jdbower Posted January 9, 2009 Report Posted January 9, 2009 It depends. In the US most of the time Dennis will order liftgate service where they'll be responsible for unloading. It depends on the driver and the carrier's insurance whether you'd be able to get on the truck or touch it since it's still their responsibility, my guess is that most would rather have you watch in case you get hurt. I was able to save a bundle on shipping because I have the forklift, in that case it was my responsibility to get the crate off and the driver didn't do a thing (granted, I didn't ask him to). I'm guessing each country has its own hurdles, island nations are probably the worst.
maherussell Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Posted January 10, 2009 The difference here is at the loading dock only. Once customs loads the item onto a vehicle, their responsibility ends. Your on your own after that. If a carrier like DHL etc. is in charge, of course it is different. But who can afford that! Here if you employ a clearing agent, good luck trying to get recovery charges. Foreign currency here is on par with chicken teeth. I am considered the importer so when it leaves the customs dock, I am responsible. That is also including the type vehicle I use to have item removed. Just one of the little 'hell bots' lurking around.
johnnyboy Posted January 10, 2009 Report Posted January 10, 2009 Oh yea; the customs piece. I forgot about that. I remember sitting many times at Frankfurt Customs office waiting for packages to clear. Now I understand. Ugly process. I feel for you. Good luck.
jdbower Posted January 10, 2009 Report Posted January 10, 2009 Customs is fun, back in the early days my company sold some stuff to a telco in Central America. Since the contract mentioned dates and lead times we decided to test things out by sending a pallet of stuff down. We figured bricks the same weight as the equipment would be a good choice, roughly the same size and weight so if it takes a week to get through customs it should be about the same for our stuff. It ended up taking well over a month and just about all the bricks were smashed as customs looked for the drugs or whatever we were smuggling (who ships bricks internationally?). To make matters worse we got on a list and when we shipped the real equipment they drilled holes into the boxes to inspect it. And by into I mean through. And by boxes I mean the boxes and the enclosed equipment. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear that now had a "Guru Port" built into it... Luckily we've wised up since then and use local importers so things go much more smoothly.
DennisLinkletter Posted January 13, 2009 Report Posted January 13, 2009 Total PIA !! I shipped two palettes of the new adhesive/insulation/grout material to Indo on November 10th. We just picked it up today. There are lame delays like it takes 10 days to break down the LCL container. Makes no sense as they are charging me enough to pay 75 people to do it. Then customs and the government get involved. As it is in semi liquid form all the pails need to be tested for drugs.. All the pails! When they report the results of their test, they quote the MSDS exactly. Open a pail of black acrylic smelling material and you know that if there are drugs mixed in, you will never get them back out! The process was also expedited by making traditional "donations" to department bosses.. Total PIA !!
mguerra Posted March 30, 2009 Report Posted March 30, 2009 cover Let me reel this thread back to where it started. I got my Johnnyboy cover today. Beautiful work, perfect fit, looks great. Get one if you don't have one already.
Conodo12 Posted March 30, 2009 Report Posted March 30, 2009 Hey Michael - if your cover is sized to include your side tables, please post a pic once you get your tables assembled, OK? Thanks!
johnnyboy Posted March 31, 2009 Report Posted March 31, 2009 Thanks much Mike. Glad to hear. Wayne, here's a cover for KK OTB 23" with one side table.
