SAL Shipping

[minijapan]

im sooo glad we dont have an import tax from japan, i can just think of the mess it would make here.

 

 

 

No tax at all?, up until recently it was big business to import a good second hand car or 4x4 from Japan, even with tax paid and port fees you could save several thousand of pounds, again even with model trains an tax paid and using an auction agent i still save considerably :)

[cteno4]

US does not have tariffs on most toys luckily. its really odd when you look in the tariff schedules you dont see a listing for anything like you would call a generic toys. all sorts of other detailed things like kinds of games, sports equipment, down to odd things like festive confetti, but nothing that really resembles a generic toy! but there are scale models working or not working in there!

 

toys for your pet however are 4.7%, not sure if thats collected if your cat knocks over a train or two with some playful swats...

 

but one thing that is not covered by the toy schedule is

 

"Unmounted glass eyes for dolls or other toys"

 

those will get you nicked for 3.2% duty! so remember that when ordering those glass eyes for your goji model.

 

electronic parts are free, but particle accelerators get you for 1.9% go figure, guess you need to build your own to get around that...

 

jeff

[KenS]

electronic parts are free, but particle accelerators get you for 1.9% go figure, guess you need to build your own to get around that...

 

That's because of the Ghostbusters Protection Act of 1988.  (Peter Venkman: "Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back.")

 

The other day I ran across a US-based hat store that couldn't export leather chin straps without charging for a $97 mandatory US Fish & Game inspection.  The amusing bit was that the straps were imported to begin with, and cost a lot less, so it was obviously only an export fee. Customs law is a very strange thing.

[cteno4]

i guess Venkman wanted to get around the tariffs so built his own...

 

I did find it funny when looking up the duties that the customs duty book is described by customs itself as a book larger and denser than an unabridged dictionary! also a funny title, the "harmonized tariff schedule", what is it in harmony with being so long, the dictionary??? it is massive and very convoluted, thats why i was so shocked that there is no description in it that would cover what most of us would call a general toy! the toy section goes off on games, bikes and sports equipment but the short section on "toys" is this:

 

Tricycles, scooters, pedal cars and similar wheeled toys;

dolls’ carriages; dolls, other toys; reduced-scale (“scale”)

models and similar recreational models, working or not;

puzzles of all kinds; parts and accessories thereof..

 

jeff

[byrdvic]

Hello,

 

I've been using SAL for about a month and I have some questions about it. I ordered a item on Nov. 12 and it arrived today, on Dec. 5. But the items that I ordered on Nov. 4 and Nov. 7 didn't arrive yet. Is this usual? or are my items missing? Also, since SAL doesn't have a tracking number, how should I ask the USPS if they have my packages? If any of you have similar happenings as me, please help.

 

Thank you

Edited December 5, 2013 by byrdvic

[westfalen]

Not that unusual for packages to arrive in a different order to that in which they were sent.  I'd give it a few days, I've never lost any of the countless packages I've had from Japan.

[macdon]

Yup, it happens. I had a 2nd HS order arrived already while the first one hasnt arrived yet. They were ordered a week apart.

 

Mardon 

[bill937ca]

SAL only gets available space on planes.  This can cause delays at busy times. One Japanese dealer lists SAL as 14 to 56 days delivery time.

[byrdvic]

Thank you ^.^~ I feel much better and I think I'll give it another week to come!! 

[3railgreg]

Plaza Japan off ebay just sent item to me SAL. Shipped Nov 20 arrived Dec 5, so that's about 14 days. I can't complain about that at all. They have always been prompt. Bought an item recently from Pennsylvania and it took a week to get to Vermont, and that was 1st class. Go figure... :icon_scratch:  

[cteno4]

Over a decade of hundreds of sal packages here to the dc area it's been a range of 1-4 weeks, but I'd say 95% were within a couple of days of 2 weeks.

 

Jeff

[Matteo_IT]

I use EMS because usually it takes 10-15 days... (2-3 days from Japan to Italy... then 5-10 days for custom reasons, then 2-3 days for delivery).

Unlikely in Italy our mail system is a snail... When you claim the answer is "it's aproblem of custom"... No good!

I'm waiting for an EMS shipped last mon. and arrived in Italy wed. (3 days later) detected from the Japan post web site... in our web site at today the parcel is "the item you searched fot is not registered or is wrong number"...

Edited December 7, 2013 by Matteo_IT

[Blevins18]

I ordered some items from HS and they shipped on the 4th, and they're out for delivery today on the 7th, but I used EMS this time. 

[Darklighter]

According to AmiAmi, REGISTERED SAL Small Packet will become unavailable to some European countries:

 

Dear Customers,
Thank you for shopping at AmiAmi.
As the result of a recent international meeting of the Universal Postal Union, REGISTERED SAL Small Packet will unfortunately become unavailable to the following destination countries:
Australia / Denmark / Finland / Germany / Greenland / Hungary / Norway / Poland
All other shipping methods we currently offer such as EMS, Air Small Packet, Unregistered SAL Small Packet, and SAL Parcel will not be affected and will continue to be available.
The new postal regulation becomes effective on January 1, 2014,

[katoftw]

didn't even know it was available in australia.

[cteno4]

a lot of vendors do not do registered sal, its a bit of paperwork and an extra cost they just dont want to spend time on. if you want tracking they usually just push you to ems. it does bring 6000 yen insurance with it (along with tracking) for the 410yen cost.

 

to the US sal has never let me down over hundreds of packages in like 15 years, so ive never really cared about registering it or even doing ems much as im very, very well self insured now that a loss of a package is no issue if it were to happen. If you are willing to put the risk up front on the first 5-10 packages usually by then you are self insured for a regular $50-150 package to be lost down the road. then just builds quickly not doing registered or ems. of course you have to have patience for your trains to wait 2 weeks... ;-p

 

i just noticed something on sal that the shipper can get bulk discounts on sal shipping, so i wonder if some of the odd little delays that happen with it might be the shop or shipping agent holding onto packages until they have enough to get the 10 or 20% discount?

 

actually in the last decade i have only lost one package at all in the mail and that was w/in the us, bunch of japanese magazines where the package exploded along the way. it was reported and months later the bit of package with the label got to me, but alas in that sort of situation the magazines were probably shredded on a conveyer somewhere and toast.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[nartak]

I have just checked about registered SAL thing by calling Japan Post.

They told me that there will be no change in countries where registered SAL is available even after 2014.

 

It is quite strange if they make such a big change, they should make or post announcement through Japan Post's web or local post office but I have never seen any kind of it so far....

[nartak]

The announcement was issued very before the go-live date.  It is really surprising.

Now the news release is up at Japan Post after I called Japan Post for this issue.

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2013/1218_01.html (sorry, it is in Japanese)

 

Registered SAL to above countries will no longer available.

 

I am sorry for the confusion.

[kringlur]

Hello everyone, I found reading this thread very helpful so I signed up for the forum just to post here. Apologies for the long post but I thought it might be helpful.

 

I've lived in America, Iceland, and Sweden. I've never once had a package lost via SAL (and I've ordered a lot of stuff) from Japan, but I have had a small amount of SAL packages lost from other Asian countries (Hong Kong and Singapore really). I've also never ordered tracking on a SAL package unless mandatory, because the tracking is usually useless after the package leaves Japan. The speed of arrival greatly determines on where exactly you live in the country, apparently - I regularly used to receive even huge SAL packages from Japan in around five days, then I moved to another place in America (within the same state) and it took over the maximum time for another package to arrive. I've never had a crushed package or a time when the items were broken/damaged once they got to me, but the box is often rather beat-up on the outside. I tend to order thin books, videogames, clothes, and random trinkets so they might be harder to break/damage than the stuff you guys order.

 

(The worst package experience I've had is when I ordered something normal-sized from the UK and it took literally six months to arrive, the second-worst is when I was in Canada I sent a postcard to America and it arrived over a month later.)

 

I've never once been charged tax on packages when living in America, but the Nordics charge the normal tax rate of 22-or-so-percent. If you need to pay tax, they never deliver the package to your door and instead you have to go to the post office and pay/pick it up there. Iceland doesn't always tell you that you have tax to pay before you go to pick it up, Sweden seems better about it. In Iceland I honestly felt that they just charged you tax completely randomly, once my actual product cost about five dollars and they charged me like fifteen dollars in tax. I heard lots of horror stories from friends there about the post office completely failing to notify them of packages (even though you supposedly get 3 reminders per package sent out and it can stay for at least a month waiting for you to pick it up), the post office claiming to have knocked on your door even though you know they didn't because you were home all day, etc. That never happened to me personally though. Anyway, Sweden seems to be more reliable on charging standard tax rates and notifying you of packages, but I haven't ordered much from here yet so it remains to be seen.

 

Whether or not the package arrives to my door/mailbox depends on the country, I think. They always slip it in your mailbox or door-slot if it's small enough though. One thing to note is that some countries don't run the post on weekends, as in both Saturday and Sunday are no-post days. Add that in with different countries' random holidays and it could take strange amounts of time for your package to arrive, if it has to go through those sorts of places.

It gets to the customs office first, usually spending some days there, and that's where they decide what to tax you (I think) and if you've received anything you aren't supposed to (like they usually remove any dried meat that comes from America - due to possible mad cow disease). Then if applicable you get the Email saying "give us the receipt so we can tax you", then the package gets sent to the post offices - in Iceland you get Emails but in Sweden they just decide what to tax you on their own it seems.

By the way, whenever I've received stuff the customs office needs to take out, they always notified me via letter and said "this is what we have to take out, but you still have other items in the package (not mentioning what those other items are), do you want us to take out the offending item and send you the remaining package or send the entire package back to the sender? Email us with your reply". But honestly, they don't check things very well - all the time I've received dried meat from America that wasn't specifically written about on the contents list, it's made it through the mail without being touched, but whenever the sender marks it as existing they always need to remove it in customs.

Edited February 8, 2014 by kringlur

[Melandir]

this is my waiting list currently

 

some leds from Honk Kong= shipped Dec 18th and yet to arrive

Kato decoders from PlazaJapan= shipped Jan 3 and yet to arrive

 

TCS decoders from US shipped on Jan 30

 

and I have ordered today

Tantalum capacitors from US

1A Rectifier from China

 

and we will see when and if they will ever arrive

 

Custom here is a nightmare, if brought inside EU usually there are no problems

[katoftw]

Kato decoders from PlazaJapan= shipped Jan 3 and yet to arrive

Unlucky.  I brought some stuff from them on the 26/01/14, and they arrived 7 days later.

 

But I know alot of Ebay seller refuse to ship to Italy.  Now I know the reason.

[kvp]

I had a 100% packet loss with SAL to Hungary. That's 3 from 3, with the last order being intentionally minimal (2 usd) for testing only. On the other hand, with EMS i had a 100% success. I think this packet loss rate has something to do with SAL getting removed from the options for shipping to Hungary. With EMS the packages always arrived so far. (transit time randomly varies between 3 days and 3 weeks)

[cteno4]

I was wondering if those countries removed from sal were for a high poof rate...

 

Yes post does rely on both ends. I think the Japanese end is pretty stable, its any air transfer and the other end that decides the end result. One of our club members who lives about 50 miles north of dc seems to to have almost a week added to his sal timescompared to the rest of us closer to dc.

 

Still 100% here for me with hundreds sal from Japan. Luckily us has no tariffs with Japan on toys so I think there is practically no customs delay. It just seems to go slow boat on our end, probably lowest priority.

 

I also get may small similar china mail packets from litte ebay bits. Hundreds of them over the years and only a couple have gone poof, but many of these are tiny packets so I could easily see them getting stuck in a crack or stuck to something else.

 

Jeff

[Melandir]

Unlucky. I brought some stuff from them on the 26/01/14, and they arrived 7 days later.

 

But I know alot of Ebay seller refuse to ship to Italy. Now I know the reason.

EMS is 100% fault proof from outside EU because custom cannot hide it, inside EU SAL is reliable, Custom is che real issue packet can stay there for months

 

Especially for low value bits from China, I don't like to pay more the shipping than the object so I jeep trying SAL

Edited February 9, 2014 by Melandir

[Melandir]

this is my waiting list currently

 

some leds from Honk Kong= shipped Dec 18th and yet to arrive

Kato decoders from PlazaJapan= shipped Jan 3 and yet to arrive

 

 

This items has just arrived, I'm so happy :)

 

I can finally start playing with my Z21 digital station :D