Quick customs Q

LundiMardi

I'm expecting my Line 6 DL4 this week, it's being delivered to my job, i'm just curious, if i have to pay customs and taxes etc, will i have to pay on delivery or will i get the bill in the post or something?

feylya

On delivery more than likely. If you don't have the cash in your pocket to pay the man, away goes the pedal.

LundiMardi

bulls bollox!

Suppose i'll have to scab some money so...

John

In fairness, I'd expect a lot of delays with that DL4...


I'll get me coat.

Waltons

Last time my stuff got caught in customs I got a letter from the courier telling me that there were customs charges and if I wanted to pay them, not pay them and send it back or talk to a rep. They just wanted a reply via email so I replied and knew how much I'd have to pay when the delivery came.
I'd doubt they'd turn up at your door and just require the money there and then, tbh

feylya

They often do actually.

LundiMardi

John2 wrote:

In fairness, I'd expect a lot of delays with that DL4...


I'll get me coat.

Waltons

feylya wrote:

They often do actually.

I hate customs

Doctor J

GLS send you the letter, SDS just show up looking for cash. Neither will send you an invoice, they wants the money there and then.

LundiMardi

I think it was sent via UPS, who does it get handed over to when it reaches ireland?

Eoin Madsen

LundiMardi wrote:

I think it was sent via UPS, who does it get handed over to when it reaches ireland?

UPS will courier it all the way. Afaik, they ask for cash on delivery, but will accept a cheque (unlike GLS).

Fedex deliver and send a bill for the tax afterwards. It's possible UPS are now doing something similar, I haven't had a taxable delivery from them in a couple of years.

Johnny Storm

FWIW FedEx phoned me a few days in advance of the delivery and told me approx how much the tax would be. I gave them my credit card number. Later they sent me a statement/receipt thingie showing the VAT and duty I had paid. That just might be important if yoiu ever in future wanted to sell (or bring) your guitar outside the EC (?)

Quattroste

For what its worth Lundi, I have had a few things sent to my job and have never had to pay anything.

Its just them ba$tards in the airport that I don't like. :mad:

Voodu Child

Its if over a grand, afaik, customs just seize the damn thing straight away, and require various bits of paperwork as well as the money before they release it to the courier company. Obviously thats not the case with the Line6 but thats what happened with my first J-custom. I needed to use a clearance agent as a go between, to take care of the paperwork and deal with customs asap, and he charged me 50 squid or thereabouts...

Doctor J

I dunno if it's a grand. When I bought my Ric, which cost just over IR£1000 back in the day, I didn't have to go through any of that crap. It took a full day to get through customs but FedEx brought it out anyway and invoiced me afterwards for the duty.

It wouldn't surprise me at all though if the regulations have been changed to ensure the punter gets screwed harder and a few more pockets get lined :mad:

st3vo

I ordered 5 sets of drum mics and a good few condensers. Then one day... ding dong. I have your order sir.... BUT....before you can have it you owe me €362.43.
I nearly puked on the fvckers face! B@STARDS!!!!!!

LundiMardi

i'm actually a little worried, it was shipped on the 09/09, so they say anyway:rolleyes: and i haven't received it yet, i should have got it by now shouldn't i?

Doctor J

No, not at all. Give it a couple more weeks before you start getting upset.

LundiMardi

but.. but..

*tear* *sniffle*

It wasn't me!

Well my Les Paulk was about 1450 but I didn't go through any of that. Though I got mine from Britain, so it probably never even saw customs...

Voodu Child

Doctor J wrote:

I dunno if it's a grand. When I bought my Ric, which cost just over IR£1000 back in the day, I didn't have to go through any of that crap. It took a full day to get through customs but FedEx brought it out anyway and invoiced me afterwards for the duty.

It wouldn't surprise me at all though if the regulations have been changed to ensure the punter gets screwed harder and a few more pockets get lined :mad:

Well, theres some sort of value, in or around a grand, after which customs take a greater interest in what you're up to, and require a form called a SAD, i cant remember what it stands for, standard something document...
Try to look it up on the revenue website, and youll be damned if you can find it, or understand it. My experience of this was :

Goods arrived into country (I was aware of this because I could track it)
A letter arrived in the post 3 or 4 days later, just a standard letter with a box or two ticked on it, no information about money or value etc., and a phone no. to ring)

Rang the number and spoke to someone at customs. As soon as they realised i was a private importer and wouldnt be able to prepare the documents myself, she gave me the number of a clearance agent.

Rang this lad, all he needed was a reference number, he got on to customs and found out the nature of the goods, and what category they fell under etc. I paid HIM the customs, plus his fee, and he sorted out the customs forms.

Customs then released the guitar to SDS, or whoever they are. Between getting the letter from customs, and getting the guitar to my door, took a bout a week, what with cheques going through the post etc.

Like I said, none of this applies if its only a few hundred quid, but there is a value, somewhere around 1000, im not sure exactly what it is....

I might get a cheaper JC from Ishibashi in a few days, under a grand, ill see if I have to go through all this again.

Doctor J

What a load of nonsense (the crap you went through, not your post ). An extra €50 to some punter to submit a clearance form? They didn't have the same surname as the one is the customs office you were speaking to by any chance?

Voodu Child

Well, i just wanted to get the feckin thing, so I wasnt too bothered about the money, but the hassle was a complete pain in the ass. I just thought id describe my experience, because there seems to be a huge difference in how it works. Some people get their stuff not a bother, TBH, (id much prefer to just pay the courier at the door), but if you are getting something brought in, just be prepared that this kind of thing can happen.

Johnny Storm

What courier were you using there, Voodoo_child?

Voodu Child

EMS, which is a worldwide courier service. When it gets to the destination country, the package is handled by the national package delivery company, which in this case is an post SDS. They didnt even get their hands on it though, by that I mean customs seized the package straight off the plane and then when the duty was paid, they 'released' it, it was only then that SDS got a hold of it. EMS is just the service that Ishibashi use, theres no choice or anything. Had the guitar not been seized, i wouldve had the feckin thing maybe 4 days after ordering it, the actual delivery of it was as quick as f**k, and could be tracked real time, so I knew when it had left Japan, arrived in Dublin Airport etc.

Johnny Storm

Thanks, Voodoo_Child.
It does seem a bit odd how many different experiences people have had. Seems to be a bit of a lottery. And as you say, as the buyer you usually have no say in what courier is used.

LundiMardi

my new toy arrived, and i wasn't stung but customs..

So, 220 euro for a brand new DL4 is pretty darn good!!!!!

jcoote

happy days bob so have u tried it out..smamples!!!!!!

LundiMardi

jcoote wrote:

happy days bob so have u tried it out..smamples!!!!!!

i tried it out briefly in our rehearsal space and it it pretty damn nifty!! It's gonna take quite a bit of getting used to!

I'm quite tied up at the minute but i'll try and get some samples up over the weekend!

jcoote

no panic man hope its all u hoped it would be anyway...u got it at a good time when u don't any other brand new gear to distract u from it...nice one!!!

stagolee

sorry for digging up old posts but im getting a second hand guitar in from the states for €580 including a delivery fee of €102 by E.M.S. this entitles me to a tax bill of a whopping €121 by my calculations.
whats my odds of not having to pay this? is there any way around it or will i be stung for certain?

any help would be great as i am a bit short of squids at the mo and buying this guitar will leave me fairly destitute as it is

It wasn't me!

You'll almost certainly have to pay it. Certainly don't get it unless you can afford to pay the tax, otherwise you'll just get bollocked by Customs.

Johnny Storm

Based on my vast knowledge of customs procedures (I once bought a guitar from outside the EC) I would actually say that, to use the technical term, there is ****-all chance of your axe getting through without being ****ed over by the man. I base this conclusion on the fact that guitars come in fairly big boxes and my opinion is that in the event that Mr Customs-Man is tired, over-whelmed-by-work or even scarcely conscious from the contraband he has being testing the first box he is going to check is the biggest one so unless someone is importing an elephant via E.M.S. the first box he will check is your one....
Sorry

stagolee

Johnny Storm wrote:

so unless someone is importing an elephant via E.M.S. the first box he will check is your one....
Sorry

oh well all thats left now is to work out whether its cheaper to pay the duty or order something from www.elephantexport.com

curtains

So say if someone was to get a guitar and an amp from an EU country, like off thomann or or something, for under €1000 incl. irish vat, what would the customs charge be like?

feylya

None.

the magician

I'm waiting on delivery of this schecter
Ups rang me yesterday telling me there was a customs charge of 114 euros. the breakdown of that was 3.5% for import duty 21% for vat and the princely sum of 17 euro for their privelege of dealing with customs :mad:
But to be honest as it was being shipped through ups(i think nearly everything going through them gets stopped by customs) i was expecting to be charged by customs and i knew of ups' handling charge.
At least i know it will be definitely delivered on monday.