Hi all,

I have a sea shipment that was routed throught the Port of N.Y. on its way to the Port of Montreal, Canada.

Apparently, according to my Canadian agent, U.S. Customs offloaded the shipment and brought it to their facilities for inspection, where they stored it for two weeks before reloading it on its way to Montreal. That process apparently cost about $440USD. I have aksed my agent for proof of inspection and a copy of the original U.S. Customs invoice for proof of the charge, but this seems VERY high.

What do you think? Any experiences to share?

While not the same procedure, I have my own U.S. Fish & Wildlife import/export license and all it costs me to have a shipment inspected at an authorized port of entry into the U.S. from Canada is $55USD.

Please share, as I have to clear these items throught Canadian Customs tomorrow afternoon- I also have to pay for this fee at that time.

Sounds like they may have got you for storage fees for the two weeks they sat around collecting dust.

I just paid for a Custom Agent to clear my RSA shipment and it cost $310.00 with storage fees for $39.00 for 3 days.

Good luck!

Thanks.

This $440USD does not include agent fees. I am clearing the shipment myself. This is a U.S. inspection fee.

To top it all off, these crates should not have even been off-loaded as their final destination was Montreal, Canada- shouldn't the U.S. inspectors have left the responsibility of inspection to the Canadian Customs agents?

There might be some law that says the moment the shipment touches U.S. soil...For the extra $440USD, I would have had the crates flown in directly to Montreal and saved waiting for 2 months.

Besides, the original shipping company in South Africa confirmed that the shipment was to be routed directly to the Port of Montreal from their European operations...but I can't do much except tell them that they made a mistake-after all, I am sure that they will not absorb that fee

I sent a mounted Caribou Head from Seattle to a freind's at his home in Italy via air freight. The flight was through London where it was off loaded and seized by the British Government for lack of proper paper work to enter Britain. It wasn't supposed to enter Britain but was routed from SAS Air Freight to Britsh Air at the last minute due to a flight cancleation.

The British agency in charge, forget who now, wanted 150 pounds for the paper work and 500 pounds for a fine. My friend told them to keep it.

Interesting story. The UK normally only requires a written statement declaring that the Caribou was taxidermied in a manner in accordance with their laws etc. I can dig up the info. I just sent a Caribou to the UK from Canada about a month ago- no problems with the statement that I provided. This was a mount that I sent to a buddy of mine that lives there.