Question regarding Customs Charges

[J. Mark Lane]

The idiots at FedEx opened my Brian Dean mandolin, inspected it, and called my office with a bunch of questions (which my poor secretary could not even begin to answer, and I was out). They released the mandolin and it was delivered. Now, this morning, I got a fax from the FedEx Customs Brokers stating that I owe $243 in Customs charges.

Does anyone know, is this normal? I've imported instruments before and never had to pay Customs. Why would I be suddenly getting a bill like this. (For those who don't know, Brian is in Canada, so this was sent across the Canadian/US border.)

Thanks for any help.

Mark

[sunburst]

UPS brings me Calton cases from Canada, and the duty and brokerage is figured into the price of shipping. No extra bills.

What are they going to do if you don't pay the $243?

[johnwalser]

Get yourself a good "mouthpiece" and threaten them!
John

[Dave Reiner]

Happened to me too, recently, on an old Gibson F4 coming from Canada. Still trying to get hold of the right person on the phone to talk to. Reading the tax code indicates that such a tax exists, but maybe they've just started to enforce it.

Dave

[mythicfish]

I agree with John H. You've got the mandolin, Brian's got his money, FexEx has gotten their fee .... Done deal.
Tell the "powers that be" that you voted for NAFTA and sew up your pockets.
No taxation without representation ... we aint got no stinkin' lobby!

Curt

[jmkatcher]

There shouldn't be a charge in the Gibson case as that's a return to country of manufacture.

[Big Joe]

Contact Fed Ex and see why they charged you. You may owe the charge, but a few questions may solve the issue and you may get the charges reversed. They can be a bit difficult when it comes to import duties, but it is certainly worth the effort. We can always recommend a good lawyer .

[andre66]

I believe that is their fee that they are charging you to act as the customs broker. That is one of the reasons why i try to avoid using fedex, they seem to make up their broker fees based on how they feel that day and not on any kind of formula.
Andre

[otterly2k]

Mark-- I had the SAME thing happen when I got my Dean OM... only it was from UPS. And the bill came a couple of MONTHS later... as above, I was advised to ignore it, but I didn't have that option as the bill went to my partner's workplace (which was the delivery site). I have intended to follow up, but haven't had a chance to, and honestly expect that now that the bill is paid, I'll never see the $ again. It pisses me off, since they held my OM hostage for about a week, called Brian (not me) with a variety of questions, etc...

I was also surprised by this... and Brian said he hadn't had this problem before. I'll look forward to anything else that is discovered on this issue.
KE

[Bob DeVellis]

I'm not sure that what I know has any bearing on this particular situation. A friend of my brother's worked for the U.S. Customs service. When I brought an instrument into the U.S. from England, he told me to expect to be charged about 10% as a customs fee (which I was). He also said that this was largely at the discretion of the customs officer processing me on entry but that they had every right to charge me that amount. The amount, he said, was typically 10% but the law was rather vague on what the precise amount could be. 10% had been established as a norm. If they declined to charge me, good for me; but if they didn't, I really had no recourse. I was charged, and paid, the 10%. I don't know if this situation is comparable to yours. I would have thought that NAFTA would make importation from Canada a different ball of wax.

[Tom C]

bobd. I do not understand. This was one you bought in England? If so, How do they know you just purchased it and was not owned by you previously? Luggage?

[Dan Cohen]

I was told (by a Canadian seller) that there is no duty on anything from Canada since we have a free trade agreement. What am I missing?

[rhetoric]

That's right! We need a mandolin lobby. I'll bet you any money there is an accordian lobby and a National Accordian Day (April 1, I'm sure). If all the members of the mandolincafe chipped in a dollar, we'd have over $8000 to pay for Congressional junkets to bluegrass festivals and symposia so we could "influence" mandolin friendly legislation (manditory radiused fingerboards, a ban on the importation of laminated tops, etc.)

I don't get how they know/knew it was a new mandolin. If I ship my mandolin or even take it with me over the border, how do they know it hasn't been mine for years?

[Dale Ludewig]

rhetoric- Now if you listened more attentively to NPR, you'd know that this week (seriously) is National Accordian Recognition week.

Like John said, I don't think I have any extra charges added to Calton cases when I get them. I don't have any other experience with stuff coming in from Canada, but I know going the other way can be brutal for the customer. So much for free trade.

Does anyone know just what NAFTA does?

[Steamerman]

I just had an item ($130) shipped into Canada from the USA by UPS (U Pay Sucker) and they charged over $40. to process it over the border. Regular post charges $5. for this service.

[Jim M.]

Does anyone know just what NAFTA does?

From Wikipedia, so it must be right: #

"NAFTA called for immediately eliminating duties on half of all U.S. goods shipped to Mexico and Canada, and gradually phasing out other tariffs over a period of about 14 years. Restrictions were to be removed from many categories, including motor vehicles and automotive parts, computers, textiles, and agriculture. The treaty also protected intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, and trademarks) and outlined the removal of restrictions on investment among the three countries. Provisions regarding worker and environmental protection were added later as a result of supplemental agreements signed in 1993."

And this is from the U.S. Customs website:

"The NAFTA eliminates tariffs on most goods originating in Canada, Mexico and the United States over a maximum transition period of fifteen years. The schedule to eliminate tariffs already established in the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement will continue as planned so that all Canada-United States trade is duty-free in 1998. For most Mexico-United States and Canada-Mexico trade, the NAFTA will either eliminate existing customs duties immediately or phase them out in five to ten years. On a few sensitive items, the Agreement will phase out tariffs over fifteen years. NAFTA-member countries have agreed to a faster phaseout of tariffs on certain goods."[B]

[luckylarue]

I think NAFTA was brokered mostly for the benefit of the big multi-nationals, not the little man/woman mando players.

[Bob DeVellis]

TomC, to answer your question, I was hand-carrying the instrument back from England (a concertina, actually). But I've also had this happen on things shipped from overseas. Someone at U.S. Customs decides if they want to take a look at your package and, if they do and determine that it's manufactured outside of the U.S., they can assign a tarriff.

[bjc]

I had to pay some sort of import fee on my Freshwater (from Scotland). What was funny was FedEx sent me the bill and within a week sent me another bill with a late fee attached. I paid the original amount and I recieved another bill looking for the "late" fee. I wrote them a letter teling them to detail exactly what service they were providing me to justify their "late" fee, to define "late" and to explain their import tax in detail. I went on to say that I would have their response reviewed at my convenience and make my decision.
Never heard back...

[Bill James]

See now if that would have been a banjo it would have come with a check for $243.00

Was the invoice in the box? Is that how they arrived at the amount?

[J. Mark Lane]

See now if that would have been a banjo it would have come with a check for $243.00

Was the invoice in the box? Is that how they arrived at the amount?

That reminds me of the old story....

A banjo player comes to visit NYC. Foolishly, he leaves his banjo on the back seat of his car, and leaves the car unlocked, on a busy City street. He comes back a few minutes later and finds...another banjo has been placed next to his.

Uh, yeah. The receipt was in the case, which they opened. But I think the forms (airway bill or whatever) sent with the instrument in the shipment also indicated the purchase price.

I would ignore it, but I too had it shipped to my office...and although I am a partner in the firm, I wouldn't want to leave my partners exposed on something like this, so if it is correct, I will pay it. I sent them a vague notice saying that the charges were wrong due to the nature of the transaction. Maybe that will confuse them enough that they will just...shrivel up and die. I hope so.

Long live free trade!

[ronlane3]

Get yourself a good "mouthpiece" and threaten them!
John

Well, since J Mark is a partner in a Law firm, I don't think he needs anyone to "speak" for him.

Mark, please let us know how it turns out. Us, non-lawyer types, could learn something and save us the costs of paying this and a lawyer.

[Mandobar]

mark, you need to get Fedex a NAFTA form. Brian needed to fill it out when he dropped off the mandolin to ship to you. call fedex and explain the situation. they will more than likely ask either you or brian to fill out a NAFTA form (available on the UPS website) and fax it to their customs office.

[otterly2k]

*sigh*
wish I'd known that...
oh well... it's good info for Brian re: future sales
Mark... let us know what happens!

[SternART]

I know Michael Heiden has had problems with this too.