Quote Originally Posted by Schultz
I ordered about $1000 worth of merchandise from scottishkilts.net, one of the much maligned Viking Technology sites, about a year ago.

1.) All my items came in the time frame quoted
2.) There was no duty paid at all.

Earlier this year, I ordered about $150 worth of stuff from them.

1.) My items arrived in about 20 days
2.) No duty again.

Maybe I'm lucky, but my dealings with them have been quite good so far. The only disappointment I've had is their apparent inability to answer emails quickly (less than 48 hours), but each one of my emails has been answered.
Clearly your order was not send via Fedex. This just illustrates how inconsistently the customs regulations area applied here.