Taiwangun Shipping Disruption (Brexit Related Content)

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

On 25/11/2021 at 09:28, Rogerborg said:

I mean, if stocking wasn't an issue. But since it is, and you can't get it from PatrolBase, I honour the courage of those about to pay their money and spin the wheel.

The last two AKs I bought from Patrolbase had been in stock at TG about two/three weeks previously.  Both had those green stickers with Polish warnings on that TG affix to their rifs.  

 

One cost £200 from PB, £144 from TG.  Given 2% duty, plus fees, plus 20% is a minimum of £176 with zero fees attached.  

 

At time of writing, TG only has three models of CYMA AK in stock.  PB only has four.   

 

Just an example, but it's shit if you are after a particular model.  Actually having it in stock is king.  

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, kasaran said:

you have to basket over £135 for it to say its ok, under that it still says no UK shipping. weird

 

so who is going to be the guinea pig? sadly, wrong side of the holidays for me

 

That's what I'm seeing, it's either free shipping, or no shipping.

 

Given the high chance of getting charged another 20-25% plus an unknown delay at customs (especially right now) even with DHL, I think I'm going to pass again until the new year, when we've had some reports one way or another.

 

Also, it really rankles that they still seem to be charging Polish VAT at the point of sale, and we'll get rinsed for UK VAT on import.  And, oh wow, to add teabagging to the insult on top of the injury, are we going to being charged UK VAT on the full price including the Polish VAT?  That's a mugging too far for me.

[Rogerborg]

On 24/11/2021 at 23:46, RebelScum said:

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.  

 

Any (literal) movement on this, @RebelScum?

 

Their site's still saying "Shipping to the UK should resume within several weeks. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please email us at [email protected] and we will let you know once it is back ON.".

 

Aside, a VAT+duty paid AliExpress Assault-Rifle-15-toy-style stock apparently made it to UK customs on the 26th of November and I haven't heard anything since.  I wonder if the bomb disposal squad has carried out a controlled explosion.  Looks like there's no quick, guaranteed route to get anything vaguely assault-toy related at the moment.

[RebelScum]

9 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

Any (literal) movement on this, @RebelScum?

 

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...

[Rogerborg]

11 hours ago, RebelScum said:

they've ceased using GLS (apparently they had some issues) and have gone back to UPS

 

Worse than UPS?  Then I can only assume that this means GLS sort their incoming packages like this.

 

 

 

 

Greater heroism hath no man than that he put in "race ya" orders to two Polish companies during the Christmas rush.  I'm fascinated to hear how it works out, both with the orders, and explaining them to the wife.

[Druid799]

Have to say I’m sooooooo impressed with this forum , on all the other forums/groups/etc I have belonged too I’ve NEVER EVER seen a limited discussion topic be re-hashed , , re-disgused , dragged out over and over again as much as this has for a yr ! Bravo gents bravo ! 🤣🤣

[Rogerborg]

8 hours ago, Druid799 said:

Have to say I’m sooooooo impressed with this forum , on all the other forums/groups/etc I have belonged too I’ve NEVER EVER seen a limited discussion topic be re-hashed , , re-disgused , dragged out over and over again as much as this has for a yr ! Bravo gents bravo ! 🤣🤣

 

And all for the purposes of saving maybe £10 on a £200 order of toy guns.  

[Rogerborg]

On 10/12/2021 at 22:51, RebelScum said:

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...

 

RIP, buddy, fliing hi wit de angles now.

 

I guess we didn't get a Christmas miracle from either seller?

 

I got a small one of my own though. The solid stock that rattled around inside Chyna, apparently got returned to sender there (twice!), then sat in UK Customs since November 26th got put through my letterbox yesterday.  No sign that Customs had opened or inspected it, it seems it just sat on their desk for weeks for no apparent reason while they stared at it and regretted their life choices.

[RebelScum]

9 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

I guess we didn't get a Christmas miracle from either seller?

 

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.

[RebelScum]

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.

[EvilMonkee]

UPS UK Brokerage team....

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Would it be useful to upload/post a UPS declaration form for other intrepid souls? 

 

Sort of like Scott of the Antarctic leaving a map of his route...

[BigStew]

So utter shocker here. Ordered from Gunfire on the 8th UPS only shipping option. Collected from gunfire on the 12th and according to UPS tracking out for delivery. That was two rifles and some parts.

[Rogerborg]

43 minutes ago, BigStew said:

So utter shocker here. Ordered from Gunfire on the 8th UPS only shipping option. Collected from gunfire on the 12th and according to UPS tracking out for delivery. That was two rifles and some parts.

 

UPS and HMRC after trying to hold back the flood of orders for a full calendar year.

 

[EvilMonkee]

1 hour ago, BigStew said:

So utter shocker here. Ordered from Gunfire on the 8th UPS only shipping option. Collected from gunfire on the 12th and according to UPS tracking out for delivery. That was two rifles and some parts.

Count your chickens when it arrives in 3 months

 

[BigStew]

1 hour ago, EvilMonkee said:

Count your chickens when it arrives in 3 months

 

Will see by 13.45 that's the delivery window

[BigStew]

4 hours ago, BigStew said:

Will see by 13.45 that's the delivery window

A few hours late but apparently I have guns to open when get home. 6 days door to door 

[Rogerborg]

9 hours ago, BigStew said:

Collected from gunfire on the 12th and according to UPS tracking out for delivery.

 

Confused because: didn't you get mugged for VAT?  Did it just sail straight through?

[RebelScum]

7 hours ago, BigStew said:

A few hours late but apparently I have guns to open when get home. 6 days door to door 

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.

[Rogerborg]

Priority racking should be reserved for your wife, or at least your favourite mistress.

 

I'm genuinely interested to hear about whether @BigStew got "racked" for VAT and duty.  There's no reason that GunFire (and TaiwanGun) can't start paying it at source instead of Polish VAT, and given their random communication, they might have done it without even bothering to tell anyone.

[BigStew]

16 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

Confused because: didn't you get mugged for VAT?  Did it just sail straight through?

No additional chargers from customs or UPS.

[EvilMonkee]

40 minutes ago, BigStew said:

No additional chargers from customs or UPS.

What UPS service option was it from Gunfire?  It would be interesting to see if it is the exception or the rule now as there are some bits I would fancy on there.

[BigStew]

31 minutes ago, EvilMonkee said:

What UPS service option was it from Gunfire?  It would be interesting to see if it is the exception or the rule now as there are some bits I would fancy on there.

There was two services one was meant to be faster so I took the cheaper option as it was never going to be fast. £23.40 for a 2.4kg 1.2 by .4m box. People may have got confused but total order was £456.00

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, BigStew said:

People may have got confused but total order was £456.00

 

Well, either you got very lucky and dodged another £100+ in VAT and fees, or they've started paying that at the source - or marking the shipment as VAT paid, which is the same thing as far as HMRC is concerned.

 

Are there any clues on the invoice or (if you still have it) the shipping label?

 

If they've really started paying UK VAT at source, then that's great news, it's game on again.

[kasaran]

Every now and then I look at my taiwangun wishlist like I was a poor beggar boy in some Dickensian novel looking into a toy shop.

 

One day...  wonder how cheap flights are....