The London Lounge

Gents,

What kind of duty/customs charges have you experienced on bespoke suits being delivered to you in the USA from the UK?

Depends.

Sent via Royal Mail has always been zero.

If they send via a UK shipper that has a relationship w/Fedex or UPS (or shipped directly via Fedex or UPS), then you will receive a bill from either of those entities after the shipment is received, saying you owe x in customs fees.

When I tried he-who-is-not-named, the parcel was sent via Royal Mail / Parcelforce and U.S. Mail. It sat for a couple of weeks at the main Philadelphia post office while the "notice of parcel with duty owing" slip made its tortuous way to my office address (to which the parcel had been addressed). When I finally bailed out the suit (one jacket, two trousers) the duty was about $140. This seemed a perfectly reasonable amount, but having to deal with the Philadelphia postal bureaucracy made it feel like twice as much. I think the duty when sent by RM/Parcelforce/U.S. Mail depends on how the item is declared; if your sender puts something winking like "sample" or "returned goods" it goes duty-free; if new UK product, duty depends on value.

The only other firm I've taken U.S. delivery from via shipping is Poole, and they have some courier arrangement whereby customs/duty is cleared at their end, perhaps by a broker, and the parcel is handed off to a U.S. courier partner. Poole simply add a more substantial shipping charge to your bill and the parcel just shows up (promptly). No agita, it just works. Understated, no fuss, in the best tradition.

Thanks for your replies. Your experiences are what I've been expecting.