shipping-and-customs

name	Shipping and customs
description	Answer duties, delivery windows and restrictions for a destination, accurately.
category	operations

Shipping, duties and customs

The complaint is never the duty. It is the surprise.

Say it before they order

For a cross-border order: whether duty is prepaid or collected on delivery, who collects it, roughly what it will be on that value, and that it is set by the destination country rather than by the shop.

Delivery windows

Give working days from dispatch, not from order, and say what dispatch depends on. Name the cut-off time and the days it does not run.

Restrictions

Check the destination before promising anything for batteries, liquids, aerosols and anything perishable. A restricted item found at the border is a lost parcel, not a delayed one.

When a parcel is held

Say what is being asked for, who has to provide it, and by when — held parcels are returned or destroyed on a timer, and customers rarely know that.

Never

Estimate a duty as zero to close a sale, or mis-describe contents or value on a declaration for any reason.