Economy shipping question

**Downix** · 18th December 08, 04:30 AM

Originally Posted by turpin

If you order from Kiltstore and get the free shipping option it'll likely come by surface mail (slow) and you have a good chance of not getting hit with a customs fee. even if you do you won't pay the Fedex Rip-off processing fee.

My concern then is to get it by Feb 15th.

**Kilted Pagan** · 6th April 09, 02:39 PM

sorry to revive and dead thread or hijack one, but i have a similar problem. i want to order a full argyl jacket and irish national kilt in the next few weeks. basically looking to spend upwords of 1500. so based on an earlier post i could be hit with a $300 custom fee. dont know if im reading that correct but im a little confused. does anyone have a set formula for duty and customs fees?

**ForresterModern** · 6th April 09, 07:07 PM

There really is no set customs formula, unless you know how to read thousands of pages of customs legal descriptions. Different pieces made from different materials will be tariffed at a different rate---leather, wool, cotton---shoes, pants, kilts, coats---all a bit different to the customs guys. And there sometimes isn't agreement among customs guys doing the actual assessing at the import site.

Most wool fabric stuff will have a roughly 15-17.5% tariff applied, including jackets and kilts. If I remember, there is a magic number of something like $200 that each US citizen is allowed to import in one shipment on one day that can bypass customs altogether. So ordering your items in several smaller shipments means you are more likely to dodge the big customs hit you might get stuck with if you order it all as one order in a single shipment, especially if you request your vendor to ship via Royal Mail instead of Fedex (FEDEX is a stickler for customs fees, and even tack on their own fee on top of the regular customs fee for handling the customs issues for you----avoid them like the plague if you are ordering anything expensive).

There is at least one customs agent here on the forum who should be able to chime in with more accurate information.

By the way, welcome to the rabble.

**wyldathart** · 6th April 09, 07:42 PM

So am I correct in saying that after paying out almost $800 for my order, I can expect to shell out more before I get the package ?

**Kilted Pagan** · 6th April 09, 08:18 PM

that appears to be the case and that has kinda slowed my want for an authentic kilt from scotland (times like this i wish i knew a scot)

**KiltedDawg** · 7th April 09, 01:11 PM

Economy shipping really is the best deal, provided you are not in a rush for your kilt. I just received two kilts, ordered separately but sent out at the same time in different packages. There was no customs charge and the shipping was much less the the 20 days mentioned on their website. (I was expecting to get the kilts by the end of the month!) The free shipping combined with no customs charge and a decent exchange rate really made my purchases much more affordable. Overall, I've been very pleased with my interactions with Scotweb.

**wyldathart** · 7th April 09, 03:23 PM

Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with Scotweb. They have been very nice to deal with.
My worry is that am I going to get a phone call or letter telling me I have to shell out more money to customs before I can receive my goods ?

**KiltedDawg** · 7th April 09, 06:21 PM

Actually, the one time I get hit with duty was after the goods had been delivered by FedEx. They sent me an invoice for the duty taxes later. This may of been because I send my kilt items to work rather than my home address. I like to keep my wife out of the loop, as well as insure the item arrives safely. Call me crazy, but....

**siva011** · 8th April 09, 05:02 AM

Originally Posted by wyldathart

Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with Scotweb. They have been very nice to deal with.
My worry is that am I going to get a phone call or letter telling me I have to shell out more money to customs before I can receive my goods ?

I also recieved my kilt at home, then a couple days later recieved a bill from FedEx.

**ForresterModern** · 8th April 09, 06:10 AM

Ditto on the delayed FEDEX charges. Unless you are getting a specific discount becasue you are buying a package deal, it really is better to order multiple smaller orders of a couple hundred dollars each and have them each shipped separately via economy shipping (typically either Royal Mails or Parcelforce). Spread it out over several shipments and several days at least so it doesn't look like you are ordering a lot of stuff at one time, as the customs folks may lump all the shipments together for a daily total of imports, at which point your customs liability increases. Scot web gives you free shipping as long as each order is over 100gbp (about $150US).
Good luck.