Best UK to US shipping service?

[Chris Rimby]

in regards to receiving your bespoke goods from across the pond:

Which UK to US shipping service have you guys had the most luck with in terms of avoiding customs charges, proper handling, speedy delivery etc?

[Will]

Royal Mail, if the package is light enough for that service.

[couch]

Do also check with the artilsan / firm as well to see if they have relevant experience. Some of the operations that ship frequently (e.g., Poole) have an arrangement in place whereby you simply pay a slightly elevated shipping charge (not at all unreasonable) and the goods just show up via a private parcel service. I presume they use a customs broker or some such--I'm happy simply to enjoy the smooth transaction and not inquire too closely.

In the past I received a suit from an independent tailor via ParcelForce (the Royal Mail parcel service) which was held up at the main Philadelphia post office pending payment of duty. It took ten days for the notice to arrive at my office (the delivery destination, only four blocks from the main post office) before I was even aware that I needed to bail it out. I was assessed a duty that worked out to around 5%. This seemed a reasonable charge, but the inefficiency of the Philadelphia and campus mail services combined made me hope I never have to deal with that particular delivery chain again.

[dfloyd]

I've dealt with most of the Jermyn st shirt makers, and they have always shipped via Royal Mail, then USPS with no duty charged. Recently, I have run into problems with Alfred Dunhill and Duchamp of London in that they use courier services and charge duty on your order. This would be fine if the order were large enough, but when you only want one or two shirts or ties, the shipping and duty exceed the cost of the items. The problem with this venue is that if you want to try a firm with a small order, you can't. And they never get another chance. The US is undoubtedly a large market for UK rtw shirts etc, and it looks like these people would have an epiphany and see the business they are missing. I believe duty should be charged to importers, but not to those buying for there personal use.

[tteplitzmd]

Royal Mail, wins hands down. I repeatedly told Dege to use Royal Mail, to no avail. Altered shirts via their courier were assessed duty as if they were new shirts, with customs, brokerage, and transit fees applied! All fees to be paid by recipient!

Parenthetically, I have had very good results from Italia Poste to the US. US Intl Priority and Express Mail work very well in the other direction, but you must pay attention to the customs label details.

[Johnboy]

If it's small enough it has to be Royal Mail every time.

Also bear in mind guy's it could be worse/coming the other way Her Majesties HMRC
clobbers us 27% import duty and then another 17.5% Value(hoho)Added Tax.
Which comically enough is calculated on price paid for goods AND the cost of the
postage/shipping AND THEN just for good measure.....
Parcelforce hit us for another £17 ie 35 bucks for answering the telephone and taking our credit card details before they will deliver the goods.

I've just got off phone to hmrc and the reason it's now 27% instead of the old 12.%
is it's a 'retaliatory' duty. Write to your congressman lads cos I can't be the only
Brit who's no longer helping by taking your exports.

[RWS]

The only "retaliation" I can imagine the British government putting into effect against American exports would be to punish us for our federal government's insane policy of pushing down the dollar (which it must do because of its equally lunatic policy of encouraging cheap imports into the country, in destruction of what 'til recently was a very solid, good-quality industrial base).

Ah, what problems governments cause! 'Makes you wonder if we might be better off without them. Anyone got a black flag?

[couch]

Avast, there Cap'n Storm! It's the Crimson Permanent Assurance!

[Hartline]

To pile on, my own experiences with Royal Mail have been excellent, and I urge the English makers to use them.

When they use UPS, FedEx, DHL, or TNT, I end up with a bill for the duty that I can't understand and that these shippers, who pride themselves on supply chain management and logistics services, can't explain to me. Their collective answer is usually something like, "that’s what the computer says." There is not doubt that regulations regarding import and export are both complex and inconsistent, but that is what these companies are there for, and it is something that they do very poorly.

It is been my experience that the makers don’t complete the forms correctly, which only add to the problems.

I’m not suggesting that we find ways to subvert the regulations, but there seems to be no way to verify that the shippers applied the rules correctly.

[tteplitzmd]

I echo Hartline's observations. One thing that can be done to help, is that for returns or alterations, that the goods go back to the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) with the customs declaration clearly stating something to the effect of 'used personal goods' or personal goods for repair/alteration, with a nominal declared value. The recipient should keep the customs declaration and retain it to document the return declaration as used goods, etc. I believe the US law is that the cost of the alteration/repair is subject to duty, but is usually negligible, and the goods should return duty free.

The problem with UK merchants, in my experience, is that they are rather cavalier with my nickel. FedEx and some others add very high 'Processing Fees" in addition to duty, carriage, and so on. Royal Mail, US Mail, Poste Italia, seem to be free of these Processing Fees. There is another game with some Courier services, and that is to notify you of your delivery, pending 'clearance' from Customs, and 'expedited' clearance with a Customs Broker. This is sort of scam, and the expedited Brokerage has high fees, separate from the true duty assessed. Most of us are so eager to get our stuff that we just pay.

I got fed up with Dege sending stuff via FEDEX and getting assessed full duty on used clothing returned for adjustment or alteration. In effect I paid duty twice,paid Processing fees twice, and so on. Dege promised to 'look into this' and I never heard from them again. They've never heard from me again either. I had asked them several times to use the Queen's mail, without success.

Generally, nominal declared values of say $20 or so, go thru customs very nicely. In sending things from the US, you can now track delivery by Priority Airmail, not just the Express Mail service. Remember also that 'gifts' of nominal value go thru nicely in either direction. If you insure for much more than that, leaving the US, the recipient can get hit with fees (especially to Italy).

I have never had anything lost in either direction with the various country's mail services.

[Hartline]

One of the things that I have been able to change with the U.K. merchants is the sending of goods super priority overnight. I've waited six months or a year for some of this suff. Another few days won't kill me. Not only do I not need this overnight service, but if things get caught up in customs, you lose the value (but still end up paying for) this service.

[Johnboy]

Something else to consider Gents, is that Royal Mail do not offer a tracked service to the US and should anything 'disappear' the merchant has a maximum £23 insurance on the package. Also in that event the merchant has to wait something daft like 4 months before RM will entertain a claim, meaning there is more than ample opportunity to *iss off customers.

[David Hober]

Chris,

I will echo the voice of the other posters by suggesting that the post office works well for most shipments.

Registered airmail (small packet for usually up to 2 kilos) works very well. It is sort of trackable in that you cannot easily track it, but you can request the post office to do so.

in regards to receiving your bespoke goods from across the pond:

Which UK to US shipping service have you guys had the most luck with in terms of avoiding customs charges, proper handling, speedy delivery etc?

[andreyb]

I had very good experience with "Royal Mail International Signed For": http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump ... aId=400035

It is only slightly costlier (3.5GBP more for most of my parcels) that usual RM's services, and compensated for loss (I never had a loss, though).

But I live in Russia; don't know how good this service is for UK to US parcels.

Andrey

[SouthPender]

I was tempted to say "anyone but UPS," but can't be sure some of the other courier services aren't just as bad. UPS begins to slim down your wallet with pretty exorbitant shipping costs, then, having now got up a head of steam, skims off more in duties and taxes than the greediest customs officer would dare to do, and finally outdoes itself by levying "brokerage fees" to make sure you are down to your last dime. Why the brokerage fees are necessary when they're not for any postal-service-based shipping option eludes me. Things may be marginally better in the US than here in Canada, but a shipment of two pairs of MTO shoes from the Edward Green factory a couple of years ago ended up costing me about an extra $800 for shipping, duties/taxes, and "brokerage fees" (the latter constituting about $100 of that). After recovering from the near-fatal damage to my nervous system (not to mention my financial circumstances), I vowed never, ever to allow UPS near one of my shipments. Incidentally (and this is a little tangential), EG shoes that come from their London store are shipped by Royal Mail with a kinder and gentler value declaration.