new to the world of Tahitian Pearl !!

It doesn't matter from here. We can use FedEx, USPS, UPS ... Sometimes the packages make it, but more often than not they don't. With a local broker we have never lost a package. But the broker is expensive, so it's not possible to send one package to them at a time.
 
HTML: 
 Originally Posted by Jose_at_TahitianPearls  
BTW, France is another subject entirely - if anyone on the forum has insights on how to ship jewelry to France, I'd love to hear them! We have had no success shipping by post or Fedex to France.

Hi Jose,
I am french and it happens that I have been international logistic manager by the past : so I am close to the import custom clearance process.
There are a lot of Tahitian pearls in France so they do come in !
Jeremy is absolutly right and since he does send to France he kows about and it works.
I am practicing importations for myself as a professionnal jeweler from Tahiti, Mexico, Usa and it works because of the respect of the processs.
Be sure that if a parcel comes from Tahiti, not by the proper way, it will be stopped.

First you have to make the proper export custom form ( CN22 or CN23) at departure.
Second when it arrives it has to be cleared custom through and you need a broker.

I use either local postal service such as USPS, or Fedex because they have a good worlwide network, but they do NOT handle clearance of any jewelry and pearls even undrilled, are considered as precious jewelry by the french custom tariff, so you need a professionnal broker locally.
Now I guess you send your parcel to someone in France: they have to handle the import process for you.
If you need more info, pls send a p.m.
Hope it helps.
 
At long last i have recived my pearls!

At long last i have recived my pearls!

To Jose at Tahitian Pearls,

At long long last after finding a way to get them to me i have received my pearls to my UK address been so looking forward to seeing them but as i said i will not get to see them in person for the next 10 months as I'm out in South America! my family say they are gorgeous and i can not wait to see them!!! being new to the world of Tahitian pearls i did not realize that these pearls would be so popular, they must be good then, i choose well! looks like everyone wants them! I must have good taste then hahaha! I am pleased that i have bought custom your way!

all the best :):D
 
Hi Zannafille! That's great. I'm glad you're pearls arrived quickly and that your family in the UK has given them a favorable review! Shipping to the UK seemed like a much better bet compared to shipping to French Guyana (an unknown, and there were some causes for concern based customs restrictions). Too bad you have to wait so long to see them yourself!

Everyone, thanks for all the comments on shipping to France.

Cliclasp, we have tried using the postal service, always filling out the appropriate customs forms/commercial invoices per the International Mail Manual and postal agent instructions. With the post, the problems we encountered have been excessive charges levied on the customer (e.g., about $480 in duties/brokering fees for a $600 package - customer tried to provide payment docs to substantiate price paid - lots of headaches - no resolution). DHL in the US refused (upfront) to take jewelry shipments bound for France. Fedex agreed and claimed they would broker the package for a very reasonable 30 euros. But when the package arrived, Fedex in France said they can't broker it. All the customs brokers in France we contacted were not interested in brokering a single item (not enough revenue for them to make it worthwhile?). So I appreciate the offer of broker info - I sent a pm and look forward to your info; hopefully we can find one interested in handling occasional (single) shipments. For packages to the UK, we use both Post and Fedex (according to customer preference), but Fedex charges the extra brokering fee.

UK shipping has always gone very smoothly (post and Fedex, although Fedex charges the recipient an extra brokering fee), as has Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, etc.

Caitlin - I can see this international shipping question could have made a good thread. Should I start a new one, or have we exhausted the discussion's course? Would there be an easy way to move over the existing comments?

Best,

Jose

Jose Goldstein
V.P., Reingold Imports Inc
www.tahitianpearls.biz
 
Hello, Jose!

I hope you do open up a section for the sale of loose undrilled keshis. That'd be wonderful!

I also liked your idea for keeping pics available of sold strands. You sold a strand of pale blond, colorfully circled Tahitians that I wish I could've photocopied for future reference. How much easier to send you a pic saying 'This is what I'm hoping for' than trying to get words to paint the picture.

I believe Sarah from KojimaPearls has a section on her website called past designs; I think it must be immensely useful for buyers and seller alike.

Would I PM you for permission to copy an enlarged version of a necklace you have on your site now?
 
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Another way to ship to France (it seems a nightmare) is to ship to any other European Union country and then forward it to France. Once something is in the EU then unless it is banned drugs or the like the rule is 'free movement of goods' so no customs or duty, no paperwork barriers allowed.
And, as an aside, I brought all the booty from Hong Kong back with me and hand carried them (technical term, they were much too heavy for that) through customs at Manchester and it took 20 mins start to finish. Thanks to the two customs officers' helpful attitude we whisked through it.
 
Quote

Cliclasp, we have tried using the postal service, always filling out the appropriate customs forms/commercial invoices per the International Mail Manual and postal agent instructions. With the post, the problems we encountered have been excessive charges levied on the customer (e.g., about $480 in duties/brokering fees for a $600 package - customer tried to provide payment docs to substantiate price paid - lots of headaches - no resolution). DHL in the US refused (upfront) to take jewelry shipments bound for France. Fedex agreed and claimed they would broker the package for a very reasonable 30 euros. But when the package arrived, Fedex in France said they can't broker it. All the customs brokers in France we contacted were not interested in brokering a single item (not enough revenue for them to make it worthwhile?). So I appreciate the offer of broker info - I sent a pm and look forward to your info; hopefully we can find one interested in handling occasional (single) shipments. For packages to the UK, we use both Post and Fedex (according to customer preference), but Fedex charges the extra brokering fee.

unquote
**
quote
Another way to ship to France (it seems a nightmare) is to ship to any other European Union country and then forward it to France. Once something is in the EU then unless it is banned drugs or the like the rule is 'free movement of goods' so no customs or duty, no paperwork barriers allowed.

unquote

I am much sorry of so many regulations and it is not possible to go through.

Pearls have to pay 4% taxes + 19,6% VAt and the custom broker will take 170E to 350 Euros fees.
Fedex and DHL do not clear pearls considered as "precious"", if they say they do clear, it is because they don't know what their colleagues do and not do once it arrives.

Now about entering the EC in other country than France. it has to pay the entry VAT anyway ; then when sent from the entering country to France, the receiver has to provide a valid VAT number (only professionnal can) so that not to pay the VAT again.
Any other way to import can lead to a fine.
Now anyone knows about.

Conclusion : importing goods is truly difficult, lot of paperworks and headaches and no one will do it for 30 Euros.
Even when negociating the broker fees, there will be 4+19,6% taxes to pay.
600 USD => 144 usd taxes - your broker fees 480-144 = 336 Usd = +/- 224 euros fees

I suggest you sell only to professionnal because they ought to know what to know.
To non professionnals, it will be really difficult, even if there were no broker fees, they would have to pay about 24%.

Sorry about the regulations :)
 
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your interest in our strand. I am trying to remember the strand you mention. I'll look through photos. About how long ago was the strand on our site? Regarding photos, certainly send me a p.m. and we can supply any photos you like, or give you the go-ahead for a web grab. We started removing sold strands from the site because it was often impossible to get new strands at a similar pricepoint, and we were afraid that customers had expectations that we would always supply a similar strand at the same price. That's the problem with the multicolor strand that started this thread. We get about one phone call per day about the strand, but we are having trouble finding more multi's at that price. We'll keep trying though! I suppose we could keep sold strand pages on the site and remove prices, so there are no hard feelings if we can't perfectly replicate a previous price.

Hi Wendy - Interesting point about the EU! BTW, how did the hand carrying go at the Manchester airport? You were not required to have a broker move the goods through customs for you? That's pretty great!! Airport brokers here seem to charge about $100 plus 1% of the value of the goods, but maybe my numbers are way off as we haven't used an airport broker in years and years.

We always warn our overseas customers about the possibility of 25% duties or more. The unique situation with France appears to be the HUGE customs brokering fees that make one-off shipments impossible. $30 seems to be the going rate for Fedex to broker a package through US customs. Presumably there is infinitely more paperwork involved in France such that the broker charges such a princely sum!

Best,

Jose

Jose Goldstein
www.tahitianpearls.biz
 
Hi
Hand carrying through Manchester was straightforward and clearane took about 30 minutes. I had the right paperwork properly filled in done at Hong Kong while waiting at the gate (again about 30 minutes) and I always carry the last few stamped paperworks so that if there is a query I can wave that. But I have found that the customs people, once they get over the surprise that someone is actually declaring and ready to pay the tax (no duty payable) they are helpful.
Since I would have to do almost exactly the same paperwork (if not more) to a broker, and then pay him or her, it is much easier to see the pearls through myself
 
Hi Jose,

The blond strand with colorful circles was still up on the site as recently as last week. Because I had no plans for a purchase imminently, I didn't write down the strand number or the price . Boy, was that short-sighted. I think it might have been mid-range re sale price, hundreds not thousands. I'm so focused on color that I can't even recall the shape. The colors were soft but definite, not faint. Oh, well.

Thanks for sharing the retailers' dilemna re daily calls for a strand that's difficult to fill. Frustrating for retailer and buyer, but I hope overall it means business is good!!!
 
pearlescence said:
Since I would have to do almost exactly the same paperwork (if not more) to a broker, and then pay him or her, it is much easier to see the pearls through myself
Click to expand...

Wonderful I wish it would be possible here !
 
Jose_at_TahitianPearls said:
The unique situation with France appears to be the HUGE customs brokering fees that make one-off shipments impossible. $30 seems to be the going rate for Fedex to broker a package through US customs. Presumably there is infinitely more paperwork involved in France such that the broker charges such a princely sum!

Best,

Jose]
Click to expand...

True, and since this summer there is one more paper to be used (EORI) ...
Sorry for the paper...
 
Considering the charge of going to the airport at freight area and clearing by myself, I am not sure to go ahead,
because when parcel arrives at the airport, fedex claims for a broker for being sure it will be cleared once in Paris and that's why nobody does it
Ah !! papers !!
 
Oooooooooo, Wendy - What a rabble rouser! I LOVE it when a person is politically pro-active. It's the way to be! Power in numbers.

In fact, I followed your length-of-strand protest movement (in the past tense, because I wasn't a member here at the time) and I was cheering you all on, all the way. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to take up that gauntlet again - I've seen strands listed at 14 1/2 inches lately! What ever happened to that movement?
 
Marvelous! Is this for all pearls, or only high end?
 
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