Ordering from America

[Ty Korrigan]

Hello,

 Does anyone have any experience of ordering from the States?

 Treestuff.com in particular.

Is it worth it considering the duty to be paid?

 Regards

   Ty

[Steve Bullman]

nothing but good experience, arrived in an amazing 3 days.  hit and miss if you get charged duty, i've always got lucky.  I generally ask them to label the parcel as commercial samples

[Squaredy]

I needed a new carburettor for my Lucas MIll just before Christmas 2016.  I phoned the local agent for the Kohler engine and they said they couldn't even order it until the second week in Jan.  I rang a company in America and a very helpful man identified exactly the right part on the shelf, and he shipped it the same day.  It took a day or two to cross America, and was flown to the UK on Christmas Day.  It was in the UK within three days.  Then sadly Parcel Force faffed over the import duty, but even with their delay it arrived a week quicker and was about £90 cheaper (even with shipping costs and import duty) than the local UK agent would have been.

 

I also order occasionally ebay items from the USA - normally really quick.

[outinthewood]

If it's something you think you will get good use out of then why not ? I've been getting saws from the USA and Canada for over 7 years now and as long as you realise that you may have to pay some tax and duty then anything else is a bounus ! Over here we have a fairly strict system, package arrives is straight into customs at the postal HQ and if it is over 150 euros then you are charged a very small import duty and then VAT on the purchase and postage cost and you pay the postman on delivery. My first saw over 7 years ago had me getting a "clearing" agent which cost £60 ( we still had £'s then )  plus the costs ! thankfully the system has become much more customer friendly ! The only saw I ever lost was from the UK and did have one go missing for a few days last year but it made it through so instead of the normal 4/6 days for a saw it took nearly two weeks that was a little worrying on something that cost "150 euros" ....... 

[shavey]

As @outinthewood says it’s much more customer friendly if everything is straight forward  and easy for them it should sail through I’ve had more trouble with exporting items 

especially through California used saws and parts are getting harder too send and sometimes axes can get stuck in customs 

If your prepared too pay the import duties then most times your still quids in