How Hard Can It Be?

[Rani]

Okay, honestly I'm tired of hearing how tough it is for the non-US guys to get what they want and need in hookah supplies due to exorbitant import taxes. It's not fair! And I really want to be supportive of intermational members so here's what I propose.....

Each US member of the forum who's willing, becomes the shipping buddy of an international forum member. They order online, ship to us, we re-ship to them as gifts, and they PayPal (or whatever) us the reshipping cost. Doing this for a few people might be a problem but one US person doing it for one international person? I think a great many of us would be willing to swing that. I would. What say ye?

'Rani

[Hobbs]

I would have no problem partaking in this, although I've never shipped anything outside the US save once, so I would need a quick little tutorial on how to effectively help these fellows out. Such as labeling items as gifts and whatnot.

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

WOW! is all I can say!

By this I get reminded how awesome this forum is!!
Rani I actually worked out yesterday that it would almost be worth it to ship direct here and that was only just, and then of course I remembered the taxes...which would blow it out the window...But what you are proposing is a great idea and might even work..

I hope there are others who will take an interest...lets see what happens.

Thank you

-H&S

[I'll Fakher]

greetings from Aus!

great idea Rani

I just ordered 2kg from mnh the other day.. and customs decided to try and sting me with $760 worth of import duties >:(

never had a problem a few months back, however i think our customs are starting to crack down.. i've had a few friends also have their packages seized.. even in 1kg lots..

basically im now forced to do 250g at a times.. luckily i found a vendor which has cheap shipping,, and works out roughly to $32AUD for 250g al fakher.. which isnt too bad (PM for details)

also... had word from one of our local vendors, that shisha prices are going up even more over here in Oz... he reckons $120 for 250g al fakher '~'

[I'll Fakher]

also.. if anyone is interested in sending an Al Fakher hookah over to Aus.. PM me

been trying to get in touch with afonline regarding shipping to oz.. but no luck

ill be more than happy to shout a fair amount of baccy for your troubles

[Hobbs]

So what sort of precautions or measures are required to ship something from the states to say Au, without incurring ridiculous fees?

And also without breaking any major laws, cause I'd love to help but I won't ship shisha hidden in the tummy's of stuffed animals or anything.

[I'll Fakher]

i think the way things are now... the only option is to go 250g at a time

anything over that... and then itll just be down to luck (as to whether the customs officer knows what the hell there looking at)

[I'll Fakher]

another option could be to empty the contents of the tubs into unlabelled containers.. but then again.. thats still pretty dodgy

[mattarios2]

i'm down for this, as some of you may know i helped out a couple members on here who lived out of the usa. Tigerlord wanted a km so he ordered it from hc and had them send it to me, then I sent it to him.

I would be more than happy to partake in this.

[Majid]

That would be very kind but i'd worry about you guys somehow getting in trouble if customs opens it up.

[Rani]

I don't think customs would have any major tantrums honestly, because each of us would be shipping openly as gifts for one person and one person only. Not like a reshipping company who ships to everybody. Personally, I'm planning to throw a quick holiday wrap around it (birthday, Christmas, whatever holiday it's closest to - a tiny distraction ) and go right down to my post office and ship it. They'll ask me if it's hazardous goods, etc., and I'll answer them honestly. I get packages from around the world all the time and unless it's coming from an obvious company nobody ever blinks.

'Rani

[Rani]

That would be very kind but i'd worry about you guys somehow getting in trouble if customs opens it up.

If you ship International Fed-Ex, etc., you have to fill out declaration forms. Shipping from your post office as one individual to another you don't. And since you haven't filled out any declaration forms you haven't lied or committed any crime. Worst that happens is a package would get picked on a random check, and get hit with taxes. Also it's not illegal to ship tobacco to anywhere I'm aware of so no crime would have been committed.

'Rani

[inino]

Sounds like a good idea. I might even be game for it, i just wouldnt want to break any laws about mailing tobacco if there are any.

[Rani]

Sounds like a good idea. I might even be game for it, i just wouldnt want to break any laws about mailing tobacco if there are any.

Yeah, I want to make thatt clear. I am not remotely suggesting anyone break any laws or commit any crime by lying on customs forms. This is also why I'm thinking it's better one person to one person. I mean let's say Johnny D wants Mizo (which he can't get in the UK). What's to prevent me from buying it for him for his birthday and openly shipping it to him as his friend? Would that be hit with taxes? Very unlikely. From a shipping point of view this isn't a whole lot different.

'Rani

[gaia.plateau]

Why wouldn't they just order from one of the many vendors who label as non-tobacco?

[chinamon]

Why wouldn't they just order from one of the many vendors who label as non-tobacco?

exactly.
ordering directly from the vendor means you pay the one shipping charge from usa to your location.
doing it through a middle man would mean you pay shipping from the vendor to the middle man and then shipping from the middle man to your location.

[Namenone]

Wow! Threads like this remind me of how a close knit community HF really is! I am up for this idea. Living in the UK, i am used to ridiculous prices. The costs are way too much and i have to scarcely use my flavouring. I understand the viewpoint of some people who say to just order from vendors who label it as 'Non-tobacco' or gift, but i still have the worry that it may get caught by customs. Would it not be cheaper for the vendors to ship to one of you guys for the normal cheap shipping costs, and then you ship to us intern's through the cheapest method avaliable?


Namenone,

[shisha fan]

Why wouldn't they just order from one of the many vendors who label as non-tobacco?

thats what i always do. never had a problem with mnhookah, thehookah or hookah-shisha.com

[mattarios2]

Nah, I'm with boho on this ... I have been told the rough price from a vendor to out of the usa is about 35 bucks ... is this right guys?

If it is ... i can order 50 bucks worth or more of nak and get free shipping from nazar, or buy from hc use the coupon and it will be enough for free shipping and can send up to 3 pounds from my house to the UK for about $20.00 so that is $15.00 less for shipping, and you won't have to pay for shipping from the vendor technically cause it is free.

Right there that cuts shipping costs to a little more than 40%.

If you guys buy a shit ton you can manage to save a good deal of money on s+h I would think.

It figures to about 1.5 Kilos for that $20.00 rough price quote from my state, MA to the UK.

On the other hand if this is to solely solve the issue of taxes being added to tobacco, then ... i'd say just buy from mnh, etc.

[xipander]

I wouldn't mind doing it, but I would feel bad if it got caught by customs and they didn't get it then I'd feel bad about them being out the price +SH +SH again. And last time I sent something to Canada thru the USPS you still had to fill out a declaration forum, it was a little white and green slip they stuck on it that said what it was and the declared value/gift and said it could still be assessed an import duty depending on what it was. And while lying on a declarations forum can be like international mail fraud I wouldn't see it being a problem unless you sent it often... Three things in two months or so if they tracked it or saw a trend I can see you having some explaining to do. Same thing with sending a large amount marked as a gift. I can see it as an every once in a while thing, but I dunno how getting regular shipments would work out for a long term deal.

I dunno how a business system works in the UK or elsewhere but I wonder if everyone would chip in $5 or so for one person in each country to get like a business license and an importer/wholesale license and work out a deal with someone here to import a lot of it and resale it out to people close buy to avoide everyone having to pay insane shipping and then write the import duties off on taxes as a business expense (if you can do that in other countries) and as long as the "company" breaks even there's nothing to worry about, or at the least any profits get donated to HF or a charity or reimburse the people that helped out to begin with.

[chinamon]

Nah, I'm with boho on this ... I have been told the rough price from a vendor to out of the usa is about 35 bucks ... is this right guys?

If it is ... i can order 50 bucks worth or more of nak and get free shipping from nazar, or buy from hc use the coupon and it will be enough for free shipping and can send up to 3 pounds from my house to the UK for about $20.00 so that is $15.00 less for shipping, and you won't have to pay for shipping from the vendor technically cause it is free.

Right there that cuts shipping costs to a little more than 40%.

If you guys buy a shit ton you can manage to save a good deal of money on s+h I would think.

It figures to about 1.5 Kilos for that $20.00 rough price quote from my state, MA to the UK.

On the other hand if this is to solely solve the issue of taxes being added to tobacco, then ... i'd say just buy from mnh, etc.

when i order from HJ or MNH they charge me exact shipping.. +/- $1 which isnt a big deal.
so if i was to order from HJ, i would pay the flatrate $10.95 shipping to one of you guys in the usa.. then another shipping charge to my house which would be the same as what HJ would charge in the first place. so i would be paying $11 more.

[delSol_si]

I wouldn't mind helping out as long as it is not illegal (pretty well that same thing everyone else is saying). The other thing I worry about is if the package gets lost in the system. I really don't have the funds to cover some ones order that I sent that got lost in transit...maybe we would need insurance on the package? I also don't really understand what is so hard about just ordering from John and having him put "gift" of the package or whatever. He is a friendly guy that from my experience is willing to help out.

[Balthazar]

I just ordered 2kg from mnh the other day.. and customs decided to try and sting me with $760 worth of import duties >:(

This freaks me out ... I haven't made an order from the US for a couple of months, but when I made my shisha orders (often with as much as 4kg of shisha in the same box) I never had any problems with customs as long as the vendor did not label it as tobacco, checked the gift box and sent it by using his private name/adress. MNH, HC, HJ etc, all worked out great. But lately I've been hearing more and more stories about people getting their balls busted anyways. And risking the shippingmoney, that kinda sucks. Crossing my fingers and hoping the Norwegian customs still let this slide by, but I fear those days are coming to an end.

Anyways, I'm wondering the same as Gaia, what would be the advantage of this compared to having the vendor send it as a private person?

[mattarios2]

Nah, I'm with boho on this ... I have been told the rough price from a vendor to out of the usa is about 35 bucks ... is this right guys?

If it is ... i can order 50 bucks worth or more of nak and get free shipping from nazar, or buy from hc use the coupon and it will be enough for free shipping and can send up to 3 pounds from my house to the UK for about $20.00 so that is $15.00 less for shipping, and you won't have to pay for shipping from the vendor technically cause it is free.

Right there that cuts shipping costs to a little more than 40%.

If you guys buy a shit ton you can manage to save a good deal of money on s+h I would think.

It figures to about 1.5 Kilos for that $20.00 rough price quote from my state, MA to the UK.

On the other hand if this is to solely solve the issue of taxes being added to tobacco, then ... i'd say just buy from mnh, etc.

when i order from HJ or MNH they charge me exact shipping.. +/- $1 which isnt a big deal.
so if i was to order from HJ, i would pay the flatrate $10.95 shipping to one of you guys in the usa.. then another shipping charge to my house which would be the same as what HJ would charge in the first place. so i would be paying $11 more.

Who said you had to order from HJ? I believe i said in my post that you could use nazar or HC which both would yield free shipping to me in the usa, and they both carry AF and Nakhla which i belieive is the two brands u smoke china ... no?

[Rani]

Guys.... this is not that big a deal for debate - good, bad or neutral. Every country is different, both in taxes, and availability of product. All I'm suggesting is that there may be some of us willing to reship to those individuals who because of their location either get hit with major taxes (because their particular customs department has gotten wise to vendor addresses for example) or unavailabiility of product. Each person not located in the US has to make their own decisions on wheither or not it works for them. If they don't need the assistance, hallelujah! If they do, it would be here.

And as far as USPS to Canada, yeah, Canada is pretty strict on their postal "stuff". You can't send anything over the size of a letter without filling out added paperwork. They're pretty unique about that compared to other nations. Not criticizing because I'm sure they have their reasons, just saying I recognize it.

'Rani