Yes, except that's when I started trying to download on this occasion. I agree that usually this is the best time, but didn't seem to make any difference this time. Still, I've got it now, so not too much of a hassle.

Well, it eventually took me over 6 hours to download the 600 odd meg application file using e-ons downloader, it then took me 25 minutes to download the 1100 odd meg extras file using free download manager.

E-on need a better downloader.

I get 25ms to 4.2.2.2

I'm in the UK.

I'm trying again, currently downloading at 62Kbyte/s

I got 400Kbyte/s downloading a quick test file from fileHippo before I tried downloading vue8 again.

I'm currently getting a ping of around 137ms to e-on, google is 22ms

The cache is already bigger, and always clear before starting to download. I'm not sure why turning off anti-virus would help in this instance, it scans the downloader application when it first runs then doesn't interfere. As I said I can download other, larger files without any issues.

In this case it appears to be an issue with e-on's servers which won't be affected by anything I do at my end.

"Customers requesting a Physical Shipment to any EU country WILL BE RESPONSIBLE for any VAT and Broker Surcharges charged by the carrier - generally 15-17% of the order value – payable at the time of delivery."

The bit about broker surcharges is new, it was not there when I ordered, it only mentioned VAT and customs duty.

This is a very quick 1st render 'straight' out of the box with only a couple of very minor tweaks to the dials - default P8 lighting (studio soft top) with IDL and 'advanced' textures.

I was impressed with the speed of the render and for a 1st render using only what came with P8 I think the 'realism' is way above previous versions - sure there is still work needed but where would the fun be if you could produce superb images without learning the new features properly :-)

Interestingly I've now heard back from UK trading standards, this is now common practice and all couriers, including the Post Office now do this. This is because UK customs now only accept payment for import duty and VAT from a particular registered deferment account. If the 'importer' doesn't have such an account then they will automatically take payment from the courier. The courier is allowed to charge an admin fee to cover this.

Trading standards make clear that the fault lies with SM for NOT making clear that such a charge will apply. SM are also at fault for incorrectly labelling the packaging resulting in a customs overcharge of VAT as they apply a standard shipping rate plus adjustment where shipping costs are not shown.

Thus any 'irk' should be directed towards SM for not making this clear and not towards UPS who are following standard UK practice.

I've now finally (after numerous e-mails) received a breakdown of the charges from UPS

Breakdown of charges:
VAT              18.42 GBP
Duty              0.00 GBP
Disbursement 11.00 GBP
Total              29.42 GBP

Value of the goods : $129.99 divided by the UK Exchange Rate 1.6436 = £79.08
Cost of Shipping     : £37.42
Total                     : £116.50

Description of the goods : POSER 8 HYBRID DVD using tariff : 9950000000 incurring 0% Duty.

Calculation of Vat:
£116.50 + £6.35 (Delivery Charge from the Point of Entry to the Destination) = £122.85 x 15% (UK Vat Rate) = £18.42

Note that UK customs add on an arbitary £6.35 VAT value adjustment where the shipping rate is not stated on the package, so we are paying VAT not only on the shipping charge but also on an additional £6.35 applied by UK customs.

However, the key part is that UPS are applying an £11 brokerage charge which they should not be doing unless they had offered this service to the end customer and the end customer accepted the service and charge or unless the despatching vendor had contracted this service and made clear to the customer that this service would be applied on the customers behalf and that an additional charge would be made for this service. As neither of these things happened I will attempt to recover this element of the charge and do have grounds for a complaint to UK trading standards. I suggest others who are unhappy also complain (not sure it will get anywhere but hey!)

In order for a handling charge to be considered 'fair and reasonable' under UK law it must bear some relation to the costs actually incurred by UPS.   Granted there will be some additional minor overhead in paying the customs fees but given that they are already being paid a fee by SM for the shipping and handling this additional 'fee' does not seem reasonable, It will be interesting to see what Trading Standards say.

This is the only 'disclaimer' on the SM site

"If you live outside the United States, custom and tariff fees may apply according to your countries import laws. These fees are not collected by this company, and this company does not have control of these fees."

No mention of addtional UPS charges

Yep, I've just got the UPS note through my door - the £29.42 charge is more than 30% of the cost of the software and shipping and handling and there is no explanation or breakdown of the charges either on the note or on their website.

Checking with customs, there should be import duty and VAT due but that doesn't come to anyway near the £29.42 - clearly the extra are the UPS charges.

I shall be contacting trading standards and SM should make very clear at the point of purchase that the courier they use will apply additional charges over and above VAT and import duty so I will be complaining to them as well.

The last physical Poser package I purchased was delivered from Ireland so avoided this, in truth I have never had to pay customs charges on anything I've purchased before, software, books, DVDs or games, just lucky upto now I guess :-(

1.5 GB of new content, 1.8 GB of legacy content, think I might go for a boxed copy rather than a download this time :-)

No, it is just the 'flat' angle, you can just about see some foam around the land/water interface.

Quad core Q6600 with 4GB Ram on Vista 32