RebelScum

Thanks @Druid799. That's the best explanation I've seen for the clips.

On the British Army's General Purpose Waistcoat, what are the clips on the shoulder meant to attach to, as well as the two clips that on the rear of the vest at the bottom? I presume it's a day-sack or something like that? I've seen the British Bergen medical side pouches have four clips so this is a possibility, but I've never seen one attached to a waistcoat. I'm a bit of a recent convert to some of the 90s/00s British kit, and DPM works so well in woodland games, so it's definitely a practical piece of kit; it's just the clips that I can't quite get my head around.

£60 on a £300 order, plus something like a £12 UPS handling fee. So you effectively end up paying the VAT rate. I agree for some items it's not worth it, but I definitely saved as the RIF alone was retailing in the UK for well over £400 (if it was even in stock) and I paid under £250 using discount codes. I then padded the order out with some ridiculously bits of cheap kit. You can never have enough Polish Woodland camo in my opinion. And as you say, there is also the chance you may not pay anything and receive the parcel in 6 days, depending on the the UPS import lottery...

So my final update in the Gunfire versus Taiwangun race to the UK started just before Christmas, as somewhat surprisingly UPS finally got around the releasing my Gunfire parcel from it's special shelf in their Stanford Le Hope warehouse and my parcel arrived today, although to be fair the Border Force tape did show it had been subject to an examination. Conclusions? Well Gunfire is the winner as TG still aren't shipping to the UK despite their email to me about test purchases. Surprising as I would have thought the UK market to be worth chasing, although I get the distinct impression TG got their fingers burnt by UPS. Just to keep TG on their toes I do like to fill my TG basket up with goodies whilst browsing their website, if only to let them know what I might spend if only they sorted out their delivery service. Gunfire performance. I can't fault it up to the point they hand over to UPS and then you enter somewhat of a lottery. Total transit time was 43 days, of which 40 was the parcel languishing in a warehouse in Essex, waiting for UPS to decide if they were going to collect import duty, after which it entered a waiting area for a Customs examination. They don't seem to have any SLA with Border Force which is bizarre given most couriered mail with other companies is cleared in hours by Border Force (DHL being my best experience). Gunfire also made a lot of effort with plastering my UKARA number over the parcel, so no chance of a misunderstanding in this regard. If you want to chase the parcel's status UPS Customer Services aren't much use, but Brokerage seem to be better organised and were quite helpful. Fees and taxation were what was expected, so despite the wait I have saved money. If you are prepared to wait, and you really do need to be prepared to play the long game here, Gunfire will deliver... eventually.

If UPS have delivered in 6 days that's incredibly random and lucky. I'd be interested as well if they managed to do this. UPS brokerage emailed me on Friday to say that my parcel was awaiting inspection, but they said they'd put it in priority racking. It's made my parcel feel a lot better as it sits in the warehouse.

Okay, we have an update, which won't surprise regular followers of this thread. So in the tortoise versus tortoise race between Gunfire and Taiwangun to import a RIF into the UK, team Taiwangun seem to have fallen at the first hurdle, and to quote an email they sent me last night, "...for the moment we are still not able to sent the package. We are working with DHL but is not so simple" [sic]. So in short we haven't even got to a place where getting TG to import into the UK is a realistic prospect. Team Gunfire, however, did manage to send their parcel that I ordered on the 19th December on the 21st December, after which we enter the wonderful world of UPS again. To be fair to UPS things have improved slightly, insofar as they managed to get the parcel to the UK on the 23rd December, but unfortunately there was no Christmas miracle. On the 28th December I received an email telling me that UPS were delivering the parcel (with apparently no RIF declaration required), but the cynic in me said that this was unlikely to happen, and it didn't. An import scan took place on the 4th January, and on the 5th January UPS rang me to tell me that unless I filled in a RIF form by 1400 that day they'd be sending the package back to Poland. I pointed out that this was the first time they'd spoken to me and I'd received no emails or phone calls to ask me to fill in a form. The agent then emailed me a form to fill in, which amused me somewhat as it contained a packing list that included cake, cheese, cookies, soup, fudge, a handwarmer and some waffles, rather than a RIF and some kit. Anyway I sent UPS an old form I had which I amended with the new order, they billed me the import charges which worked out at about £60 for a £300 order (20%-ish?), plus a £10 processing fee. The parcel is currently sat awaiting Customs clearance, but is getting scanned every other day. Knowing UPS they'll update the tracking after the parcel is on my doorstep, so it's anyone's guess when it'll be released and delivered; I'll reserve judgement on how well they've done after the parcel turns up. Lessons learned? TG is still a no-go. Clearly using DHL is not working out as they thought. Gunfire is a possibility so long as you don't need anything too quickly and you meet their minimum order threshold. UPS are a lottery as usual, but at least their UK brokerage team called me (eventually), and they themselves said they think things are better now, compared to 12-months ago. I'll update again when the Gunfire parcel arrives, so you can judge the delivery times yourself and whether it's worth the inevitable hassle.

Nope. TG stopped emailing me, so I'm guessing because they had knocked off work for Christmas. I'll try again in the New Year, given UK shipping still hasn't been sorted. I had to laugh though, as TG just sent me an email to remind me I had a full basket, not that I can do anything about it. Gunfire have processed the order, but I haven't received any notification it's been sent. I'm guessing the delay here was that the RIF needed downgrading and I missed the pre-Christmas cut-off. On the plus side, eBay sellers have been great this year, with really prompt postage, and so instead I've had to explain away a great 'Nam M1 helmet I picked up last week, in addition to yet another British Para helmet to add to the collection.

Glad you asked. So, as is typical one of the RIFs that was part of the order went out of stock (not surprising as it was leading up to Black Friday). I've since been in contact with TG, re-jigged the order and am awaiting them to invoice me so I can pay through PayPal. Everything is in stock, and they are still up for running the test order with DHL to the UK. As soon as I've paid and receive the shipping notice I'll let the forum know, so you can judge how it went. However, being a glutton for punishment (and because I couldn't pass up a bargain on Gunfire), I've also got a parallel order with them, noting they've ceased using GLS (apparently they had some issues) and have gone back to UPS. I did email them about this and they seem to think that recent performance has been better to the UK (to be fair it couldn't have been much worse). Luckily I'm not in a rush, and I thought it might prove an interesting experiment to compare the main Polish retailers and how quickly they are shipping and report back. Any delay will also give me a chance to think about what I'm going to say to my wife when all these RIFs turn up...

Yup, I'm the Guinea Pig for this. One of the RIFS I was after went out of stock so I'm just finalizing the order with their Customer Services this evening.

Some good news on the Taiwangun situation. I've been contacted by TG today to ask if I would take part in a pilot shipping to the UK using DHL, given I have an order that's been sat in my account for months (a couple of CYMA RIFS for Nam' themed games, plus a few other bits and bobs). No details as yet on postage costs, or whether TG are registering for VAT payment at source (which I doubt), plus they seemed very cautious in their correspondence, making the point they wanted to make sure the process is better than UPS before opening up to orders again to the UK. Given the experiences many of us have had on the forum and some of the financial losses that TG have taken, I think this is sensible and understandable. In my experience DHL have been infinitely better at parcel delivery post-Brexit, so I think this is a really positive step by TG. Hopefully I should get the order finalized this week, so I'll keep the forum posted on progress. If we are lucky they may open up orders before Christmas, which I think is probably a motivating factor for TG.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/gls-group.net versus https://www.trustpilot.com/review/ups.com/gb GLS are only 50% bad versus 90% for UPS, so I suppose that's an improvement of sorts. Similar complaints though. Shame as Gunfire/TG are the only retailers I could find a reasonably priced M16A1 for a 'Nam game I had my eye on, but buying from them would be like admitting that I have some sort of masochistic prediliction and I'm not sure I can be bothered with the inevitable hassle.

Fire-Support has TM short VN 80 round mid caps in stock. £21 each. https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/tokyo-marui-aeg-midcap-short-vn-magazine-for-m4m16-80-rnd My problems is I need not only the mags, but a period M16 and Vietnam kit as well... 😄

As a rule no, but being UPS they are incredibly unpredictable, and last year they dumped a TG parcel on my doorstep that was due to arrive on a Friday, on Saturday morning.

Good luck in getting UPS to explain their charges. Trustpilot is full of reviews from UK businesses who have needed breakdowns of invoices for HMRC and tax purposes, and UPS will not help them, even though they have business accounts. Taking out the brokerage charge (which UPS are free to set at whatever they like), you paid about 23% in taxes, which is about right. What I wouldn't do is recommend not paying the fees whilst waiting for an invoice, as you'll likely never get the parcel...

Double yay! So who is left still waiting for a delivery?

Genuinely pleased for you. Hope you get the parcel soon.

Gives me hope that everyone's parcels will eventually turn up. Interestingly I've just ordered something from Bullseye Country Sport, based in Northern Ireland. It'll be interesting to see how long this takes, given it's an import from the single market area, even though it's an internal UK movement.

Can't speak for imports to the ROI, but reviews of UPS suggest that their performance across Europe is pretty awful at the moment. There is a tale of woe online about some poor customer who was sent two parcels internally in Denmark and he received one parcel, whilst the other one ended up in the UK. Go figure how that happened. Whatever the truth expect a long wait if the experiences on the forum are anything to go by.

OK. About the same as me then. I've PM'd you.

I genuinely had given up all hope for my parcel and was in the process of drafting my purchase dispute with PayPal. Honestly my shock yesterday when it turned up with no warning was palpable. My parcel also went dark for 2 weeks before they looked at it again. As a reminder when was the posting date?

So I went through the parcel and whilst it's clear Border Force had a quick look at the contents based on all the Home Office tape that adorned the package. The RIF and it's box and all the other bits I'd ordered were absolutely fine. I don't even think the contents were taken out. It looks like a quick look to confirm it was a RIF and then repackage up. I suspect that you are right this was part of a batch that was pulled for examination, but this would have only happened once UPS had cleared them for import first, so I think it's safe to say most of the delay was down to UPS messing around with the paperwork. UPS updated the tracking from an import scan in Stanford Le Hope to delivery, without any updates whatsoever. So that confirms the tracking is completely worthless. The parcel was delivered in a white transit van, so it looks like UPS are subcontracting delivery at the moment. No brown van, which was good as UPS usually don't bother with delivery to my address and dump it at my local parcel collection point. Lessons learned, apart from don't use UPS? Brokerage in the UK, if you can get hold of them, were actually reasonably helpful. Customer Services were useless. I managed this week to get hold of a girl in the UK in one of the brokerage teams and she actually emailed me back as promised, albeit it was clear she had limited ability to release the parcel. I used the number below and it was good to get confirmation no more paperwork was required. I rang just after 1400 and ended up getting through to someone in the UK in about 20 minutes. I also have to say it's worth politely pestering TG, as I think the movement has only happened as they intervened. I forget who noted this on the thread (given it's so long), but it seems 6 weeks is the approximate import time for UPS, and my experience mirrors this.

So true. I tend to intercept him if I'm in to save him the bother of scrunching up the letters as my punishment. I'll be investing in a mailbox in the future! Yes. Off home in a bit so I'll let you know. Aside from the RIF I can't even remember what was in the bloody order it was so long ago.

Email from UPS Customer Services this morning telling me parcel is still held. Tracking shows no movement from Stanford Le Hope. The wife then sends me a photo of a package that's just turned up. My jaw literally hit the floor. Like @lukeB Border Force have had a good examination of the parcel!

A development this afternoon, but please note that UPS Customer Services said that they were still investigating the whereabouts of this parcel, so who knows what the truth is. TG also emailed me after I queried what they were doing to get this parcel delivered. If you follow Negative Airsoft on Facebook, Luke has a link to a page that's documenting these tales of woe. It's worth visiting just to see his correspondence with UPS. I feel his pain.

The use of the word "should" doesn't fill me with confidence. I'll see what happens this week. By Friday it'll be 6 weeks in transit, 5 weeks of which have been in Essex!