Border Force Seizure

[RavenUK]

On 30/06/2021 at 00:54, Samurai said:

They don't need to check. Importing is your responsibility (and offence), not the seller's.

 

A seller should use common sense and read any instructions provided by the buyer (which many HK retailers do not due to language barrier) so I strongly disagree with your comment.

[Fatboy40]

Somewhat related I received a parcel yesterday from POWAIR6 in France via DHL, only place with a L/XL sized FMA helmet (and I bought a few other items but no RIF's), that the Border Force inspected / opened and put their tape all over.

 

It arrived two a half working days after placing the order, and passed from Luton to Heathrow for the inspection, so I'm making assumptions that when labelled correctly and going through a trusted courier things "should" go reasonably well (all of these shitty problems do seem to be happening with less than competent suppliers and couriers).

[Tommikka]

7 hours ago, RavenUK said:

 

A seller should use common sense and read any instructions provided by the buyer (which many HK retailers do not due to language barrier) so I strongly disagree with your comment.

Legally it is the importers responsibility.

 

 

On a personal international sale the buyer is the importer.

The sender is contractually responsible for declaring international packages with the carrier they despatch.

 

If it goes wrong then the specifics will effect whether or not the buyer can claim back money from the sender

[Bob Ross]

Border force have ceased my hpa tank from Belgium too. Was a shark .68l carbon tank costing over £200 🤦‍♂️… customs suck.

[BigAl]

If too classifications could apply the highest takes precedent so a airgun 1911 could be a RIF and a Firearm. So Firearm is the classification that applies. 

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, BigAl said:

If too classifications could apply the highest takes precedent so a airgun 1911 could be a RIF and a Firearm. So Firearm is the classification that applies. 

 

Why can only one apply?  And what does "highest" mean?

 

I'd appreciate it if we could make an effort to distinguish between talking about opinion (what we think ought to happen), statute law (what the government said should happen), and case law (what actually happened when it reached a court).

[Tommikka]

2 hours ago, BigAl said:

If too classifications could apply the highest takes precedent so a airgun 1911 could be a RIF and a Firearm. So Firearm is the classification that applies. 

Or as an airgun it is a firearm

Thus not an imitation 

 

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/firearms

 

On another tack, would painting it bright blue make it into just an IF? If it’s an airgun then it’s an airgun whether it’s black or brightly coloured 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Tommikka

[Cr0-Magnon]

Final update on this one. I work in logistics, so constantly solving problems for other people. Which means I seem to have very little time or inclination to sort my own out, when stuff like this occurs. So I didn't follow up with BF but quickly raised a PayPal dispute and today I've received a full refund, as the seller didn't even respond to the case.

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, Cr0-Magnon said:

So I didn't follow up with BF but quickly raised a PayPal dispute and today I've received a full refund, as the seller didn't even respond to the case

 

Yup, that's the correct course of action. Sucks for sellers, and it'll end up with them not risking sending anything to the UK - as TaiwanGun have already done - but we shouldn't ask individual airsofters to just write off purchases in order to protect the collective.

 

Oh, I've just seen someone on Failbook say that UPS are demanding that he complete a firearms declaration for a grenade launcher that he ordered last year and which has been in his hands for 6 months or so.  Yes, you're righting that read, it's already long since been delivered, and only now are they realising that they should have appeased Border Farce.

[Cr0-Magnon]

21 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

I've just seen someone on Failbook say that UPS are demanding that he complete a firearms declaration for a grenade launcher that he ordered last year and which has been in his hands for 6 months or so.  Yes, you're righting that read, it's already long since been delivered, and only now are they realising that they should have appeased Border Farce.

 

Yikes. I think I'm just going to stop ordering anything remotely RIF like from abroad. Yes you can potentially save 10% or so if you're fortunate enough it doesn't get pulled for inspection but I'd rather just have it quickly and with an easier avenue or resolution if something goes wrong.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Cr0-Magnon

[Rogerborg]

Agreed, I've given up trying for RIFs, annoying as it is to look at the prices on GunFire and TaiwanGun knowing that the only thing stopping them getting to us are a cluster of jobsworths and incompetents.

 

I've had a bipod and some motors come through from Ali Express, but an M4 solid stock didn't even make it out of Chinaland.

[Cr0-Magnon]

@Rogerborg - Obviously not a RIF and I will say I like dealing with firesupport, their prices are usually good too but things like this make it difficult not to order from abroad..

[BigStew]

18 minutes ago, Cr0-Magnon said:

@Rogerborg - Obviously not a RIF and I will say I like dealing with firesupport, their prices are usually good too but things like this make it difficult not to order from abroad..

Add £30/40 for shipping then pray that it don't get stopped slapped with 20% charge and £13 quid handling fee.

[Cr0-Magnon]

2 minutes ago, BigStew said:

Add £30/40 for shipping then pray that it don't get stopped slapped with 20% charge and £13 quid handling fee.

 

If we're just talking for this part, the shipping is £5 and I can't see them slapping those other charges on but guess there's always going to be some degree of risk, as I've obviously found out. 

[BigStew]

24 minutes ago, Cr0-Magnon said:

 

If we're just talking for this part, the shipping is £5 and I can't see them slapping those other charges on but guess there's always going to be some degree of risk, as I've obviously found out. 

Seriously a fiver. Every site I have looked for small parts have wanted three times the cost to post the thing. 

[Dentonboy]

I might be jumping the gun here (...) but seems to me like this whole border force action could be phrase one of shutting down airsoft.

[Ad_]

I think it's more likely that a lot more people discovered Airsoft during the lockdowns, wanted an RIF and decided to try buying from abroad as no UK retailers will sell one to them without a valid defence... and then Border Force noticed an increase in people attempting to import RIFs without a defence & stepped up checks as a result.

[BigStew]

1 hour ago, Dentonboy said:

I might be jumping the gun here (...) but seems to me like this whole border force action could be phrase one of shutting down airsoft.

Yeah you are if the government want to shut down Airsoft they will just do it. they won't bother with clandestine shit. Brexit has screwed up importing anything it will most like be years for things to settle and we may never get back to what it was before.

[Shamal]

It's not so much waiting for things to settle it its more about us unquestionably accepting whatever shit they(the powers that be)want to throw at us until it becomes the norm.☹

[BigStew]

15 minutes ago, Shamal said:

It's not so much waiting for things to settle it its more about us unquestionably accepting whatever shit they(the powers that be)want to throw at us until it becomes the norm.☹

No this one is on Brexit voters. Who would have thought leaving a trading union and going it alone would have negative concequences? 

[Shamal]

Just now, BigStew said:

No this one is on Brexit voters. Who would have thought leaving a trading union and going it alone would have negative concequences? 

I voted to leave!

I've not been inconvenienced in the slightest because of it.

I buy what I need in this country,Great Britain, and if they ain't got it then I don't get it. We can look after ourselves but we have been conditioned to believe that we can't. 

I know this isn't gonna sit well with a lot of folk but it's what I live by. English and proud! 🇬🇧

 

Regards 

[Tackle]

50 minutes ago, Shamal said:

It's not so much waiting for things to settle it its more about us unquestionably accepting whatever shit they(the powers that be)want to throw at us until it becomes the norm.☹

 

56 minutes ago, BigStew said:

Yeah you are if the government want to shut down Airsoft they will just do it. they won't bother with clandestine shit. Brexit has screwed up importing anything it will most like be years for things to settle and we may never get back to what it was before.

I think we (& many other pastimes like ours) are getting fucked over from both sides, our own government has realised how much tax revenue has been slipping through, & is determined to get every penny it can from now on, hence the Draconian new rules on vat collected at source etc.

On the flip side the EU wants to concede nothing, if the UK comes out looking like a winner, even slightly better off, then others may want to follow our example, especially since in recent years some of those who took the piss (Bunga Bunga etc), are now facing EU scrutiny & accountability on their own gravytrains, taking back their own laws look very inviting.

 

Unfortunately we're just a cash cow for one & collateral damage for the other ☹️ 

 

As for being part of a masterplan to ban Airsoft, highly unlikely given the fact they now know how much we're prepared to spend on our toys, if public safety/health was the issue then they could have just as easily ban booze & fags, but we all know the answer there LOL.😏

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, Dentonboy said:

I might be jumping the gun here (...) but seems to me like this whole border force action could be phrase one of shutting down airsoft.

 

The only thing I'm reading into it is that Border Farce got a fat wodge of funding thrown at them and are stopping everything that they can (and some stuff that they shouldn't be stopping) just for the sheer jobsworth spite of it.

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, Rogerborg said:

 

The only thing I'm reading into it is that Border Farce got a fat wodge of funding thrown at them and are stopping everything that they can (and some stuff that they shouldn't be stopping) just for the sheer jobsworth spite of it.

Don't think it's jobsworth or spite, I believe it's financially motivated 100%, ukba recently advertised & took on loads of staff, including someone I know, & of all those new personnel, only a small percentage went in to the immigration side of things (the number of rubber boats turning up literally 300 metres from me is testament to that, in still trying to grab one before the BA when I'm walking the dogs🤣), the rest are on importation, nice & cosy with HMRC.

Who knows, maybe their on commission lol 🤔

[BigStew]

2 hours ago, Shamal said:

I voted to leave!

I've not been inconvenienced in the slightest because of it.

I buy what I need in this country,Great Britain, and if they ain't got it then I don't get it. We can look after ourselves but we have been conditioned to believe that we can't. 

I know this isn't gonna sit well with a lot of folk but it's what I live by. English and proud! 🇬🇧

 

Regards 

you are involved in a hobby where literally all the essential equipment has to be imported (unless you can tell me of a UK built airsoft gun) and everything is going up in price. Great Britain isn't a country it's an island. voting leave is likely to accelerate the end of the country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. being a proud English person maybe you don't care. Never understood the hole proud because i was randomly born in a particular country.