Six things to check before you buy AV equipment online.
Buying AV online is easy until something needs fixing. These are the questions worth asking any supplier before you place an order — including us.
Is there a UK company behind the website?
A .co.uk domain and prices in pounds prove nothing. Plenty of sites selling into the UK have no UK entity at all, which makes them hard to hold to anything if an order goes wrong.
TopAV is a trading name of Strive AV Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 04102256, VAT GB769341302. You can look us up at Companies House before you spend a penny.
Where do the goods actually ship from?
Equipment forwarded from outside the UK arrives slowly, arrives with paperwork, and sometimes arrives with a bill attached.
Your order ships from within the UK — from our own UK stock or through our UK distribution partners — so it never crosses a customs border. We are based at Unit 4C, Birches Industrial Estate, Felbridge, East Grinstead, RH19 1XZ.
Who honours the warranty, and where?
A manufacturer warranty is only as good as the route to claiming it. If that route runs back to a seller in another country, a failed display becomes your logistics problem.
The manufacturer warranty is honoured here in the UK and we handle the claim. You call us; we deal with the manufacturer. No shipping a 75-inch panel overseas at your own cost.
Will anyone actually come out and fix it?
A box-shifter can replace a unit. It cannot get someone onto a school site during half term to work out why the ceiling projector has stopped talking to the lectern.
Our engineers are UK-based and employed by us — the same team that installs and commissions systems for universities, hospitals and corporate estates. Installation, commissioning and callout are all available.
Will duty or customs charges be added on delivery?
This is where a cheaper headline price usually goes. Import duty, VAT collected at the border and a courier handling fee can all land after you have already paid.
No. Goods ship within the UK, so there is nothing to pay on the doorstep — no duty, no customs charge, no courier handling fee. Delivery is costed up front at checkout, and you can switch the whole site between inc. and ex. VAT pricing at the top of any page.
Can you raise a purchase order and get a proper VAT invoice?
Schools, trusts, NHS bodies and most businesses cannot buy on a card against a foreign invoice. Procurement needs a PO, a UK VAT number and a document their finance system will accept.
Yes. Business and education accounts can order against a purchase order, and every invoice carries our UK VAT number, GB769341302. Call 0808 501 2545 to set an account up.
Talk to someone in Felbridge.
9am–5pm, Monday to Friday. Ask for a specification, a quote against a purchase order, or just a sanity check on something you have been quoted elsewhere.