder from them, they say it can't be delivered to France[8-)]
[/quote]

Was it a freeview or a freesat equipped box? it might be that these are only for sale in the UK. Or maybe if it wasn't from Amazon but from the Amazon marketplace, the seller (i.e. not Amazon) can choose where to send the items.

Danny

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I have just bought an iPod and they are shipping it over and they didn't charge me 19.6% niever, so there [:P][:D]

Amazon.fr is 1/2 as much again even with the shipping for the same model!

I have also bought a Fein Multimaster from Axminster and by the time that was shipped over it was 2/3 the price that I could get it anywhere here. It also came with over £60 worth of extras aswell. Big thank you Teapot, that was a VERY good buy!!!

And they say Rip Off Britain?

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It may be different if you buy from Amazon marketplace. but on "main"  Amazon transactions as soon as it sees a French address it applies 19.6% to both the goods and the postage.

Have you checked the actual VAT rate implicit in the bill.

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Well I bought from Amazon UK a video game and some DVD's and I paid 19.5% TVA, by bill is as follows.:

Order #: khdghjhgjajkghklgg
Delivery Method:
Delivery Preference:Group my items into as few deliveries as possible
Subtotal of Items:   £56.73
Postage & Packing:   £6.15
  ------
Total before VAT:   £62.88
VAT:   £12.31
  ------
Total:   £75.19
Promotional Gift Certificates:   -£0.00
  ------
Total:   £75.19
Gift Certificates:   -£75.00
  ------
Total for this order:   £0.19

 
Delivery estimate: 30 April 2009 - 1 May 2009
Dispatch estimate for these items: 27 April 2009

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