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Blackhorse

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International shipping is an important issue for all of us to give thought to.

Let me share one of the worst situations I've ever encountered here or elsewhere online. An exchange...me here in the USA...my counterpart in the UK. I was to send specific, agreed upon blends and he was doing the same...plus extras, etc. The package from his end arrived and was excellent...exactly as specified. Cool! My end...well, it encountered the UK. Like many countries they have very stringent and harsh regulations re: tobacco products coming into their fair land. He mentioned this and I suggested that perhaps I should, er...'downplay' the aspect of their being tobacco items inside the box on the customs form. He said, "No." Not to do that...so I was accurate in my listing of the contents which included well aged Dunhill blends, stored and shipped in bulk form, among other things. The values I listed for the items were not high and reflected what one would pay here for garden variety bulk blends from online vendors. When the box got to the UK it was flagged for inspection (a process that took over 2 weeks as I recall). When the box finally got to the guy over there they "taxed" him an equivalent of about a hundred bucks US!!! In addition, the blends that left here in good condition, he said, arrived dry and in very poor shape. I have no idea what the characters over there did...put it under heat lamps? If they opened the ziplocks and left them open in a dry enviroment that could have done it I guess. He was REALLY pissed...I was mortified, but helpless to provide a remedy as I had followed his instructions to the letter.

The point of all this is that when you send a package out of the good 'ol USA...it can be a crap shoot...for both of you. You might actually be violating some unknown laws, even if you do due diligence regarding researching local legal requirements, etc. You might be getting yourself and the other party into serious trouble.

If it was me...I'd disallow any sales or trades intended to go outside our borders. Since I can't do that, I will just say...be very, very careful! Quiz the other party about their local laws re: 'importing' even if it's a 'gift', etc. and then follow the customs requirements to the letter! Do NOT try to mask the fact that the box contains tobacco (if it does) as this could make matters worse, perhaps MUCH worse. Err on the side of being carefully straightforward, etc.

Please note that this sticky is a sort of 'official warning' from BoB regarding the potential hassles and/or dangers of shipping outside the USA. As such, it will be kept undiluted by deleting any and all added posts. Note that you are welcome to start new threads regarding personal experiences relating to shipping items...in fact, I think that would be an excellent topic. Thanks for your help and understanding.
 
I'm adding the following story here, provided by Greyson who lives in the UK. Direct details of a horror story!


I thought I'd made a similar post to this before that I could tag it on to, but I cant find it and maybe I imagined it... I apologise if this becomes a duplicate thread.

Anyhow, for those of you in the UK / Ireland buying from outside the EU... be very careful. I've had a couple of close calls now with people selling saying they are inside the EU when they were in fact in the USA... It doesn't matter to them, they made their sale, but on our end we risk getting destroyed by HMRC, and I had a bit of that today.

So I'd bought some mason Jars to start getting brands I like in quantity and to store them properly, and I thought I'd start with the two that really got me into pipesmoking, Tewkesbury & Co's Nosferatu and Hobbits weed. So I ordered 8 ounces of each. Tewkesbury & Co refuse to ship to the UK, so I have to use a expensive mail forwarding service called MYUS which forwards mail that senders wont send out of the US.

So, the tobacco cost something like $34, the mail forwarding cost another $30-40 (I don't get their exact charges until I receive the package) and because its their business they wont lie / bend the truth on their customs declarations, or call it a gift, so I knew I was going to incur some duty on it when it got here. I had a phone call this afternoon from my local customs agent telling me that they were holding my package until I paid the £147.80 charge on it. £147.80 on something worth $34!!! That's $236.29 by the way. For one pound of tobacco!! I argued my case through four departments, referrals and supervisors... they wouldn't budge on the charge, they wouldn't send it back and they wouldn't destroy it. I owed them the money and that was that. The last guy I spoke to said I was absolutely right on the law and categories of tobacco in cases of import, but that didn't matter as they didn't charge based on what it was, they charged based on the VALUE OF THE PACKAGE. At which point I started laughing hysterically, as the value of the package was $34. Somehow in crazy maths world, a value of £21.27 (the equivalent of $34 in pounds) gets a customs charge of £80 something, then a VAT charge of 17.5%, then an administration charge, then a handleing charge. I was amazed at what these bastards are allowed to get away with.
 
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