[phoenixdogfan]

Back on October 1, 2021 I sent my A16 in for repair. (see Fedex story below). It traveled, arrived, got repaired, got sent back to me, and arrived at my door on October 9, 2021!!

James had told me that the "red screen - Error 002" symptom was easily fixed, but it required a "soldering job". So they had to have the unit back in their hands. It was at that time that I also decided to let them also do the 24-channel HDMI hardware upgrade, flash with the latest 2.04 firmware, pay for the license to enable DTS-X, etc. They had not yet released DTS-X to the world but it had passed certification and public release was imminent, and he said my unit would be the first one so enabled. Hardware upgrade was $500, DTS-X license was $199, 9.5% sales tax (perhaps for California?), total PayPal invoice $800.25. I think they may have paid return shipping, as I paid outbound shipping to them.

Anyway, I did NOT pay any VAT or UK-imposed use tax or customs tax or anything. Neither going or returning. Perhaps it was the way I shipped it, along with the "commercial invoice" being prepared by Fedex, for a total cost of $86. Shipped on Friday and arrived at Smyth's door the following Tuesday.

That is the only way I ship internationally is via "Fedex International Economy". Price is guaranteed by phoning the Fedex "Great Rates Hotline" (see Fedex story below).

I used the same Fedex International Economy to ship my Stax SR-009 headphones back to the Stax factory in Japan for (an expensive) repair some years ago, Again, proper "commercial invoice" and "returning for warranty repair" explanation avoided all taxes and customs fees normally associated with purchase of a new item. Again, astonishing delivery time of just 5 days or so, door to door in each direction.

Below is a copy of my email to James five days after I handed the carton to Fedex for outbound shipping to UK.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James,

Fedex International Economy is fantastic. I shipped it last Friday afternoon and
they had estimated delivery by Thursday of this week. As it turns out they
actually delivered it TODAY (Tuesday noon, UK time)!!

I only use Fedex for international shipments (as I did a few years back sending my
Stax SR-009 back to the factory in Japan for a major overhaul/repair). Again, took
just a few days to get from me in LA to the factory door in Japan. Same story on
the way back to me from them. Just days.

I never use UPS or DHL or anybody but Fedex for international.

And it only cost me $86, going through the Fedex "Great Rates Hotline" here in the
US (which is separate phone number than the regular Fedex number), which I'm
entitled to do because I have a Fedex customer account to simplify my use of Fedex
and also to get a 20% discount on all shipping rates. The "Great Rates Hotline"
takes of another 87% discount to start from. Don't ask me why or how they do this,
but instead of paying almost $300 shipping cost it was $86.

And it got to you in 4 days... out of Customs and into your hands, and signed for.

You should look into using Fedex International Economy and "Great Rates Hotline"
(if available in the UK) for all your shipping. Just open a Fedex account and take
advantage of it.

Filling out all of the airbill paperwork (including Commercial Invoice items,
specifying "Harmonized Code" and "return for warranty repair") was done online
using the Fedex "create a shipment" dialog, specifying International Economy and
then letting the "wizard" walk me through the rest. At the end I printed the seven
pages of papers on my own printer, which I then brought to the Fedex depot along
with my double-boxed A16 for them to insert into the plastic paperwork jacket
affixed to the carton.

And it was delivered at noon today, your time. Remarkable.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, returned to me on October 9 (Smyth might have shipped it back through UPS) and as I recall I did not have to pay any additional fees upon delivery.

Thanks for the tip, Daryl. I shipped mine via USPS and it was $125 each time on the outbound leg, and when it came back via DSL, I believe i had around $35-40 in Duty and Customs. So good to have that resource if needed.

 

[Sanctuary]

So how were you all insuring your packages? James told me to make sure it was "fully" insured, but it looks like the site I am wanting to use will not go above $2,500 internationally (they will go up to $5,000 in the US), and apparently if you want to send something from a UPS store for more than $2500, you need to have special paperwork which was notarized, similarly to how FedEx seems to do it as well:

Certificate of Origin

For shipments destined from the US, as the exporter you may verify or validate claims made on a shipment regarding the country of origin by selecting Certificate of Origin. When the Certificate of Origin is a required document, it must be prepared by the exporter and it must be notarized and validated by the locally designated agency in order to be acceptable and valid. In most instances, the original Certificate of Origin must be attached to the outside of the shipment.

Unless I'm just not understanding the above, isn't that the customs paperwork that is supposed to be on the outside of the box anyway? This also seems like it would only be an issue for those who actually ended up having to pay the full retail cost of the A16 too.

 

[GeorgeA]

It is said that electronic devices work with smoke. When smoke comes out, they stop working.

If no smoke has come out of your Realiser A16 unit yet, the malfunction is probably not that worrying. Smyth Research will assess the defect and return you a fully functional device. I think that going through the two customs will be more unpleasant.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

So how were you all insuring your packages? James told me to make sure it was "fully" insured, but it looks like the site I am wanting to use will not go above $2,500 internationally (they will go up to $5,000 in the US), and apparently if you want to send something from a UPS store for more than $2500, you need to have special paperwork which was notarized, similarly to how FedEx seems to do it as well:



Unless I'm just not understanding the above, isn't that the customs paperwork that is supposed to be on the outside of the box anyway? This also seems like it would only be an issue for those who actually ended up having to pay the full retail cost of the A16 too.

I think you want it fully insured. There was a brief period when I sent mine back the first time and it failed to arrive as scheduled wherein I didn't know where my $4400 A16 was. I was actually informed it may have been destroyed in shipment. (It actually wasn't just sent back to Bristol b/c I had not gotten power of attornye to DHL within customs' timeline).

At that instant, was I ever glad I had it fully insured. Always remember crap happens. When it does, you want someone else legally obgligated to clean it up.

 

[kh36267]

I think you want it fully insured. There was a brief period when I sent mine back the first time and it failed to arrive as scheduled wherein I didn't know where my $4400 A16 was. I was actually informed it may have been destroyed in shipment. (It actually wasn't just sent back to Bristol b/c I had not gotten power of attornye to DHL within customs' timeline).

At that instant, was I ever glad I had it fully insured. Always remember crap happens. When it does, you want someone else legally obgligated to clean it up.

i totally agree. my A16 actually did get lost coming back from being upgraded. it made it to the Memphis UPS hub and then just disappeared. James had to end up filing a claim and luckily ended up getting reimbursed the full amount. that made it much simpler for him to just turn around and send me another unit.

i'm guessing that may have been a much more difficult and lengthy discussion if he didn't get reimbursed what it would cost if i purchased a brand new A16 at the time.

 

[shmau]

i totally agree. my A16 actually did get lost coming back from being upgraded. it made it to the Memphis UPS hub and then just disappeared. James had to end up filing a claim and luckily ended up getting reimbursed the full amount. that made it much simpler for him to just turn around and send me another unit.

i'm guessing that may have been a much more difficult and lengthy discussion if he didn't get reimbursed what it would cost if i purchased a brand new A16 at the time.

Makes me wonder how they would deal with any paid prirs and features, since they'd be locked to the lost unit. I guess they could either reuse the same device identifier or offer to re-sign any content.

 

[Sanctuary]

Went to the UPS store today to get a quote, and they told me it would cost me $1,000 to ship it back fully insured. Like what the actual...?

 

[DenverW]

Went to the UPS store today to get a quote, and they told me it would cost me $1,000 to ship it back fully insured. Like what the actual...?

Well that's pretty comical.

 

[esimms86]

Well that's pretty comical.

Except nobody’s laughing.

 

[shmau]

Went to the UPS store today to get a quote, and they told me it would cost me $1,000 to ship it back fully insured. Like what the actual...?

Insurance doesn't cost that much. Just a guess but maybe you input an lbs value into a field meant for kg.

Try fedex. Sadly however it will probably cost around $400 regardless.

Or use EMS. But then you may have more trouble with paperwork.

 

[Sanctuary]

Insurance doesn't cost that much. Just a guess but maybe you input an lbs value into a field meant for kg.

Try fedex. Sadly however it will probably cost around $400 regardless.

Or use EMS. But then you may have more trouble with paperwork.

I didn't actually fill out anything yet. My first questions to the people at the UPS store were about needing power of attorney and any other customs paperwork I might need, and the woman I was speaking with told me that I didn't need any of that. I also asked her if she wanted the harmonization code, and she had no idea what I was talking about and said that she had sent numerous items to the UK and had never needed such a thing. The way she came up with the total was by looking at some laminated chart and doing napkin math. So even if I had paid that amount and had it shipped, I'm assuming I would have run into problems.

Looking up the rates through their online services had the cheapest at around $780.

Before any insurance, FedEx shows $752, and DHL is $578.

 

[dsperber]

Before any insurance, FedEx shows $752, and DHL is $578.

I still say if you have a Fedex account (which costs you nothing to create one, even if you never use it again except for this one time), you have the ability to use the "Fedex Great Rates Hotline".

This rate is not the retail rate. I repeat: Oct 1, 2021 shipment of my A16 from LA to UK Fedex International Economy with rate quoted by "Great Rates Hotline" cost me $86. True story.

 

[Sanctuary]

I still say if you have a Fedex account (which costs you nothing to create one, even if you never use it again except for this one time), you have the ability to use the "Fedex Great Rates Hotline".

This rate is not the retail rate. I repeat: Oct 1, 2021 shipment of my A16 from LA to UK Fedex International Economy with rate quoted by "Great Rates Hotline" cost me $86. True story.

Before factoring in any extra savings, box size (not weight) seems to make the biggest difference. My box is 25 x 15 x 15 and for FedEx International Economy, it comes to $752.56. Simply changing the box to 10 x 15 x 15 then cuts it nearly in half to $394. If I were to throw caution to the wind and attempted to ship the A16 back in its original box (mine did not arrive double boxed), the price would be $353.

edit: I think I just stumbled upon what the problem was, and it's something the lady at the UPS store didn't think to bring up even though I said I was just trying to return something, and I also didn't see the option on any of the other carrier sites.

While messing around with the UPS calculator, if I just try shipping the package normally, it comes to $857, because it's counting it as either a gift, or as something being sold. When I select the "UPS Returns" option, it then refreshes the page, and everything is then turned into the metric system for me to redo all of the package and value information. The price is then $189! Going to verify this over the phone in a moment.

edit 2: Yep, that was where the problem was. The international shipping rep I spoke with on the help line said that when items are simply being returned, the rates are much, much lower. She even gave me two promo codes that resulted in another 30% off.

 

[audiohobbit]

Fly yourself to Northern Ireland and take it as hand-luggage...

seriously: Those are totally crazy rates!

Just for fun I looked at the DHL website here in germany and shipping to US. Normal rates (takes 10-15 days however) 48 to 78€ depending on actual size and weight. +70€ for insurance up to 5000€.

 

[VandyMan]

When I sent back my unit in 2020, I used USPS and it cost $150 including $4,000 of insurance and home pickup.