Hi Everyone!
A little advice needed please.
We are finally about to receive our household goods from the UK - it's taken some time!
The movers used by our English shippers are based in Miami and tell us that we owe them $330 as our 'stuff' was inspected by customs.
Knowing that there are many scams I contacted customs at Miami this morning and was told emphatically that "We do not charge for inspections ma'am that is our job" Fair enough.
The movers will expect this payment when they deliver the goods next week. Do we just refuse to pay? Should I tell the shippers on the UK side to sort it out, as the original contract was with them or can we expect trouble?
I don't want to warn the movers in Miami that we're not going to pay as they may keep hold of our goods.

Any thoughts will be gratefully received.

Thanks,
Linda

Under Title 19, section 1467, of the United States Code (19 U.S.C. 1467), CBP has a right to examine any shipment imported into the United States and it is important to know that you, the importer, must bear the cost of such cargo exams. Per the CBP regulations, it is the responsibility of the importer to make the goods available for examination-- "The importer shall bear any expense involved in preparing the merchandise for CBP examination and in the closing of packages" (19 C.F.R. 151.6). ( 19 C.F.R. 151.6 ) Household effects are not exempt. No distinction is made between commercial and personal shipments. In the course of normal operations, CBP does not charge for cargo examinations. However, there may still be costs involved for the importer. For example, if your shipment is selected for examination, it will generally be moved to a Centralized Examination Station (CES) for the CBP exam to take place. A CES is a privately operated facility, not in the charge of a CBP officer, at which merchandise is made available to CBP officers for physical examination. The CES facility will unload (devan) your shipment from its shipping container and will reload it after the exam. The CES will bill you for their services. There are also costs associated with moving the cargo to and from the exam site and with storage. Rates will vary across the country and a complete devanning may cost several hundred dollars. The CES concept fulfills the needs of both CBP and the importer by providing an efficient means to conduct exams in a timely manner. CESs are discussed in part 118 of the Customs Regulations and are available for viewing on the Customs Web site (19 C.F.R. 118). ( 19 C.F.R. 118 ) Select the legal tab, then select Customs Regulations (CFR, multiple years) in the what's new column under quicklinks, and scroll down to Title 19 - Customs Duties.


http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs....i=&p_topview=1

i got "charged" for the same thing!

Asked to have a copy of the original invoice and the charge was "dropped" as a goodwill gesture. A few red flags flowing in my little field of dealing with shippers!

of course i am sure that some do get checked, the container actually goes thru an xray machine - I just wanted to have it on paper that mine was checked. They couldnt provide the paper work and I am sure they didnt just get a phone call to say pay x amount of $s. So they did not want to provide a paper trail.

However on that note some of my belongings didnt arrive at all and some arrived damaged, was a nightmare dealing with the insurance company. conicidence?

Just wondering how long it took for your stuff to arrive and where from ? if you dont mind me asking. Mine is being picked up in 4 weeks and have read how long it is supposed to take but just wondering.... We are coming from south east England into Florida

We gave our shippers (Anglo-Pacific) the 'go-ahead' to collect our things from storage in th UK on Oct 17. They didn't collect it until 4 weeks later and we have been waiting ever since. It arrived in Miami on 22nd Dec (not the best of times) and we had notification 2 days ago that it had been released from customs

It was coming from the south east of the UK. We live in Venice Fla.
We've lived here for 7 months now but rented until we bought our home in Dec. Since then haver been using paper plates etc. Can't wait for it to arrive and turn the house into a home!

Good luck with your shipping.

The cost should be less than $150... but they charge you more because there's not much you can do about it if they've got your stuff.

You could pick it up from the port on your own with the paperwork of course.