suetibu

Hi, I am trying to order a gift of packaged food from England to New York City (where I live). Can anybody who has done this advise on the best way to handle this regarding customs? The items are chocolate truffles and christmas pudding, apple pear chutney and honey. Is there a carrier that works with food items?

please advise.

Thanks,
S

annhig

Hi suetibu,

there may be people here who have done this, but you might also want to post this on the US forum, as there may be more folks there who have experience of US customs, who are likely to be the most involved in this.

Good luck!

Dukey1

Does the (assuming it is from a) website you are using say ANYTHING about customs at all?

janisj

I order things regularly from the UK. Unless it is quite an expensive gift customs/duty isn't an issue. But what sorts of food are you ordering? Some things can't be imported -- but the merchant should tell you if that is the case. Which shop or website are you using?

janisj

Oh - and if there IS duty DHL will contact you by e-mail and you pay them the duty -- but that is highly unlikely for the typical small package. (The majority UK firms use DHL to ship to the states - I assume UPS would handle it the same way)

Christina

There is the issue of customs regardless of the value of an item in the sense that all packages from abroad are scrutinized and checked by CBP, they have to have the declarations and value labelled properly. I've bought books from abroad that weren't worth that much at all, but they still were delayed a bit due to customs. This is if they are sent by regular mail, which then goes to the USPS. No, you won't owe money, but they will still go through them. You have to fill out a customs form when using a shipper like DHL, also.

There is no prohibition against sending packaged food items like that through any regular shipping service like DHL. It's like anywhere, pack it yourself and take it to a shipping point or something, if you want to use something like DHL or Fedex.

janisj

>> but they will still go through them. You have to fill out a customs form when using a shipper like DHL, also.<<

They won't necessarily 'go through them' -- it is generally a cursory review of the customs form . . . which is completed by the <u>merchant/shipper</u>. This can delay delivery a few hours or a day or two.

>>It's like anywhere, pack it yourself and take it to a shipping point or something,<<

The OP is <i>ordering</i> something from the UK -- not buying and mailing it herself.


I order Christmas puddings, hard sauce, chutneys, teas every year (sometimes more than once a year) and have had no issues ever -- just be wary of any meat products. If the merchant does overseas shipping - most the main food purveyors do - They will take care of everything.

IF there is a problem at customs - DHL will e-mail or phone you.

annhig

Hard sauce, JJ?

remind me.

janisj

An american term for Brandy sauce etc . . .

suetibu

Hi, I will post this on the US forum too. I am ordering from a hotel restaurant - the manager is happy to send me the items but just wanted me to make sure regarding customs since this is not something they have done before.

So if I understand this correctly, they can just package and take to UK post office?

Thanks,
S

janisj

Since it isn't a food shop it would probably be more like a private citizen sending you a 'Care package'.

When he takes it to the GPO they will have him complete the customs declaration and attach it to the outside of the package. It isn't complicated at all. People send things every day. As long as there are no prohibited items (meats, some types of seeds, etc.)

US Customs' decisions/determinations have nothing to do w/ him -- he just mails it.

<B>•••</B> But are these items commercially packaged or are they prepared foods from the hotel kitchen that they are boxing up? That might be different - I've never sent/received/ordered prepared meals. Maybe flanneruk will know for sure <B>•••</B>

flanneruk

"I am ordering from a hotel restaurant"

If that sentence means what it seems to, you and the hotel are mad. The hotel manager has obviously been reading one of those inane airport paperbacks about "customer service" and is clearly contemptuous of his responsibility to his shareholders.

The products you describe, of themselves, probably don't breach any US import laws (though many chocolate truffles do). But you clearly have no idea what they are - and why do you expect a British hotel to?

More importantly: if they're made by a hotel, does their packaging and labelling conform to US law? Have you checked - and if not, how much are you paying the hotel to research the laws you, as (presumably) a US citizen have caused to be enacted?

Even if the products have been packaged and labelled in conformity with UK law, the US characteristically makes completely different, arbitrary, requirements - depending on which K Street lobbying firm paid how much to which Congressperson's PAC for small-print amendments keeping competitors to its US producer interest group client out of the US.

US Customs officials embedded in USPS depots may or may not be alerted by the word "food" in the short-form customs declaration your hotel gives to a post office clerk (the GPO was abolished in 1969) to inspect the goods, but in my experience of US Customs, there's a high chance they will be. If the food, on opening, isn't labelled in conformity with America's world-leading incomprehensible regulations, it'll be thrown away. There's zero chance the labelling will conform to US regulations if the hotel's never done this before.

You might strike lucky. You might not. You invented these cackamamie rules (your country does, after all, purport to be a democracy): what have you done to research the issue?

A British post office clerk is almost certainly a self-employed local businessperson, uninterested in the preposterous bureaucracy invented by foreign isolationists. So she's not going to be any help.

Major courier companies (like Fedex or DHL) charge a lot more than Royal Mail (the only mail provider British post offices act as agents for), but do give senders software designed to catch this kind of problem.

The simple advice to both of you: if you want to go ahead with this game of Russian roulette, the vendor must ensure he's got your cash in his account before starting, he must use a proper international courier company, and the customer must pay the cost of a courier and the substantial buggeration this is all going to cause the hotel. The onus is 100% on the buyer to organise this: the hotel's got real customers to look after.

The poster would do all this far more reliably via the Fortnum & Mason website. They've invested millions in labelling, packaging, product design and logistics to meet the unpredictability of foreign food legislation.

janisj

>>The poster would do all this far more reliably via the Fortnum & Mason website. They've invested millions in labelling, packaging, product design and logistics to meet the unpredictability of foreign food legislation.<<

Glad flanner popped up. When first posted I assumed the OP meant something like that - F&M et al have specialized export desks that take care of everything. The follow up info did sound a little crazy.

(I honestly don't know where the "G" in GPO came from -- I just meant PO)

Hooameye

"(I honestly don't know where the "G" in GPO came from -- I just meant PO)"

You've obviously slipped back a few years to when they were known as General Post Office.

I've done what the OP is inquiring about but it was some years ago, sent a Christmas parcel to a friend in Florida containing mince pies, Christmas Pud, Christmas Crackers etc via the Post Office, expensive yes but no customs problems even though the box had been opened by them.

sparkchaser

I send food from Europe to the U.S. all the time and have never had any issues. My suggestion would be to use a carrier like UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. and avoid the USPS as much as possible.

ekscrunchy

Since you live in NYC, have you looked for your items at Myers of Keswick? Even Fairway has a big section of British foods.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglopheni...-goods-in-nyc/

janisj

>>You've obviously slipped back a few years to when they were known as General Post Office.<<

Maybe I picked that up from some novel or something -- I was not traveling to the UK in 1969