Pitfalls of Buying From the Us

[newsboy]

Has any one form England successfully had there watch shipped through customs from the USA without paying duty of 22%

[Atl]

What I did: went to Bahamas with no watch, bought GMT II from John Bull (GREAT store!) duty free. Had box FED-EX'd to home from hotel, wore watch back. I am sure you could do similar, there are FED-EX and UPS shipping stores all over the US in every town and city. Is it worth the risk? Up to you. I don't know if UK Customs checks every package coming into the Country, I would say that is impossible due to the sheer volume. Don't really know.

David

[erd]

I'm not from england but I know a guy who had a Rolex shipped to the US before... and custom in the US is really bad... this might not help you directly, but might be useful information.

First attempt, the watch is shipped with FedEx using their uber expensive priority mail which cost over 100 bucks. When the package reached custom, they "cought" it (probably because they pay extra attentions to FedEx priority packages), custom called Rolex, Rolex called him to inform that all Rolex watches are not allowed to be shipped into the US. It sounds rediculous... but apprantly it's THE LAW that you can't shipped Rolex to the US. FedEx are also a buch of pussies, they'll just do whatever Rolex tell them to without even trying to help you get your package. They shipped the package back and charge another +100 bucks for their uber expensive shipping.

Second attempt, after some research, he asked for the watched and the box/papers to be shipped seperately via express registered mail using regular post office services. The package arrive within a week, which is even faster than FedEx because the package didn't spent 3 days in custom before anyone does anything about it. The shipping cost about 20 bucks for both watch AND box/papers.

The guy never bought a Rolex or use FedEx again ever since...