When I send gear to non EU countries I have to fill out a 'Commercial Invoice' in quadruplicate, containing the products international tariff code, a description of the product, a statement of what country it was made in, my VAT status, and reason for export. This all has to be put in a plastic envelope and firmly attached to the outside of the parcel.
All fine ... though somewhat of a 'procedure' as I am starting to export more and more to the US and Japan.
The issue then is the dozy f--kers in the destination country customs not reading, or just plain ignoring the information provided.
I have lost count of the parcels bounced back from the US for stupid reasons like 'contains batteries' when both the tariff code and product description clearly show that it doesn't! On Saturday I got a parcel 'held' in Japanese customs due to 'insufficient paperwork'
and a need to know VAT Status, country of manufacture and reason for export. Luckily I keep copies of all outgoing commercial invoices ... and lo and behold all the info they wanted was there ... on the paperwork they clearly had! When this sort of thing is a weekly occurrence you start to wonder about the cost in your own time for contributing to the UK's exports!
And if 'No Deal' happens it will be far, FAR worse!
Comments
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Just costs you 50% of your margin ...
The funny thing is, that once you are in the US, most people are really friendly. There seems to be something about government jobs with guns that attracts all the psychos over there.
goldtop said: I had that with DPD today ... they had the Commercial Invoice details on their system ... as they issued them to me ... yet the bean brain on their 'live chat' service (they don't have phones apparently) had none of those details available in front of him. DPD weren't even going to call or e mail me that there was an issue ... and if it were not for my sharp eyed customer tracking his parcel and letting me know, it would have been held for the statutory time then bounced back to me ... and I would have been over £30 quid for a Japanese delivery out of pocket. Last time that happened from the US the couriers lost the parcel on the return journey ... and I wound up nearly £200 down the sh-tter.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
I assume the speed will be slower than DPD or UPS but it's also a lot cheaper.
Just in case that leads to a sensible discussion and something getting resolved easily.
...although I do appreciate the hypocrisy of making this comment on an online forum!
And I wholeheartedly agree with your statement about customs folks. You should try shipping something to Africa.
or maybe that's the tories' dastardly plan to purposefully occupy-distract you while your business lifeblood is grildocked in a kent sliproad for months at a time. grim times.