EMS - What was the final outcome?

ED E

Ok, if my memory serves me right we discovered that it was due to a stop-over in the UK that they couldnt ship airsoft gear to Ireland. Two quick questions:

1. Any sign of this being sorted out? Havent seen a thread on it in a while.
2. Can I ship a gearbox on its own with them?

Cheers Lads,
Lethal.

TheDoc

The problemo wont be sorted.

The items go to England before they come here. End off. Thats EMS travel route.

They are not going to change their travel route to suit a few airsofters here in Ireland. So I'd completely forget about it.

weeder

what daniel said, you should be able to get a mechbox on its own shipped though

Fallschirmjager

well i had emailed, got the run around, was asked to ring, which i finally did and to be honest i may as well have been talking to myself...which i was convinced i was for a while tbh...got nowhere...they did seem keen to talk for some reason rather then do it via email.

did also contact the eu about how it was illegal...and to be expected, i got the distilled answer 'just buy it in europe'. i guess they would like us to all own those eu made gucci ones...

i even raised the fact that i can buy in the uk and get it shipped here but i cannot buy somewhere else and they stop the transit across the uk. apparently in eu land, there is nothing wrong with that (except one is purchased in the eu an one isnt but of course you would be very cynical to think like that)...go figure...

Stercus Accidit

I had to give up when I got back to college.


Its the stop over in Heathrow customs that caused it, EMS is regular airmail, they go through UK customs, UK customs thought the VCRA applied outside the UK, this may be the wording(may) of that law but not the intent.

I tried emailing again over the break, but no joy, not even a reply this time.


Its a matter of convincing them(uk customs, heathrow specifically afaik) VCRA doesnt apply to us, getting that in writting and forwarding that to EMS, who did tell me if I managed that they would have no issues resuming shipping to Eire.

Lemming

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Its a matter of convincing them(uk customs, heathrow specifically afaik) VCRA doesnt apply to us, getting that in writting and forwarding that to EMS, who did tell me if I managed that they would have no issues resuming shipping to Eire.

This would be a job for the IAA to do on behalf of airsoft in Ireland. It's an incorrect and overzealous interpretation of the VCRA by somebody at Heathrow. The posted items are not for import into the UK market and as such are not "accepted" into the country by customs but simply forwarded to another destination outside of the UK.

In effect the application of this particular intepretation makes no sense since in theory a country with such a busy international transit hub could apply its law in other areas to other countries at whim without sanction.

kdouglas

Unfortunately, I dont think it is an issue at Heathrow, I would imagine it's more likely a communication breakdown somewhere between the UK and the postal service in China.

Shiva

kdouglas wrote: »

Unfortunately, I dont think it is an issue at Heathrow, I would imagine it's more likely a communication breakdown somewhere between the UK and the postal service in China.

Possibly, but theres also an issue with Heathrow forwarding parcels.

I posted a VFC Scar to a customer in Italy some months ago, and it disappeared off the tracking system. Eventually, after lots of phone calls, An Post tracked it down to Heathrow. It had been scanned on arrival in the UK, and held as a restricted item.

I got on to someone over there and he said everything was checked - even stuff just passing through. He also acknowledged it was a stupid policy, and didnt seem too happy he had to follow it

Rooky1

Unfortunately the postal service in China have tarred us with the same rules/laws as Northern Ireland!!!:(

ED E

Shiva wrote: »

Possibly, but theres also an issue with Heathrow forwarding parcels.

I posted a VFC Scar to a customer in Italy some months ago, and it disappeared off the tracking system. Eventually, after lots of phone calls, An Post tracked it down to Heathrow. It had been scanned on arrival in the UK, and held as a restricted item.

I got on to someone over there and he said everything was checked - even stuff just passing through. He also acknowledged it was a stupid policy, and didnt seem too happy he had to follow it

To be fair, if they didnt check items passing through Bin Laden could ship RPGs through the UK. I doubt the troops on the receiving end would be to happy.

The airsoft destined for here may be legal, but are the customs officers required to know the laws of every country that you can post to? No, just the laws of the UK, and EU.

We're just gonna have to pay TNT/UPS/Other, simple as

Miscreant

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

The airsoft destined for here may be legal, but are the customs officers required to know the laws of every country that you can post to? No, just the laws of the UK, and EU.

We're just gonna have to pay TNT/UPS/Other, simple as

Customs Officers need to be informed of their own laws (those of their own country) to do their job effectively. I would not have assumed that it is their job to act as Customs officers for other countries. Just because there is a law banning or restricting an item in one country does not mean that it should affect another country's post.

They are well within their right to scan it. If they find explosives or an RPG then fair enough but something else should be let through to the end of line Country's customs to deal with. Isn't that what OUR customs get paid for?

Airsoft is legal in other countries in Europe, it is just that their parcels do not come through Heathrow so they are not affected, whereas ours do and are!
Either way, I don't think this will ever get sorted out so we may have to live with it.

TheDoc

In fairness, I think everyone is well over it.

What places actually sent guns by EMS. The only thing i was slightly interested in was certain pistols i couldnt get here. But granted all the effort of vat and ****e, and the likely event my AEG sent for testing and me not have to touch it for months, i never bothered with ems.

If you order bits/bobs of redwolf and the likes, you pay for couriers, so in fairness, has anyone been REALLY affected by this?

Since the previous thread died havnt heard a peep about it

fleet

Is regular 10-12 week surface mail affected?
I had a pistol come in from HK via surface mail recently, an EMS rifle was rejected thought.

Would somebody please update the Getting Started forum sticky that details non EU suppliers and put a warning in it. I never heard about the EMS issue until I happened across it here.

ED E

fleet wrote: »

Is regular 10-12 week surface mail affected?
I had a pistol come in from HK via surface mail recently, an EMS rifle was rejected thought.

Would somebody please update the Getting Started forum sticky that details non EU suppliers and put a warning in it. I never heard about the EMS issue until I happened across it here.

Good point there.

Doc: Ehobby will ship smaller items (like pistols) for around half the price with EMS, it may be 10-12 days rather than 3-5 but in most cases there isnt that much of a rush. With larger items the saving is reduced from memory. Ebaybanned also have some good deals, and they only ship via EMS.