Getting Luxury Imports Delivered
When it comes to international imports, it’s imperative that you specify delivery terms in your contract. As a private buyer, you’ll most likely want to specify that the item gets delivered to your home or office. Otherwise, you may be liable for expensive warehousing fees, if the seller fails to notify you that the item has arrived at the port. Be advised that most border agencies will not notify you that your goods have arrived. If you do decide to pick the item up at the port, you must be able to prove that the seller sent the item. You can do this by:
- Getting the name and contact details of the foreign freight company or courier service.
- Requesting the bill of lading from the shipper or seller.
Make sure you don’t let your item stay at port for longer than about two weeks, or it’s likely to be transferred to a general order warehouse where expensive storage fees accrue rapidly. In the U.S., items left for longer than 6 months in the warehouse get auctioned to the public.