Skinz Shipping

Duties & Taxes

All duties and taxes are to be paid by the customer (this means you). We ship internationally by U.S. International Priority Mail. We are required to complete a brief description and value of the goods enclosed. We have no way of knowing what your country will charge for duties and taxes. We do know that the U.K and South Africa are high. It is your responsibility to know and be prepared to pay your countries duties and taxes. We can ship by other means (FedEx, DHL & UPS) but there is no savings on the duties due.

International Delivery Methods and Time Frames

For many years we have shipped our overseas orders through the United States Postal Service. We have selected this service as our default service to best serve our customers. We do not include any shipping costs in our product pricing because we realize you will pay duties and taxes on the cost of the goods in your order. Therefore, we are looking for the best combination of certainty of delivery, ability to identify the order, the likelihood of the lowest duties and taxes being imposed and lowest possible shipping price. In most cases US Priority International Mail is the best choice. For heavier packages we use First Class Mail. In the Pacific Rim countries most orders deliver in about 2 weeks.

It has been brought to our attention that delays are occurring more frequently in many countries when we use mail service. We suspect that this is a combination of an increase in orders to be processed by customs brought about by the weakness of the dollar and increased security as a result of terrorism concerns. It appears that many customs departments have not hired increased numbers of customs officers to handle the increased workload.

The US Postal Service commits to presenting packages to customs authorities in the destination country within 3 to 5 business days of acceptance of our packages. The Postal Service has shown us delivery statistics that show they are meeting their 3 to 5 business day goal. We use an automated system to print labels and postage on our shipments to reduce costs to our customers. We take all packages to the Post Office every night by 6 PM. Delays in delivery are occurring after orders are received by Customs in the destination country and then handed to Postal delivery services in countries where our customers are reporting delays.

Expect delivery of international packages shipped through US Mail to take from 3 to 4 weeks to deliver. It has been reported to us that in some indeterminable cases that duties and taxes are not collected or are lower than expected on orders shipped US Mail. This is an advantage to you, our valued customer.

If you want faster delivery, we offer Federal Express International service as an alternative. Costs can be 3 to 4 times as expensive for the shipping. In addition, in order to speed delivery, Federal Express contracts with the host country to collect duties and taxes at the highest possible level. These duties and taxes must be paid before the package can be delivered. If money is no object, Federal Express International service is fast, trackable and reliable. It is also much more expensive as reported by our customers.

We hope this information helps you make your shipping decision. We will continue to offer US Mail service as our preferred service since it meets the needs of most of our customers. Faster service is available at a higher cost.

SKINZ® Shipping Department
shipping@skinzwear.com