Classified.
Originally Posted by Racer X 69
Ah, I see. Kind of like LBA. Thanks for the clarification.
And how many non-rideable?
Classified.
Ah, I see. Kind of like LBA. Thanks for the clarification.
And how many non-rideable?
Tin Can
If you really want to experience a nightmare try selling a large heavy scanner to someone in Australia and ship from the US.
I sold my Fuji Lanovia Quattro and spare parts to a fellow in Australia. Very nice fellow and did much of the dirty work setting up UPS air freight to ship it.
Long story short, I had to have a huge crate built which was big enough for two people to get in. I had to fill out reams of paperwork, deal with the census bureau for an export number of some sort and the department of commerce which was a total nightmare. The census bureau folks were very helpfully and it only took about a half hour on the phone. The dept of commerce took many hours over two days and then reading almost 75 pages of jibberish to finally find I didn't need an export license. Then I find even though there's no license needed I must have a code that tells them no license is required. The DOC told me Fuji could provide the info but Fuji had no idea what I was talking about. I finally found out on another hour long phone call to the DOC that scanners are a class and the code is not specific to a Fuji machine. I finally called Epson and Epson was able to provide the info after two days of research. Thank you Epson. Yes I'm the owner of a nice V750 now.
Now after all of this I have to deal with the BS of UPS. I own a commercial photo studio that after 46 years of business I run out of my home. I closed my 6000 sq ft studio when business changed and moved it to my home. I'm getting ready to retire and want to keep costs down. UPS insists they will only export freight from a business and not an individual. I explained to their freight manager I like millions of other businesses operate from their home. I said I have a state business license, pay the state business taxes, city and county and can document that. Ok now we're sort of past that, sort of. Now after going back to the paper work a couple more times and providing my EIN from another business I own and providing documentation on letterhead after a month of dealing with this uPs shows up with the lift gate truck.
The fun begins again. The driver says you don't have a seperate entrance for the business, no sign out front and on an on. I said I do have a back entrance where customers come and go. I said I do t deal with the public, only corporate clients so I don't need a sigh and anyway I don't want to advertise that I have a safe full of expensive equipment. It finally came down to one of us wearing down the other and I won!
It took a month or torture to get tat thing shipped. Lesson learned, to post office is no big deal and NEVER export anything that can't ship in the mail.
Such fun dealing with multiple levels of bureaucracy, huh?
It is great that you won the battle.
I know from experience that UPS {and FedEx} can be difficult to deal with, and one department almost never communicates with another. When I run into an issue like this, I get the number of the truck and the name of the driver, and make a phone call. Drivers have to account for their behavior towards customers, and when they interfere with an attempt by a customer to do business, and the customer complains, they will have to answer for their actions.
Whiskey Is Sunlight Held Together By Water
Welcome to the Export club! Endless hours of fun. Like others, I run my consulting business from my home - which is at the top of a long steep curvy driveway. Much too steep for a large truck to back up without the lift gate hitting the pavement. Steep enough that my Land Rover 4WD skids down the driveway when it gets wet. (Yes, we get torrential Monsoon rains in Tucson!)
My Japanese clients often send me 500 pound crates of equipment that we loan to potential customers for testing, or send to trade shows etc. I then have to go through the same circus Don described to re-export the equipment back to Japan after the testing/trade show. Fed Ex has turned out to be pretty accommodating - even to the point of sending a smaller truck onto which they offload from the big truck or which they use to pick up at the top of the driveway and drive to the bottom to load the big truck. Actually I think it's usually just the driver calling one of his buddies, and not something FedEx officially organizes. I also keep a pallet jack in the garage for those times when we have to drag the stuff up and down the driveway by hand. Worst case, I once had to hire a flatbed truck with an off-road forklift to handle a 3000 pound item.
As Don said - paperwork can be a nightmare. It can be worse if you receive the shipment from overseas as the Customs folks report the value of the shipment to the State sales tax folks who then want you to pay thousands in sales tax. Proving that the gear has been re-exported can be quite an exercise as it sometimes takes them a year or two to send the bill and you'd better be sure you have your records of outbound shipment in a safe place.
USPS all the time. International need a simple form filled out. Name & address, & a brief description/value ie: used photo equipment------$XXX.XX.
The new system requires the clerk to enter this in their computer but it's simply copied from the (legibly) filled out form you gave them. I don't find them especially difficult to fill out.
Some posts above suggest a $650.00 limit on insurance. The USPS site says $5,000.00 and that's any class from media mail to Priority. I didn't bother checking Express.
I've had problems with making international labels online so I just grab a bunch of forms when I go to the P.O.. Of course you could have them sent to your address. Free!
There was a post recently(different thread) about a mis-delivered package and the carrier said there's no parcel delivery on Saturday. There is six day delivery that should be nationwide. Sounds like someone's got a carrier full of excrement.
If someone doesn't want to sell internationally, leave it; it's not your problem! ..................Unless you want a no win argument.
Just spoke with my Post Master about this issue the other day. She told me that many Countries will open boxes in search of certain items. Often times they will destroy the box in the process and just throw things away or leave them around in case someone they know wants it. She knows of a lady that has to register a 50 cent newspaper because of customs/postal thieves. I feel for you, I had this happen to a package I sent to Australia and it cost me a small fortune.
All's well it seems. Received feedback from the buyer indicating that the item had arrived and survived the trip. The USPS tracking still shows the shipment in transit as it has for the last two weeks. Based on that, I feared that it had fallen into postal purgatory - or worse. But it appears those fears were for naught. My frustration with the post office remains, however, particularly over their denying indemnity that had been advertised as available for that shipment.
USPS's tracking system is the worst I know of. It's all but unusable, at least for international shipments.
Always use the tracking system of the receiving country's postal service. It's usually much more reliable.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks