[Healeys] Customs Duty Invoice

[Alan Seigrist]

Curt, et al.,

My initial analysis on this issue may be wrong.

I remember when I was living in the US and ordering from the UK, I
purposefully asked AH Spares/SC Parts/Cape to send stuff to me via Royal
Mail.  Also, whenever I send gifts from Asia (now that I live here) to the
US I always send it via Air Mail.

The reason was/is that I have found that if stuff goes via mail, it does not
get inspected by US Customs.    If you send anything to the US via a private
for profit carrier, like UPS, Fed Ex, DHL or TNT, they will ALWAYS run it
through US Customs.

I believe this is done because the USPS and US Customs are both Government
union shops, so this is bit of an internal protection racket, and a form of
non-financial government support for the USPS.

It is what it is.  If you want to avoid duties in the US, always insist on
your items to be sent via mail carrier.

Alan

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Neil Anderson <neilandcustom at gmail.com>wrote:

> In May of '09, I got a bill from FedEx for $29.50 for customs/import fees
> after I received a large order valued at a little over $1000 from AH
> Spares.
> It probably was the dollar total for your order that caused the import
> fees.
> Even if you had made smaller orders, you may have paid higher shipping fees
> in total, but not an extra import charge.  I think you have to try find out
> who handled the actual import of the parcel.  If you can't, then make
> inquires why you got the invoice from that company.
>
> Neil Anderson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: healeys-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:
> healeys-bounces at autox.team.net]
> On Behalf Of Curt/Nancy Arndt
> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 6:41 PM
> To: Healey List
> Subject: [Healeys] Customs Duty Invoice
>
> Hi All,
>
> I recently received a $1,500 order from AH Spares.  However this time I
> received a second invoice from a Company named TNT Express charging me
> $40.88 for US Customs related charges.
>
> This is the first time I've been billed for customs on overseas orders.
> Does anyone have any experience with this?  Did the dollar amount trigger
> this charge?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Curt