At Least I'm Not Dead. (official Blog Update)

[danielliu88888]

there's like a 10% chance that I'd end up processing your shipment if you shipped it FedEx, because my shift deals with most of the UK freight. I even have a couple geeky co-workers who have been following progress on the Pandora as well. Sigh.

Anyway, there are a few key phrases you'll want to include on your invoice that us analysts are trained to zone in on. It looked like they've been covered already in this thread, but I would suggest anyway including all of the following statement on your invoice close to the description of your product.

"Temporary export being shipped to the U.S. for assembly. To be shipped back to the UK for further processing."

Now my job is extremely mind-numbing. The majority of us are almost completely brain-dead most of the day. On top of that, many of the people I work with are frankly just plain stupid. So it wouldn't hurt at all to repeat key sections of that phrase liberally throughout your documents.

One other tip that might help is to include an FCC form, even if the items you're shipping don't require it. I *think*, though I may be wrong, that box 5 on the standard FCC form signifies a temporary export, and that is almost impossible for us to miss.

If you still need help, feel free to e-mail me at SalmonGod@gmail.com - I have access to all the official stuff and know a lot of the stupid customs politics, so I could even get the proper tariff # for you and some document templates and such if that would help.

**EDIT**

A couple things to add after reading through the thread... I shouldn't have, but I couldnt help myself

MacGuyver - "I'm not sure if UPS works the same way, but with Fedex you are able to assign your own customs broker to your account."

We call these CPA accounts and I've always wondered if they're even worth it. Our CPA department seems to be experts at dodging their workload. We'll have explicit documentation stating that a shipment is to be processed by CPA, but they'll invent BS beaurocratic excuses to delegate them to standard processing anyway. I've noticed a couple major corporations drop their names from the CPA list recently, too.

Regardless, I would still recommend FedEx. Not because I work there or I think we're more dedicated or anything, but because FedEx brokerage works directly with U.S. Customs officers. We literally share offices. If there are problems, we have people that will just walk down the hall and talk with them, though they'll avoid it if they can because they're anything but friendly people. Because of our direct relationship, we kind of get to work under special rules and get more privileges then other brokers.


big and bold!

 

[fusion_power]

Regardless, I would still recommend FedEx. Not because I work there or I think we're more dedicated or anything, but because FedEx brokerage works directly with U.S. Customs officers. We literally share offices. If there are problems, we have people that will just walk down the hall and talk with them, though they'll avoid it if they can because they're anything but friendly people. Because of our direct relationship, we kind of get to work under special rules and get more privileges then other brokers.

Uh, maybe you know, there was a REASON, why they didn't used FedEx anymore:

 

[cosurgi]

Thursday already, still no luck Craig?

 

[aesir911]

The Chinese companies (on Chinese wholesale sites) always ship items through the national post (EMS in China, USPS in the U.S.A.) and mark it as "gift". It's a bit iffy (ILLEGAL!!!), but that's the only way to "negate/avoid" import taxes. Sorry, no luck for you... (just search import taxes on various postal services because they may vary).

(ah...didn't see the date above, sorry everyone)

 

[dflemstr]

The Chinese companies (on Chinese wholesale sites) always ship items through the national post (EMS in China, USPS in the U.S.A.) and mark it as "gift". It's a bit iffy, but that's one of the only ways (just search import taxes on various postal services because they may vary).

Dude, date. Not cool.

 

[hch]

The Chinese companies (on Chinese wholesale sites) always ship items through the national post (EMS in China, USPS in the U.S.A.) and mark it as "gift". It's a bit iffy, but that's one of the only ways (just search import taxes on various postal services because they may vary).

you should learn some netiquette, man. double postings, abusive language and now thread necromancy. if i were a mod i'd lock you for a few days.

 

[guizm]

Grave digging in news posts isn't never a good idea man.

 

[aesir911]

you should learn some netiquette, man. double postings, abusive language and now thread necromancy. if i were a mod i'd lock you for a few days.

i've posted once (twice now) on this thread... abusive language, what are you talking about??? i've seen the f-bomb on several posts, and many other things of a lesser degree...

(ah...didn't see the date above, sorry everyone)

 

[craigix]

We ended up phoning the american embassy who told us, rather like Salmon(?) what to write and gave us some tips, but alas, it still seems a little random.

 

[Near_Kstor]

So... problem solved?

This one belongs in the past, right?

 

[Tensuke]

We ended up phoning the american embassy who told us, rather like Salmon(?) what to write and gave us some tips, but alas, it still seems a little random.

?

 

[(naw)mcx]

We ended up phoning the american embassy who told us, rather like Salmon(?) what to write and gave us some tips, but alas, it still seems a little random.

?

[sub]I like this.[/sub]

 

[Near_Kstor]

Still, nobody confirmed this is a problem solved.
"tips" from the embassy sure are good, but... how about the results?
We don't need to stress about this in a few weeks, don't we?