US Freight Forwarding

I use

- USPS global express, they are airfrighted by Fedex and delivery by Philpost

- LBC Express

- Atlas Shippers

Thanks - do these make you go to post office to pay customs duty?  For my regular US postal service, always had to send someone down to post office to pay and collect. For my last UPS shipment, they delivered to my office and I paid COD. Was just more convenient (but costlier).

Depends on the weight and declaration.

The recent Homeland Security rule instruct shippers to the Philippines to have their clients mandatory declaration and Homeland Security is checking the boxes deligently. Its probably the reason why some shippers no longer shipping in the Philippines.

Im also waiting for a box shipment. My Aunt sent to me via LBC and I should be getting it a week ago but I still dont have the box until now.

I've had several bad experiences with picking up shipment thru USPS.  The customs personnel at the Philippine post office branch where I was supposed to pick it up charged me 100% customs taxes for Christmas gifts from my mother-in-law.  I wrote a blog about it.  He also had me open one of the boxes which contained a wooden nativity set, saying that he wanted to check that if it was a gun.  Gosh! Wouldn't the American post office, and the  Philippine post office too, already seen that through an x-ray or metal detector? 

So I ship stuff I bought from the US via Filipino door-to-door service.  My aunt packs up the items in one box.  There are quite a few shippers in the SF Bay Area.  No customs personnel to intimidate me when the package arrives here.  No limit for weight. (But do be polite not to ship all of your free weights in one box.) It takes a month though to arrive.  But it's just non-perishables anyways: clothes, toys, books, etc.

Thanks but am looking for a shipper to forward from an online purchase. Say buy a number of items from Amazon, but some items they will not ship internationally. But they do provide free shipping. So they mail to a forwarder who then mails it internationally.

Due to Homeland Security Act, all outgoing parcels are subject to US customs inspection. Balikbayan boxes are not exempt. I guess its on a random basis.

On the 100% customs - who charges?  The US should not charge. Philippines customs will charge 20% and including on shipping. Plus certain admin charges, but should not be 100% unless they are overcharging.

Philippine customs charges are based on the 'Philippine market value' not the purchase value.

dhnindc wrote:

On the 100% customs - who charges?  The US should not charge. Philippines customs will charge 20% and including on shipping. Plus certain admin charges, but should not be 100% unless they are overcharging.

The most recent changes on Balikbayan inspection was published on March 2011 and effective on May 2011.

All Balikbayan are now subject to rigorous inspection and declaration.

My LBC box just arrived today and I'm going to pick it up. The normal 30 days arrival is now 45+ days.

dhnindc wrote:

On the 100% customs - who charges?  The US should not charge. Philippines customs will charge 20% and including on shipping. Plus certain admin charges, but should not be 100% unless they are overcharging.

Sorry that I didn't make it clear. It's the Philippine customs who charged me 100%.  PhP3600 for US$70 worth of gifts.  The guy opened a book as thick as a phone book, did some calculations, and said I owed PhP3600.  The post office personnel told me to haggle with the guy.  He said, with receipt 3.6k; without, 500.  Maybe it depends on which post office or personnel the shipment passes  through.  You're charged the correct amount in Makati.

female_expat wrote:

Philippine customs charges are based on the 'Philippine market value' not the purchase value.

dhnindc wrote:

On the 100% customs - who charges?  The US should not charge. Philippines customs will charge 20% and including on shipping. Plus certain admin charges, but should not be 100% unless they are overcharging.

Philippine market value.  And the customs guy is the one who determines the value, and values my US$20 layette at $100.

Thats too bad.  I always pay customs based on the invoice attached to the package. I ask the shipper to include an invoice of $50, never had a problem.  I have received about 6 packages since Jan and use the Mandaluyong postal office.

I use Filipino door-to-door from SF Bay Area.  Haven't been charged customs through these shippers.  I guess it's because it's "door-to-door".  For store / branch pick up, it's around $25, but for door to door, it's around $45 for a 20x20x20 box.  I'd rather pay the extra $20 than pay an unpredictable sum.

Try Johnny Air.  johnnyair.com  They also have sea freight now if your shipments have low value and are heavy.  Another one is manilaforwarder.com.  A lot of locals use them when they buy things from Amazon or Ebay.  Hope this helps.

I've used it 3 times for products that Amazon wouldn't let me ship to Australia, pretty good service of parcelbound.com.
You can just sign up for a one month pass or something, they also give you the option of consolidating multiple packages (they will open your boxes, take all the products, put them into one bigger box) to try and make shipping cheaper.

www.parcelbound.com