tramway

Hi

Has anybody had AQIS included in their quote and had their goods shipped to Oz and not have to pay anything more than was originally quoted & paid in UK.

Some companies say its included but then the other companies are telling me its all a con as it can't be included and you will get stung the other end.

I know they are all salesmen but starting to wonder now don't and can't afford to get forced to pay more again in Oz on collection day?

Thanks

Centurion

Most will include standard costs. However, nobody can tell you what AQIS will do with your container. If they go through it and then start deciding cleaning needs to be done, items confiscated and so on, then there is a bill to pay at that point. No shipper will cover that I'm afraid.

Janna and Nick

Pickford's included it in our quote but it was something along the lines of "AQIS charge per consignment based on weight/size of consignment so should your shipment be checked a charge of $..... is payable"

Haven't had the first hand experience yet though as we are still waiting to send our stuff.

iolande

I think the AQIS inspection charge is included in most quotes. But if you have items that need to be destroyed or irradiated, or if you get fined because they are illegal, then that is your cost. Also customs may charge you duty for goods that they deem you might sell etc

Our shipping contained 2 juggling balls which had to be either destroyed or irradiated. The charge to be destroyed was $65 or irradiated $165. For a £2 set we chose the $65 option. Don't ask where the third ball is . . .

The lady at the inbound shipping company expressed her surprise that that was all we were charged for given the amount of boxes we had (30). AQIS opened a third of our boxes for inspection. She also said she was surprised that our golf clubs weren't charged as it seemed to be standard that they were. We did clean them and soaked them in neat dettol and shook the dirt from the bottom of the bag.

One charge to keep an eye on is the 'storage charge' for the items when they arrive in Australia. If you don't get the paperwork back to the inbound shipping company within a tight deadline then (we had a week) then they might charge you for storing your boxes/container before inspection.

tramway

Thanks whats that about having to get the paperwork back to them, haven't come accross this yet, I just thought they rang you when your goods had arrived and gone through inspection ready to be delivered??????

tramway

Cheers all for getting back so quickly

iolande

There are some customs declaration forms to fill in (Alcohol was one of them). Apparently they could have been filled out and given to the shippers before we left - except they didn't give them to us. We were sent them about a week before the ship docked and were told to get them back it had docked otherwise we would pay storage costs (which were charged in month blocks!)

tramway

Cheers

slipshot

Doesn't matter - they'll always be a cost to pay somewhere as they'll find something to justify charging you an exorbitant amount so allowing them to justify their prescence. Sorry... there are many, many stories of ridiculous things being 'exterminated' on here at extortionate cost.

itxrd

We have just had quotes from Crown, JM, DB, Anglo and PSS. Corwn were the only ones that included the Aqis fee. Like someone said here though you have to pay it one way or the other anyway - either in the quote or when you get there. As a result Crowns fee will prob be a £100 or so more than the rest.

Vash the Stampede

We paid around ~$350 for our AQIS charge. From what I've heard, that's not too bad. Apparently it was just a routine inspection.

I was relieved that all our shoes got through without any trouble. I had spent an hour scrubbing and disinfecting them all by hand!

tramway

Ya cheers its included in our price but just can't get any info if anyone got conned and had to pay it again in Oz as other company quotes kept saying they can't include it its not possible etc

ozhappy981

There are two elements to the AQIS charge: The first elemt is the standard inspection fee. This is "standard". AQIS have a published tariff on their website. Everyone pays this. And of course shippers can include this in their quote - after all they do know in advance how much it will be.

Then comes the ptential second element: when the container gets inspected, AQIS may decide that you have something in there that needs to be decontaminated or destroyed. Obviously no shipper can predict whether that will happen to you or not. Therefore that potential charge is never included in the quote.

Some removal companies, like Crown, have their own bonded warehouse. I should imagine that AQIS does a bulk invoice to them for the standard inspection fees (like x no of containers inspected in December for $$$). It will therefore be easier for Crown's accounting system to include that in the quote to the customer.

Small companies like White & Co don't have their own bonded warehouse. They have to hire a customs agent to get the container through customs. You then pay that agent the standard fee (and possibly the agent's mark-up).

Hope this makes it clearer.

tramway

Cheers light bulb finally sorted in my brain. Have a gd wknd.