UTmtnbiker

I know this is a topic that has been talked about before, but mostly for Canadian buyers who get hit with customs/tariffs/duties. Very rarely have I seen a thread talking about a US buyer being hit with customs.

As a US based buyer, I've been buying from PBK for about 3 years now, and at times, some rather high dollar item things and have never been hit with duties.

Today that all changed. With the good Dura Ace gruppo clearance deal they've had going on, I ordered 2 sets for builds this winter, along with pedals and other ancillary accessories. The mailman came to the door today (whom I know quite well as I do a lot of mail ordering) and actually apologized to me for having to collect the duty on it. He actually shook his head in disbelief. I was charged about $170. Not onerous, and still makes the Dura Ace a good deal, but just not as smoking as it was.

Don't know if it's just the unluck of the draw or if customs is actually changing their policies. Just thought I'd throw this out there. Discuss at your leisure.

JayC

Somewhere this is a big list of what is dutiable and what isnt in regards to bike parts. I'll have to hunt it up. I remember wheels were, I think.. Im not sure about anything else.

gmason

They are in Europe, correct? When I lived there, it seemed to be an issue of how large the invoice was. While the minimums of duty-free were small, sometimes a larger amount would pass. However, something the size of what I imagine your invoice to be would probably not. Sometimes it was triggered by the insurance request by the seller.

ggg300

did u get all of it in one order?

UTmtnbiker

Yes, but I've ordered significantly more, dollar wise, than this and had it come through with nary a hitch. Mostly I order components and/or pedals as I support a local club of riders - also known as "the guy who knows where to get cheap parts". I average about 1 order a month, with a range of something small like a set of pedals to multiple (4 or 5 at a time) build kits costing in the thousands. I've never ordered wheels before from them.

Either there's no rhyme or reason when customs gets involved (which is what I suspect) and you're up to the whim of whomever is manning the customs desk that day, or they're decided to really start cracking down (which I doubt...it is government work after all).

Ih8lucky13

Wow, I feel for you . My group came in with no duty charges.

I guess you grabbed the short straw that day.

samsation7

sorry to hear. With free shipping, I purposely buy my items on separate days to have them shipped separately as to not have anything over 500 hundred dollars each time. Maybe it would help if you order each groupset on separate days. That said, some bastad cleared out my DA groupset as I was staring at it (with 1 left for my size), ready to load in my cart. As soon as I do it, it's gone. And you got 2? He he. Not sure if I should cry for you.

ggg300

that is a lot of volume...you just may have increased the chance...

shakeNbake

+1

NameGoesHere

I'm surprised you have that much interaction with your mailperson... if I even ever see mine, she will not even look at me, much less speak, much LESS take payment for anything from me.

I have a PBK order on the way too. my first. hope duty doesn't kill the deal! I'm not prepared for that at the moment!

briscoelab

There is no duty on those bike parts. You shoudl be able to get your money back. Only wheels and bike shoes I beleive get charged.

UTmtnbiker

Between my Performance/Nashbar/PBK orders, and my wife's business (she's an event planner) we must get somewhere between 5 to 10 packages a week at the house.

I'm on a first name basis with both the UPS and USPS guy. We actually tip our UPS guy every Christmas as he makes it a point to stop by twice a day if we're not home the first time he tries to deliver.

kudude

thinking about placing an order soon, hope this doesn't come up. Does anyone have word on when they'll get more ultegra/da groupsets? i have the email auto-signup but am not sure if i'll be waiting a week or 3 months.

canuck4levi

I actually live on the Canada/US border, am frequently traveling to Europe, Africa,Aust/NZ and Asia, and have PO boxes on both sides. I have many years of experience with customs officials in every conceivable manner you can imagine and even a few you might not. Generally, US customs won't intervene on an order from the UK (home of PBK -- a place I enjoy ordering from as well -- and have it sent to the US address) unless the place of origin of the order contains over a threshold dollar amount from certain/designated countries that they are monitoring. For a hypothetical example, if the place of origin of your order contained over $500 of items that were originated in Taiwan, you might get their attention, whereas if those same $500 were from actually originated (as opposed to just being shipped out of) the UK, chances are you won't get hit. What is most interesting is that you'll rarely get a clear or straight answer from a customs official as to the conventions they apply until afterwards when you are actually paying the duties. I'm not suggesting that they indiscriminately apply their policies (actually, I think quite the opposite), but they prefer not to disclose any "insider" tips that may allow people to avoid future charges. Keep in mind that those charges go right to government coffers, and there is usually never enough funds there to do all the things our elected officials want to do (so that you will elect/re-elect them). Canadian customs will nail you for pretty much anything coming in from the UK, US or elsewhere. It is the extremely rare case where I order something to my Canadian box from Performance, Nashbar, PBK or any other that I don't get dinged with duties, GST/PST, various handling charges and the like. My favorite times are when I order a $30 jersey from one of the larger US shops, and get hit with $40 worth of charges to get it cleared. Making things worse is that you don't know about the $40 worth of charges until 2 weeks later when you get the bill from UP or FedEx clearing telling you about it -- long after you've already accepted the item for delivery without realizing the charges are coming. Needless to say, the question of customs and related charges greatly influence both where I order from and where I have it sent.

canuck4levi

I just ordered some from PBK about 2.5 weeks ago and am still waiting for my stuff. This is unusual because I ordinarily get my goods from them in 7-10 days at the latest. I phoned over today and was told that they are experiencing back-ups, not necessarily due to manufacturer deliveries or stock-outs but rather due some lingering UK postal system issues. My understanding was that the UK package delivery folks were/still are in labor disputes and were doing some work slowdowns. The PBK rep said there is a massive parcel backlog over on that side of the Atlantic that is slowing down many deliveries both in the UK and abroad. Take it for what it is worth...

89quattro

See page 19-21

https://hotdocs.usitc.gov/docs/tata/h...er/0702c87.pdf

Pharmr

I ordered a ultegra group and a bearing tool on the 31st...a tad over $500...hope it doesn't get taxed....when did y'all order your groups and how long did they take to arrive....I'm anxious to get started on my build!!

jjmolyet

I ordered Campy gruppo (Mirage) for Christmas last year, no extra charges.

ezee

Now THIS is a worthwhile thread (as compared to the many other troller or basically superfluous ones lately)!
Can you believe no lost time sifting past ever-present interference/noise was necessary?

v1k1ng1001

almost bought some gear from pbk tonight

i think i've changed my mind

Pharmr

don't know why...I've used them 4-5 times with no issues....many here have used them many times as well...for some things(like the groupset I ordered)no one can come close to their prices....if it's just a few bucks, I'd probably order within the US....they've always answered my emails promptly when I had questions....I won't hesitate to use them again

deraltekluge

I bought an item via the internet from a European company a while back...a fairly expensive item, several thousand dollars. I asked the seller about import duty to the U.S., and got the following response:

The US Customs can collect 5 % from you at your door.
Our experience is that they rarely do. Maybe they have it too busy
handling the immense volume of packages going to the US.

Should you be charged this Customs Duty we will refund it if you FAX us a
copy of the charges.

They shipped by mail, and nobody asked me to pay any import duty on it.

v1k1ng1001

maybe at a certain price an alarm goes off, otherwise they don't really bother

UTmtnbiker

After all of this, I'll still do my monthly PBK order. I will however, probably break it up in to smaller orders just to try and float under the radar. Although I think the dollar amount of this order had something to do with it, I still think there's no particular trigger as I've ordered much more dollar wise on one order and hadn't been "tagged".

I'm wondering if they have a centralized database tracking who orders what from out of the country and I think it could have been (and this is pure speculation on my part) both my frequency and the amount of this particular order that got the package flagged.

cuski

I've been buying stuff from PBK for almost a year now. Even after paying customs, it's still worth it. Even when they had the flat fee shipping rate, AND after customs, and it was still worth it.