At last after 4 weeks ems!

[minijapan]

At last after nearly 4 weeks with EMS, 2 of those sitting at my local post office, my GM75 and KATO 257 have arrived, although my proposed layout will br JR Central and West I really like the 257 so took the plunge.

[bill937ca]

Which country are you in?

[minijapan]

Uk, problem is our customs clearance, (took a week) you then get a letter through the post informing you of import tax etc that needs to be paid before they will release your item for delivery, this can be done on the telephone or internet, then you select a delivery day, my consignment was delivered on the wrong day so I had a card through the door saying it had been taken to my local post office 8 miles away for collection, I wish they had taken it back to their depot 35 miles away as I also work in this city and would have been easier for me to pick up, I had to wait until today (13 days after the card through the door) to have free time to get to my local post office for collection, FedEx next time, far better :)

[welshdodger]

Uk, problem is our customs clearance, (took a week) you then get a letter through the post informing you of import tax etc that needs to be paid before they will release your item for delivery, this can be done on the telephone or internet, then you select a delivery day, my consignment was delivered on the wrong day so I had a card through the door saying it had been taken to my local post office 8 miles away for collection, I wish they had taken it back to their depot 35 miles away as I also work in this city and would have been easier for me to pick up, I had to wait until today (13 days after the card through the door) to have free time to get to my local post office for collection, FedEx next time, far better :)

When ordering  Trains or track make sure your delevery is SAL from Japan. If the  item you want, don't offer  SAL and that your train has EMS or any other carrier. Email the company first, to see if they if they can do SAL delivery .Other wise look for a company that uses SAL .

SAL delivery Post office Japan  to Post Office U.K: No Customs involment no EXTRA charges ,Order Sat one week recive parcel the following Sat  to your door

The longest a parcel took was 30 days and that was olympic games month

 hope this will help keep costs down

[Densha]

@welshdodger

I totally agree, but please note that there is no insurance with normal SAL. So it's a choice you make, but for most products that don't have extremely high prices it's really worth it to use SAL.

[Martijn Meerts]

In the Netherlands, SAL packages still go though customs unfortunately :)

[Densha]

I have received three SAL packages from HobbySearch and never had to pay any additional (custom) costs in the Netherlands. From other shops I once ordered with Insured SAL and I had to pay, as with all other insured services. SAL is usually as fast as EMS here, and often even faster because the customs like to keep your stuff for two weeks or so.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Densha

[Guest Closed Account 1]

It took over 2 weeks to get my order from the UK.

 

Most of it was from sitting in customs.

 

They probably mistaken the Tgauge British HSR for horse pills.

 

FYI- it is convenient to track orders coming to the USA on the US Postal iPhone app.

[IST]

When I grab my last package at the post office I really surprised that it was not on the custom office desk, I can simply get it. The officer said to me that the package (see a picture about its size in the What did you order... topic) was handled as a mail(!) and not as a package, because it did not reach the 2 kg weight limit. Maybe this was the reason why I did not have to pay duty. Maybe something else. :-) All what I know that officially I have to pay duty if the value reach 22 EUR and in this case I have to pay the VAT amount also. I would not interested to pay the 2% as duty, but VAT is 27% here... So I should have pay the duty and VAT, but maybe because of the mail status it disappered from the view of the custom.

[JR 500系]

Wow... Luckily for me, EMS is the BEST ever! My parcel was shipped out on 8th Jan and i received it on the 10th. Usually for me (Sillypore), EMS arrives about 2-3 days from the day it was sent, so i am very happy about the way EMS handles the parcels here and never had to pay taxes too.. I once made a bulk purchase to HobbySearch that is well over the limit here but it got through safely without taxes fortunately...

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Sometimes I still get my orders from Popondetta in 3-5 days.  This time around the order sat in my country's customs for a week. Were they playing with it?

 

Probably get it Tuesday.

[Martijn Meerts]

I have received three SAL packages from HobbySearch and never had to pay any additional (custom) costs in the Netherlands. From other shops I once ordered with Insured SAL and I had to pay, as with all other insured services. SAL is usually as fast as EMS here, and often even faster because the customs like to keep your stuff for two weeks or so.

 

Customs must really hate me, I've never received a package from Japan without it having gone through customs, apart from when the package wasn't sent from a store :)

[Densha]

Even without insurance? The value of those packages was always (far) below €100 so that may be related to it too.

[Martijn Meerts]

The SAL packages I've received so far are all from Hobby Search, and they don't even have the option to send SAL with insurance ;)