U.S. members here who purchased directly from Aero Scotland...

[Navin323i]

Thanks everyone... you all have been a huge help to me... much appreciated!

DanielCoffey - Thank you so much for the info and you're so lucky you live so close to the Aero factory! I'm hoping to make it out there to the factory sometime so I can meet Will, Amanda, and the rest of their staff in person.

 

[BanjoMerlin]

Basically comes down to: You should have to pay an import duty. Whether you actually will or not depends on whether somebody does his/her job. With UPS you almost always have to pay the duty, USPS maybe.

 

[Navin323i]

Basically comes down to: You should have to pay an import duty. Whether you actually will or not depends on whether somebody does his/her job. With UPS you almost always have to pay the duty, USPS maybe.

I agree.

 

[JLStorm]

Its hit or miss it seems. I have had to pay customs fees of 50 - 60.00 for each of my Aero jackets. I have heard from others who have not gotten dinged with fees.

 

[JanSolo]

I think Aero changed their courier service and ship their items now with UPS exclusively. Therefore custom duties may be unavoidable. UPS are very anal with these things...

 

[k449]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the carrier or my bad luck with UPS. The only time I have ever paid customs has been with UPS, and only on three seperate deliveries from Aero in Scotland. I order clothing of one kind or another from Japan, the UK and all over Europe all the time, but not usually to the tune of $1000 US, although $500 or so isn't at all unusual and I've never paid except those three times through UPS. In any event, the last delivery from Aero I paid around 40.00 US on around 650 US declared value. Of course, UPS is a disaster for many more reasons than customs fees, believe me.....

 

[Navin323i]

Thanks for the heads up, Jan and k449.

K449 - If you don't mind me asking, were the other reasons you hinted at in regards to UPS being a disaster specific to your Aero jacket shipment?

For my last Aero jacket, it was shipped to me via UPS from Mark Moye of Aeroleather USA... fortunately no problems and the jacket arrived safely.

 

[Whithead]

Time in Customs

How long does it take to clear Customs?

I bought an Irvin from Spitfire (in Denmark) and the tracking report says it has been in customs for about 7 days....

 

[JLStorm]

How long does it take to clear Customs?

I bought an Irvin from Spitfire (in Denmark) and the tracking report says it has been in customs for about 7 days....

Generally 2 - 5 business days in my experience.

 

[Doublegun]

UPS just delivered my LHB, which I had returned to have re-lined. Inspite of the box saying on all six sides "ITEM BEING RETURNED FOR REPAIRS - NO DUTY OWED", my custom form being clearly marked "Return Goods" and Aero's Packing Slip being marked "ITEM RETURNED FOR REPAIR - NO DUTY OWED" one of the genisus at Customs charged me full boat - as if I was receiving a new jacket. The charge was $64.48.

I called UPS - I now know where the people who get fired from the post office work. First person I spoke with told me UPS did not have the jacket, Customs had it, in spite of the fact I gave her a UPD InfoNotice Number; the second person I spoke with told me it was becase Aero indicated it was a new sale; the third person finally sent me an Affadivit that I had to complete and return. I can honestly say that the folks I spoke with at UPS in Louisville were consistantly some of the the most ill informed, in flexible and completely lacking in common sense people I have ever dealt with.

So, the answer to your question is $64.48 for a jacket valued at 650 pounds.

Also, my $.02, go directly through Aero Scotland. It's one less person in the food chain and Amanda knows all the right second and third level questions to ask. I trust her judgement, completely.

Good luck,

JDG

 

[JLStorm]

UPS just delivered my LHB, which I had returned to have re-lined. Inspite of the box saying on all six sides "ITEM BEING RETURNED FOR REPAIRS - NO DUTY OWED", my custom form being clearly marked "Return Goods" and Aero's Packing Slip being marked "ITEM RETURNED FOR REPAIR - NO DUTY OWED" one of the genisus at Customs charged me full boat - as if I was receiving a new jacket. The charge was $64.48.

I called UPS - I now know where the people who get fired from the post office work. First person I spoke with told me UPS did not have the jacket, Customs had it, in spite of the fact I gave her a UPD InfoNotice Number; the second person I spoke with told me it was becase Aero indicated it was a new sale; the third person finally sent me an Affadivit that I had to complete and return. I can honestly say that the folks I spoke with at UPS in Louisville were consistantly some of the the most ill informed, in flexible and completely lacking in common sense people I have ever dealt with.

So, the answer to your question is $64.48 for a jacket valued at 650 pounds.

Also, my $.02, go directly through Aero Scotland. It's one less person in the food chain and Amanda knows all the right second and third level questions to ask. I trust her judgement, completely.

Good luck,

JDG

Great, something to look forward to when getting my jacket back from having some work done on it. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[k449]

Navin, UPS didn't ruin the jacket. They are lazy, shiftless incompetent bastards who sneak up on my doorstep, leaving stickies saying "sorry you were out" or "whoops, once more and it's going back where it came from", despite the fact I work from home and have a huge English Mastiff who barks when someone actually knocks on the door. I usually have to call and threaten to lodge a formal complaint to get them to come back. Oh, they also destroy foodstuffs sent to me consistently (pickles from NYC, coffee from SF, etc). None of this ever seems to happen to me with other carriers.

 

[Navin323i]

Navin, UPS didn't ruin the jacket. They are lazy, shiftless incompetent bastards who sneak up on my doorstep, leaving stickies saying "sorry you were out" or "whoops, once more and it's going back where it came from", despite the fact I work from home and have a huge English Mastiff who barks when someone actually knocks on the door. I usually have to call and threaten to lodge a formal complaint to get them to come back. Oh, they also destroy foodstuffs sent to me consistently (pickles from NYC, coffee from SF, etc). None of this ever seems to happen to me with other carriers.

Sorry to hear that. My only negative experience with UPS was when I delivered a car part for my BMW back to the vendor for repairs in Canada and the declared item was worth $75, but the incompetent employee entered the information into his system as $750 so the vendor in Canada was hit with massive fees so luckily UPS was willing to correct the problem - at first they weren't because they said it was now in Customs hands, however after "voicing my displeasure" (putting it mildly) they rectified the problem and the vendor was hit with no fees.

 

[Navin323i]

UPS just delivered my LHB, which I had returned to have re-lined. Inspite of the box saying on all six sides "ITEM BEING RETURNED FOR REPAIRS - NO DUTY OWED", my custom form being clearly marked "Return Goods" and Aero's Packing Slip being marked "ITEM RETURNED FOR REPAIR - NO DUTY OWED" one of the genisus at Customs charged me full boat - as if I was receiving a new jacket. The charge was $64.48.

I called UPS - I now know where the people who get fired from the post office work. First person I spoke with told me UPS did not have the jacket, Customs had it, in spite of the fact I gave her a UPD InfoNotice Number; the second person I spoke with told me it was becase Aero indicated it was a new sale; the third person finally sent me an Affadivit that I had to complete and return. I can honestly say that the folks I spoke with at UPS in Louisville were consistantly some of the the most ill informed, in flexible and completely lacking in common sense people I have ever dealt with.

So, the answer to your question is $64.48 for a jacket valued at 650 pounds.

Also, my $.02, go directly through Aero Scotland. It's one less person in the food chain and Amanda knows all the right second and third level questions to ask. I trust her judgement, completely.

Good luck,

JDG

Thanks for the info and heads up! Yeah, this time around I'm going thru Aero Scotland for my 2nd Aero jacket.