FedEx FIMS US->UK - any experience?

pdeeh · May 8, 2014

Has anyone here (i.e. within the UK) got experience of ordering from Freestyle using FedEx FIMS delivery?

Freestyle suggest a conservative 20-60 day estimate, but I wondered if anyone had actually had stuff delivered by this service and, if so, what the actual delivery times had been?

Mustafa Umut Sarac · May 8, 2014

When I ordered my leica from bh and paid 60 dollars to shipment , camera came at the third day from new york to istanbul but when I order FedEx FIMS , delivery done by my regular goverment postman in 12 days from Germany to Istanbul. There is noone from FedEx involved here.

I think using FedEx delivery is to get your expense back with guarantee when the cargo lost and tracking ability and excellent package.

Short , you will get your shipment as same as USPS shipments done from US to UK. I dont think it will be more as 20 days. I buy 3 items from US on Ebay every week and they come in 15 days , never changes , by USPS and Turkish post office.

Good luck.

Umut

pdeeh · May 8, 2014

Well, yes, once it arrives in the UK it's in the hands of the Royal Mail to deliver, but once it's in the UK it only takes a day or two to get to me.

I've had parcels from the Netherlands (barely 500 miles away) which take 6 weeks to land on my doormat, and parcels from Hong Kong (over 6000 miles) which regularly arrive in 4-5 days ...

However I would be interested to know the experiences of anyone who has taken this exact option and is also in the UK.

cmacd123 · May 12, 2014

I have used the FMIS a couple of times from Freestyle to Canada now. In both cases, it was picked up in the US by Fed-ex and then mailed Airmail from Sweden. The postal service then returned it across the Atlantic. presumably there are other places that packages are also mailed from. Fed-ex presumable is only allowed to mail a foreign package without paying the local duty and tax if that package will Leave the country it is mailed in. I paid the normal duty and tax due on any package form outside Canada, but probably did not get any NAFTA benefits.

Basically this is arbitrage on the high cost that the USPS charges for international packages.

pentaxuser · May 12, 2014

I hope you find U.K. APUGers who have done this and you may have full researched the benefits of price v effort and cost but I recall a post recently from Ian Grant who is a believer in importing due to the U.S./U.K. price differential that when you factor in the costs from direct importing from U.S. retailers such as Freestyle the cost benefit is largely wiped out.

What does work is having the stuff sent to a U.S. friend who then sends it to the U.K. At least this was how I read Ian's posts on this matter.

Best of luck with the actual information you need

pentaxuser

pdeeh · May 12, 2014

I hadn't seen any of Ian's posts saying he used the "friend" method, but I was always surprised that he found it cheaper to import Ilford than buy it locally.

However, I have as you suspect, done my due diligence on this, and for certain items, even assuming one gets hit with Import Duty + VAT (and it's not guaranteed that one will be), the costs really are significantly lower from Freestyle.

I emphasise Freestyle because they offer the lowest cost insured shipping - less than half that from the other major US players (B&H, Adorama). The shipping of course does go up quickly with weight, so buying a dozen boxes of 10x8 sheet film probably doesn't work out very economical, although tbh I haven't done the sums for that particular "scenario".

As for effort, it's no more difficult than placing an order with Silverprint or Ag - you tick the boxes, fill in your credit card details and away it goes.

Ian Grant · May 12, 2014

pentaxuser said:
I hope you find U.K. APUGers who have done this and you may have full researched the benefits of price v effort and cost but I recall a post recently from Ian Grant who is a believer in importing due to the U.S./U.K. price differential that when you factor in the costs from direct importing from U.S. retailers such as Freestyle the cost benefit is largely wiped out.

What does work is having the stuff sent to a U.S. friend who then sends it to the U.K. At least this was how I read Ian's posts on this matter.

Best of luck with the actual information you need

pentaxuser

Most of my purchases are from the UK

I've had good experiences with the US shippers/postage, USPS, UPS, FedEx etc when in the UK, not so good when in Turkey only 50% of packages arriving (all but one was then delivered no problem to the UK instead)

It's not the shippers who are the issue, now US retailers pay the Import Duty & VAT (on the goods & postage) for you with a handling charge ansd that can be excessive.

So yes Mike (Pentaxuser) is right find a US friend to have the goods sent to (often free) and pay them post to the UK. I'm not suggesting they mis-declare what's being sent but it may save a lot of extra charges.

Ian

pdeeh · May 12, 2014

Ian Grant said:
I'm not suggesting they mis-declare what's being sent but ...

the thought never entered my head ...

however, it's so long since I've been in touch with any of the few friends I have in the US, that suddenly getting in touch to ask a favour (or even favor) would seem a bit like taking the p**s

Ian Grant · May 12, 2014

pdeeh said:
I hadn't seen any of Ian's posts saying he used the "friend" method, but I was always surprised that he found it cheaper to import Ilford than buy it locally.

However, I have as you suspect, done my due diligence on this, and for certain items, even assuming one gets hit with Import Duty + VAT (and it's not guaranteed that one will be), the costs really are significantly lower from Freestyle.

I emphasise Freestyle because they offer the lowest cost insured shipping - less than half that from the other major US players (B&H, Adorama). The shipping of course does go up quickly with weight, so buying a dozen boxes of 10x8 sheet film probably doesn't work out very economical, although tbh I haven't done the sums for that particular "scenario".

As for effort, it's no more difficult than placing an order with Silverprint or Ag - you tick the boxes, fill in your credit card details and away it goes.

There's so many vagaries, I always do some checking before making large orders, I prefer to make occasional large orders it used to be worthwhile when Silverprint offered good bulk discounts.

I feel quite let down now by UK suppliers these days, I'd prefer to use only Ilford materials but I've had to be frugal (I was carer for my mother with my wife) and had no income. I've used a lot of Foma films while living abroad as it was readily available and the quality is excellent, that makes me quite calculating in my film usage.

Since I switched from TMax due to extremely poor availability (outside the US/UK) to Delta 100, 400 & HP5 (LF) Ive saved the Ilford film for my key projects and use Foma 100 & 200 for the other work.

I buy my Foma film from Fomaphoto (when in the UK) an APUG sponsor, great to deal with and excellent prices. When I finish my Forte 200 & EFKE 25 in 10x8 then it's Foma all the time, I just can't justify using Ilford film.

Ian

pdeeh · May 12, 2014

Yes, Slavomir at Fomafoto is a joy to deal with. His shipping charges - as well as his film prices - are amazingly good value.

pdeeh · May 15, 2014

Just to complete the information loop, I did order a small item from Freestyle. It was despatched on 1st May and arrived today, 15th May.

So, about a fortnight door to door, which seems pretty good to me.

Unfortunately I have been hit with "customs charges" which added 30% to the cost: actually, only about £4 for "customs" but another £8 on top of that for the luxury of having RM collect the £4. This somehow is harder to swallow now they've been privatised ...

Still, I'd allowed for that, and am happy enough. It's not something I intend to make a habit of, but I wanted something particular on this occasion.

I'm not sure how if I had a friend send it I could avoid paying duty or handling charges, but if you're still following the thread Ian, perhaps you could advise?

Ian Grant · May 15, 2014

It's very hit & miss whether Duty and VAT are added to items, it seems to vary with the airports and customs hubs. I'm told that you can have a line added to a package to indicate you will pay the Duty & VAT which means the Post Office or other service can't charge you for the handling fee but I'm not sure of the wording.

I tend only to get friends to post from the US where a seller won't post abroad or their charges are prohibitive, I've done the reverse where minimum orders for International postage means it's not economic

Also I mainly buy off private individuals in the US so non commercial packaging etc and they always declare the correct value, expect once. I bought a 10x8 camera where the idiot seller decided that it would be better to bump up the value for insurance reasons in case there was a claim, I paid more duties than I should have as a result. Had I been in the UK at the time it arrived I could have claimed it back as the completed listing was still showing on ebay and I had the Paypal receipt, I arrived home just after the deadline to claim.

There's a nasty new system where US sellers, shops as well as on ebay, collect the Duty & VAT at the time of sale and they charge extra to do this and postal charges are also high, effectively this wipes out any potential savings on film etc from B&H. So much for the free market.

Ian

pdeeh · May 15, 2014

thanks Ian.
It is very much a lottery - I've had stuff from non-EU Europe, as well as HK, mainland China, Japan and Korea, and at all sorts of values (a couple much higher than this one) arrive without any intervention by HM ...

FedEx FIMS US->UK - any experience?

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