[Leica] Cross border duties/taxes

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

Emanuel-Temp_Lowi@READERSDIGEST.COM wrote:
> 
> I believe there is actually no duty charged on 35mm photographic goods
> crossing the US-Canada border -- only taxes. A simple way to reduce these
> to nil is to ship always by FedEx - I've found they have a superb record of
> getting things in and out without hassle. 

Not in my limited experience.  I did job here in San Diego and had to
ship film to Toronto for approval then they were to return film same day
to agency in Colorado.  I explained all this to FedEx and even spoke to
customs here and heard, No problem.  Well, I insured it for $1200 (what
it would cost in expenses to reshoot it) and got charged $200+ in duty. 
Only way to have avoided this was declare it of no value.  Need to get
shipping insurance independent of the shippers who probably wouldn;'t
have paid off anyway. 

On a related point, recently had to ship film back from Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico so called DHL to see if they had an office.  Sorry, ;no we don't,
they said, only in La Paz (about three hours by bus).  So I called
Airborne (my favorite carrier) and they said they did have an office. 
Of course, when I got there (long story shortened) there was no
Airborne, but there was DHL.  Initially when I contacted DHL I was told
they didn't have an office but they could pickup if I would give them
the address.  I'm going to be on a boat, I said, so what do we do? 
Where Can I leave it?  Give us you address and we'll pick it up.  Don't
have an address.  Etc.  Joseph Heller could probably do this justice,
but you get the idea.  In the end, the DHL office was quite large, with
a counter and two people behind it. Spoke only Spanish, but did accept
US$. 

You'd think companies like these would have a clue about something as
basic as whether they had an office somewhere.  

donal

- -- 
Donal Philby
San Diego
http://www.donalphilby.com