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| Joined: | Mon Jul 31st, 2006 |
| Location: | Germany |
| Posts: | 5 |
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FedEx has a default limit of 500 USD insurance value, but it's only the restocking value that needs to be used to insure an item properly, so even items of a higher value can be shipped. They are very fast, tracable, but quite costly.
The German Postal Service owns DHL, so it's the same company basicly, parcels are handled by DHL and they also do all Express deliveries and the rest is done by the good old Post. The cheapest option there is a Post land transport high value letter (Wertbrief Land), costs about 30 EUR if i'm remembering it correctly and takes up to 4 weeks (!), not tracable online (only internal), up to 4500 EUR insurance value (higher costs based on the value).
DHL is more costly from Germany than it is in the US, i guess they have less competition over here.
According to the German law a business seller (!) is responsible for the risks of transport, i'm not sure if it applies to all international deliveries or can be limited.
So a shipment that is not insured is quite stupid for them or they just calculate that they will spare enough money to replace lost items because only every 10th is lost.
All business sellers also have to show their contact details and (if they have them) additional tax data somewhere in the offer or if the offer is on eBay or an online shop at least on a kind of about me page that can be found easily.
The costs of payment have to be beared by the buyer, that's at least stated in the EU laws BUT if a payment is made via PayPal both parties have agreed to their terms and those expicitly disallow it (only UK sellers are allowed to, up to a certain amount).
Customs: All hate it but to avoid it means to commit a crime. Simple but less known, if someone asks a seller to ship with a lower stated customs value it's tried tax evasion, the seller won't be blaimed (it may affect his contracts with carriers but nothing else) but the receiver will bleed if it's noticed and will have to pay the penalty charge (differs from country to country but it's quite a lot)
Declaring an item as a gift and insuring it properly is quite useless, insurance value and customs value are compared and have to be logical.
Customs and duty on watches is not that much in the US, but Canada is costly, Europe differs (minimum is about 15%) and South America is a horror (Brazil has up to 70%).
US and watches: All deliveries to the US have to include a so called watch declaration, that's a customs document stating origin of the watch and movement, value breakout and such stuff.
Protected animals: Most customs departments need special documents (declaring the origin) for them i.e. straps made of genuine crocodile skin. If those documents can't be provided the item (the whole delivery, not the strap only !) will be confiscicated.
Payment: Use PayPal if it is offered, it also means that the seller has to ship with a carrier that is allowed by them (those with tracable shipments are) and you have someone to mediate in case of claims. Bank transfer (Ueberweisung) is a common type of payment method in the European Union but less known in North America and only a few banks offer the needed data by default. It's an electronic funds transfer from one bank account to an other, it's tracable, not reversible but nevertheless recommended because no cash is used. It can be costly sometimes, so use it if any other (good) option is available. You will need an international bank account no. (IBAN), an international bank code (BIC /Swift) and the full account name of the seller to do it. Your bank will know how to handle it.
Just my 2 cents and by far not complete.