One day, in July, I saw an ad for an outfit in NL called Champion Helmets. It was a dot com.
They have a nice new huge building in Holland, or the Neatherlands...not sure.
They had a helmet I wanted. $267 Euros plus something like 50 bucks shipping and some tarriff. Its a $500 plus 9 percent pirate fee US helmet . But the US importers refuse to import cobalt blue.
I have been using a LS2 Valient for many years and love it...but its a bit heavy. Now I see the LS2 Advent X in fiber composit is much lighter...still 50 grams heavier than Carbon but who needs to pay $100 US more for 50 grams....Plus the texture of carbon looks like schist.
So I order one using my visa card. It comes in a week or two Fed ex but it can only come to my house and a person must sign for it. Fed ex will make 3 attempts to deliver it, then send it back to the dutch.
I watch the tracking and sure enough, here comes the helmet...I am home...and I get the helmet and in a few days a bill for the tarriff. I think it was less than $50. Fine.
I love this helmet!
So I do what I always have done....order another....
It gets as far as Memphis and Fed Ex says customs wants to get a better description of what this box contains.
So Champion sends them the description and says everything is a go.
Then fed ex says US Customs wants me to fill out a form HS7 as the importer. So working with a FedEX guy in India, on the phone all the while, for an hour, I print out the PDF (for some reason, I cant fill it in) and state the following. This is one motorcycle helmet. Its new. I am the importer. This my address. Then I sign it. I take a pic of it and send it to India. He says he cant read the address as the box is so small, I cant really print my long address in it. So I take another pic in the sunlight and he says he thinks US Customs will buy off on this copy. After he hangs up, I figure out how to fill out the form witth the keyboard, print it, and sign it, take its pic (I dont have a scanner) and send it along. two days later, US customs releases the helmet.
Mind you, none of this happened with the first helmet. Champion told fedex and uS customs my name, address, email;, telco number. that I was an importer of this new helmet. And of course I would pay the tarriff. This second oddesy started on 8/19. Champion neglected to tell me the store was shutting down for 2 weeks for summer holiday. I just got my helmet today, 9/22.
As far as I am concerned, I am done being an importer. US customs, your suck. Champion sucks for not telling me about the 2 week shutdown even though I asked for and paid for express 2-4 days delivery, and telling me about all the mickey mouse meaningless stuff I had to do. And not allowing me to send the helmet to a fed ex drop ship store and signing for it there. (probably a US customs requirement)
They have a nice new huge building in Holland, or the Neatherlands...not sure.
They had a helmet I wanted. $267 Euros plus something like 50 bucks shipping and some tarriff. Its a $500 plus 9 percent pirate fee US helmet . But the US importers refuse to import cobalt blue.
I have been using a LS2 Valient for many years and love it...but its a bit heavy. Now I see the LS2 Advent X in fiber composit is much lighter...still 50 grams heavier than Carbon but who needs to pay $100 US more for 50 grams....Plus the texture of carbon looks like schist.
So I order one using my visa card. It comes in a week or two Fed ex but it can only come to my house and a person must sign for it. Fed ex will make 3 attempts to deliver it, then send it back to the dutch.
I watch the tracking and sure enough, here comes the helmet...I am home...and I get the helmet and in a few days a bill for the tarriff. I think it was less than $50. Fine.
I love this helmet!
So I do what I always have done....order another....
It gets as far as Memphis and Fed Ex says customs wants to get a better description of what this box contains.
So Champion sends them the description and says everything is a go.
Then fed ex says US Customs wants me to fill out a form HS7 as the importer. So working with a FedEX guy in India, on the phone all the while, for an hour, I print out the PDF (for some reason, I cant fill it in) and state the following. This is one motorcycle helmet. Its new. I am the importer. This my address. Then I sign it. I take a pic of it and send it to India. He says he cant read the address as the box is so small, I cant really print my long address in it. So I take another pic in the sunlight and he says he thinks US Customs will buy off on this copy. After he hangs up, I figure out how to fill out the form witth the keyboard, print it, and sign it, take its pic (I dont have a scanner) and send it along. two days later, US customs releases the helmet.
Mind you, none of this happened with the first helmet. Champion told fedex and uS customs my name, address, email;, telco number. that I was an importer of this new helmet. And of course I would pay the tarriff. This second oddesy started on 8/19. Champion neglected to tell me the store was shutting down for 2 weeks for summer holiday. I just got my helmet today, 9/22.
As far as I am concerned, I am done being an importer. US customs, your suck. Champion sucks for not telling me about the 2 week shutdown even though I asked for and paid for express 2-4 days delivery, and telling me about all the mickey mouse meaningless stuff I had to do. And not allowing me to send the helmet to a fed ex drop ship store and signing for it there. (probably a US customs requirement)