How not to ship to Adelaide - warning - shipping charges horror story

[nrand]

It was bound to happen sooner or later, everything that could happen did.
This is for my Martin D25K from the USA - the guitar from Vintageoneguitars is fantastic and I have nothing but praise for Steve and Joe.

Now the bad news:
Here is a list of charges in Australian dollars:
UPS DIRECT AIR - up front $350.00.
Disbursement fee - $20.00
Agency attendance - $100.00
ITF - $85.00
Cartage fuel charge - local - $11.40
ATF $75.00
Quarantine [seriously] - $139.00
+ GST $29.14
Compile user fee - $55.20
Customs + GST [again] - $285.73
Total $1150.47

for $1199.00 I can fly myself round trip to Honolulu!

Tip 1: UPS Express is cheaper overall than Direct Air even though the upfront charges seem higher.
Tip 2: Never ship a guitar through Adelaide unless you want to donate to the Quarantine Service. [I have shipped eight or ten guitars into Australia and only Adelaide Quarantine service has done this - twice]

Anyone else with shipping stories to share?

[cotten]

One word: OUCH!

cotten

[GibbyPrague]

Ouch indeed. And thanks for the heads up. Im from Adelaide but been living in Prague for past 7 years.

I wonder if these charges are only for guitars or all general goods imported from the US ?

Feel for you mate.

btw: couldnt you order through Derringers, they seem to have a pretty wide stock available these days ?

[BGS]

When I ship to Australia it's recently been costing me about $385 for FedEx Economy. I've sold three to Australia this month, and none of the buyers have mentioned anything like what you went through. That sounds horrible!

[Tunes]

Ahhhh - not like that story. Double ouch.

Some solace - in Ontario, Canada we get hit with Goods and Services Tax (GST) on EVERYTHING, so that adds like 15% to the bill no matter where it comes from or what it is.

However, I have never had a guitar quarantined - that's a new one on me.

I do seem to recall a business trip to Australia where they came on-board when we landed and sprayed the whole plane with a fog before they let us off. What the heck - does Australia think the rest of the world has cooties?

[nrand]

Originally Posted by Tunes

.
What the heck - does Australia think the rest of the world has cooties?

Technically, anything made of timber can be quarantined coming into Australia, but, there is also a clause in their regulations citing that kiln dried timbers and finished products are much less concern than raw timber. What they are worried about in timber is wood borers. Ever seen or heard of a guitar with wood borers? The UPS agent tells me he had to be on hand for the inspection, and all they did was open the case and close it again.

He also explained that quarantine in Adelaide has regular quotas of inspections they must meet. It seems a) they have way to much time on their hands, and b) they find guitars are easy targets to justify. I had a Fender Jaguar shipped from Japan that got the same treatment in Adelaide. Only Adelaide Quarantine/Customs behaves like this, the other cities are fine.

[oldgitplayer]

The demons of guitar destiny obviously have it in for you.

I have shipped 3 guitars in hard cases from the US into Adelaide in the past 12 months.
They ranged between $110 and $150 shipping costs with nothing else to pay.
They were all used instruments up to $1000 in value, thus avoiding import duty and GST etc.

Maybe I have an angel of guitar destiny who looks after poor players.

[Berf]

Hi nrand,
A similar thing happened to me. Anything costing you over AUS$1000 (including the postage and insurance costs) gets hit with:
1. customs handling fee (about $50 I think)
2. 5% import duty on value of goods (unless there is a certificate of origin stating that the goods are of USA origin and manufacture... then you shouldn't pay the import duty under the free trade agreement)
3. 10% GST on (value of goods + shipping + insurance + import duty)
4. if they're pedantic, quarantine inspection fee (this regularly seems to happen with UPS and I'm in Sydney)

Don't know what the ITF and ATF charges are. Basically I think UPS charges you for everything they can possibly think of.

By the way, how did the total importing fees (shipping GST quanatine etc) compare with the cost of the guitar? I'm guessing it added at least 50% to your purchase.

More importantly, how's the guitar? Oops, I just reread your post and noticed you said that it id fantastic... enjoy

[Brendo]

Never had it. I've shipped three guitars from the US to the Great Southern of Western Australia, and none of them got held up by customs, and the most I paid in shipping was $160AUS.

I did get a Telecaster Pickguard opened by Customs. They must have seen the Amsterdam postmark on it.

Still, that's a terrible story.

[Taylorplayer]

Is there anyway you can challenge any of those costs? Others have stated that they shipped in a similar manner without those outrageous costs!

[nrand]

Originally Posted by Taylorplayer

Is there anyway you can challenge any of those costs? Others have stated that they shipped in a similar manner without those outrageous costs!

I have toyed with the idea of sending a letter to Quarantine but I really don't have time for all the negative energy that would require. I am basically a happy person.- (although I can get mad sometimes), I generally prefer happy.

To answer the questions on ASTF and ITF - these are transfer fees, International and Australian - basically every time some one touches the guitar they add $75 - $85 bucks, a pretty expensive tip for someone to move a box if you ask me.

Part of the rub is that UPS uses other carriers, in this case Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and the Adelaide for their so called 'Direct Air' then they turn around and charge you for not using UPS owned aircraft such as are used for UPS Express.

To answer. one other question, yes, the shipping and duty etc added just over 50% to the purchase price.

[Berf]

Is there anyway you can challenge any of those costs? Others have stated that they shipped in a similar manner without those outrageous costs!

No way at all that I can think of... these charges are all legitimate and the 10% GST is supposed to be charged on (nearly) all goods and services provided even within Australia (like the VAT in Britain). If you import a guitar worth more than $1000 without being hit for these charges, well it's simply luck of the draw (just overlooked by customs). I think that in the past alot more stuff got through without the fees but things have changed. Over recent times the huge increase in online purchasing from overseas has got the big local retailers pretty worried. They seem to have been losing alot of business particularly as the Australian dollar has strengthened. Last year (I think) they began lobbying the Aust government pretty hard to ensure that the taxes etc are enforced on imported goods bought online... they hoped that this would help them remain more competitive. They seem to have succeeded in getting the government to listen and now more imported goods are getting hit with customs. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out. Just out of interest, I wonder if any Australian luthiers are charging the 10% GST on their guitars?

[Berf]

To answer. one other question, yes, the shipping and duty etc added just over 50% to the purchase price.

Did it still work out cheaper than buying locally?

[ifcowscouldfly]

Yes... unforetunately its still cheaper to import than to buy locally here.

BTW, I've had a good experience with myfavoriteguitars.com . I think they ship with DHL. All you pay is the $250 shipping fee, customs duty and GST. None of this other stuff.

I think its strange that quarantine charged you for holding your guitar. I'm not sure if I was charged for that.

[nrand]

This guitar is fairly unique, possibly the best example of a D25 anywhere, as it probably belonged to a collector who purchased it and then put it straight into storage for 30 years. The guys at UPS here were pretty excited about its condition.

I would not find a guitar of this quality in Australia for anywhere near that money, but that is not the point as Australian music retailers are historically overpriced. I also have no gripe about customs and duty etc as this is law.

My issue is with UPS for not being upfront about all the 'extras', nearly $300 worth, and with the Quarantine service, for unnecessary gouging.

The point of the costing details is that for the kind of money I donated to UPS and the Australian govt, I could have flown to Hawaii, purchased something nice there, and come home with a guitar and a vacation under my belt!