New Beta store Shipments of chassis and Duty charges

[Russellc]

Jason, I sent you an email just now in regard. You asked me back when I took delivery of the chassis if they charged me duty of any sort. Well today I got an invoice from the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Customs and Border Protection, via Fed Ex.

It shows a charge on my invoice of $16.74, which is broken down as: $9.00 Total Duties, Tax, Customs, other fees, and a $7.00 "advancement fee" whatever that is.

No big deal, just before I pay it I thought I would bounce this off you and make sure this is correct. I was one of the first Beta customers and you had asked me about duty charges if any, and to advise of the way this went. It also appears the the Fed Ex handling instructions default to "weekday delivery" when I am at work. Customers may wish to have it shipped to the office in this case, or have the option to select weekend delivery, and maybe I missed it. No big deal for me, as the facility is close by and I can pick it up the same day as delivery attempt after 5:00.

Please advise on the duty thing, and you will get an email with all this as well.

Russellc

 

[pchw]

FWIW, I helped out to distributed the F5X GB items to all US participants. Fedex and DHL promptly invoiced me the duty tax and processing fees. On the top, they also notify California the shipments. CA then sent me a reminder to pay the sales tax along with tax return at the end of the year!!

 

[Jason]

Jason, I sent you an email just now in regard. You asked me back when I took delivery of the chassis if they charged me duty of any sort. Well today I got an invoice from the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Customs and Border Protection, via Fed Ex.

Thanks very much for the information Russell. As this is a new shipping method for us, we value the feedback because we want to be as realistic as possible with people about any additional fees they might incur. Looks like you were charged 2.6% plus the $7 fee, which is a little underneath what we were expecting as a worst case scenaro in our chassis shipping FAQ.

We're going to ask the last few weeks of US customers to get back to us and see who ended up getting charged duties and update our FAQ with that information.

In regards to the weekend option - I've verified that was not a selected preference by us or Hifi2000, it was selected by FedEx themselves. I'll see if we can find a way to integrate the ability to play around with that setting into our ordering process in the future.

FWIW, I helped out to distributed the F5X GB items to all US participants. Fedex and DHL promptly invoiced me the duty tax and processing fees. On the top, they also notify California the shipments. CA then sent me a reminder to pay the sales tax along with tax return at the end of the year!!

It does seem like the faster a shipment gets through customs, the more they "play by the rules".

 

[SRMcGee]

Jason:

Not to pile on, but I've had the same experience with an order for a 4U Deluxe chassis earlier this year. Customs fees were about $8.50 plus FedEx's $7 cut. Didn't mind paying it, but was surprised to have gotten the demand in the first place.

I've placed several orders directly with HiFi2000 in the past and never received a notice dunning me for Customs duties before. Now that they're using FedEx, it seems we'll be paying what we owe. Funny, but this is the first time I've ever had the opportunity to truly appreciate Italian inefficiency.

Regards,
Scott

 

[Jason]

Thanks for letting us know Scott. The original plan was for the usual number of people to get charged customs (ie: nobody), but if that's changed... we'll have to make it very clear that is is now what's to be expected. That said, we're actively looking at ways to avoid or reduce fees for future orders, as of this moment.