FedEx are useless morons

[Stephen Williams]

Gosh Stephen, you seem to be making this quite personal!
]

Hi Anthony,

I think as you described FedEx as 'useless morons' it was quite in order! Had they lost your camera I might have agreed.
Sometimes it's worth paying for a broker to handle imports & exports.

Best Stephen

 

[Tom Lowe]

All of these taxes and import duties are a bunch of bullshit, period.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

what Tom said...

In my one overseas shipping experience, FedEx did not even read the paperwork. Total morons. And completely intractable and unwilling to accept responsibility for their carelessness.

I have had very good dealings with them domestically, however.

 

[Stephen Williams]

All of these taxes and import duties are a bunch of bullshit, period.

Tom,

The government in the UK has got to get some money form somewhere, 1/3 of families in the UK receive more than 50% of their income as benefits.

I remember sales tax being added on top of the ticket price on every purchase I ever made when I was in the USA! In the UK & Europe the sticker price includes taxes in shops.

Stephen

 

[Jay Gannon]

Tom,

The government in the UK has got to get some money form somewhere, 1/3 of families in the UK receive more than 50% of their income as benefits.

Stephen

:jacked:
I am quite a left leaning liberal but the UK's situation is just plain messed up. Far too much benefit culture. I don't mind paying high taxes, at all. But not to fund someone who has never worked, tie benefits to previous income like the rest of Europe. And if someone is unqualified to work, train them into a job.
Hopefully the current government can find a balance in the center somewhere.
:jacked:

 

[Cail Young]

To wit:

No tracking updates for 50 hours. I was very close to assuming it had been stolen.

 

[nick allsop]

I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex.

Fed Ex always screw up. The worst thing about RED is that you have to deal with Fed Ex.
When my MX turned arrived in the UK it got held in customs because Fed Ex just looked at its value and failed to look at the other paperwork that said it was a warranty repair.

 

[Stephen Williams]

I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex. I Hate Fed Ex.

Fed Ex always screw up. The worst thing about RED is that you have to deal with Fed Ex.
When my MX turned arrived in the UK it got held in customs because Fed Ex just looked at its value and failed to look at the other paperwork that said it was a warranty repair.

Claiming MX was a warranty repair! Take care customs can confiscate your camera if they smell a rat, they also have 5 years to reopen the case & charge you more.

 

[Paul Leeming]

Well, I am in the same boat and have decided to fight.

Each and every time Fedex charges me a new round of VAT and import tax, even though the camera is going backwards and forwards for repairs and warranty work. They tell me that I have to submit forms X, Y and Z and I do, then they tell me they don't accept those forms. It's bull$hit and frankly illegal as it's double and triple dipping.

So I have refused to pay them several times and the last time they refused to deliver until I paid import tax yet again (that's called ransom where I'm from). Then they decided to hand the non-paid customs import duties to a collection agency who threatens to take me to court unless I pay. So I say fine - see you in court. Fun times ahead but if one doesn't stand up for one's principles and the spirit, not the letter, of the law, how can I ever hold my head up high and look people in the eye as saying I did the best I could?

Fedex sucks and the sooner Red ditch them the better off we'll all be!

Cheers for the outlet to vent!!

Paul

 

[tim brown]

The wonderful world of VAT!!!

My apologies gents. I do fear we on the other side of the pond are headed in the same direction unfortunately.

 

[Jean Déraps]

"What you are missing is that Anthony is at fault, it's his responsibility for correct customs documentation, making a false or incorect declaration is a criminal offence."

Stephen, you would be right if it were actually criminal. If Antony M has proof of previous import then it's called a mistake since he's not trying to circumvent the law. And we as simple citizens should be able to correct such administrative mistakes as this without much ado. If he were in fact trying to smuggle things to avoid paying duty, this would be a totally different situation and the term criminal offense could be appropriate.

The world of "import/export" is notoriously complex and arcane. I've actually called Canada customs before and they themselves had no clue as to how to categorize the items I wanted to import. They wanted to classify my EasyRig as "luggage" (or something like that) that conveniently had a 6% duty attached to it. I contacted EasyRig (who must ship these things every day) and got the appropriate category that was, lo and behold, duty free!

Companies such as FedExtortion and UBS capitalize on this complicated state of things to pray on us mere mortals to make even more money. I sent my RED to be MXd by FedEx. It would have cost $806 from Montreal but cost only $230 from Plattsburgh, NY (1 1/2 hour drive from Montreal). The difference in cost was due to 'brokerage fees' since FedExtortion charges a percentage to do this. It certainly doesn't cost more to process a $17500 camera than a single can of beans (it's just a code from the Tariffs bible) but FedExtortion have the knack of being really greedy.

 

[Luis Ismael]

Fedex is simply a money machine.
They dont care about paperwork, that cost money.
They are too busy making money.
If you dont take care... they will make you pay TWICE.
They NEVER EVER admmit they made a mistake.
BEWARE.

 

[Stephen Williams]

So I have refused to pay them several times and the last time they refused to deliver until I paid import tax yet again (that's called ransom where I'm from). Then they decided to hand the non-paid customs import duties to a collection agency who threatens to take me to court unless I pay. So I say fine - see you in court. Fun times ahead but if one doesn't stand up for one's principles and the spirit, not the letter, of the law, how can I ever hold my head up high and look people in the eye as saying I did the best I could?

Hi Paul,

What your missing is FedEx has paid those customs charges on your behalf in advance allowing for quick customs clearance. If FedEx decide not to pay for your goods to be released in advance, you will have to deal direct with customs, good luck with that, it could take several months rather than a few hours.

Stephen

 

[Stephen Williams]

Fedex is simply a money machine.
BEWARE.

Hi,

Like with airlines there is plenty of competioion & they are not particually profitable with return on investment is nothing special.

Stephen

 

[Jay Gannon]

Companies such as FedExtortion and UBS capitalize on this complicated state of things to pray on us mere mortals to make even more money. I sent my RED to be MXd by FedEx. It would have cost $806 from Montreal but cost only $230 from Plattsburgh, NY (1 1/2 hour drive from Montreal). The difference in cost was due to 'brokerage fees' since FedExtortion charges a percentage to do this. It certainly doesn't cost more to process a $17500 camera than a single can of beans (it's just a code from the Tariffs bible) but FedExtortion have the knack of being really greedy.

That just shows an utter lack of knowledge on the subject. I'm guessing none of you have ever run an international logistics project or company. It is infinitely more complex and time consuming than anyone could ever think or assume.

 

[Jean Déraps]

Thanks very much for your comments Jay, but flattery will get you nowhere.

Please explain to me in your grand wisdom what service FedExtortion would have given me for the $570 difference. I don't know where you're expertise on the subject comes from, but as someone who's had to deal with FedExt/UBS brokerage dozens of times and has done the brokerage myself on many occasions, I can assure you that brokering a single package does not consume $570 worth of resources. As I said before, there's no difference in brokering a wing nut or brokering a digital camera. You look up a code in a tariffs catalog and fill in a form, regardless of what it is. So there's no reason to charge such exorbitant fees for this service just because the item is more expensive. It's not insurance, it's a brokerage service.

 

[Tom Lowe]

Tom,

The government in the UK has got to get some money form somewhere, 1/3 of families in the UK receive more than 50% of their income as benefits.

There's your problem right there, my friend. Ask the Greeks.

Every time I have to ship something to a VAT country, the paperwork is a ridiculous farce, where I have to try to hide what I am sending (usually harddrives with footage data on them), then the VAT country tries to charge the person I am sending it to as if I were selling that person a brand-new harddrive.. as if I was a retailer like Amazon!

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

There is no any sort of problem with Fedex and me in Austria.

My report about the latest Fedex experience:

Sent R1 to MX upgrade in California, have got it back as soon as possible.

Sent R1 to Munchen/Ottobrunn Germany for collimation, have got back as soon as possible.

And always have got the right tracking numbers and...

Also with all my RED orders it was the same...

Fast, professional and pretty good reliable transport service...

Really I did not have any other sort of bad experience with Fedex....

 

[Scott Crawley]

I sent a used lens COD, they delivered the lens, collected the check and then lost the check. I filed a claim. They paid the other party. Now the buyer had my lens, plus the money he would have paid me for it. Luckily for me the guy sent me the money USPS... And he got my lens for free.

Their delivery record for me has been good over all, but shipping record is not so good. The sum total of my experience with their customer service; It sucks.

 

[Paul Leeming]

Hi Paul,

What your missing is FedEx has paid those customs charges on your behalf in advance allowing for quick customs clearance. If FedEx decide not to pay for your goods to be released in advance, you will have to deal direct with customs, good luck with that, it could take several months rather than a few hours.

Stephen

Yes but that's the problem isn't it? I'm asking Fedex NOT to pay and let me deal with Customs but they pay anyway, then try to recover the money from me. Not to mention they have both ends of the paperwork, outgoing and incoming matching....

Fedex is prejudging the Customs outcome and then expecting me to pay because they've paid. That's too bad for them if they get it wrong since I'm not getting a say in the process.

Cheers,

Paul