Two recent threads – the fight over ivory billiard balls and CITES, the recurring question about documenting ownership of pipes when you travel – and my own musings about insurance got me to wondering how many of my fellow forum frequenters actually got a written receipt for pipes purchased directly from a pipemaker.
I was naive enough, when I purchased my first set, not to ask for a receipt. Not a mistake I will make again.
Thus my question. I don’t seem actually to be able to make the poll option work, though, so I guess you’ll just have to reply the old-fashioned way, if you choose to be so gracious.
An invoice will get you off the hook when travelling with a new-ish set of pipes and customs insisting on charging you for VAT etc. Helped me a few times during the 1980s.
You would always need a current valuation. Price of pipes has gone up very fast. Some pipemakers do not like issuing receipts due to personal tax liability. Pipes are usually not marked, certainly without a model number, so matching a receipt to what you are carrying is a bit pointless. If they would buy that at Customs, they’d buy an explanation. Of course, NO duties whatsover - bagpipes are completely exempt - are due for bagpipes coming into the US.
Some pipemakers, like Froment, engrave their name, date, and location on the main stock plus the customer’s name. That’s all that’s required – in my mind. Any exchange of money for merchandise deserves some kind of proof of purchase. I seem to remember a couple instances where a reciept for the downpayment would have been very useful.
US customs charged me duty on a set of pipes from Canada. They based it upon the insurance, and they clearly understood that they were bagpipes. I even tried to argue that they were being repaired but they wanted their $260 or no pipes. I paid.
This keeps coming us. There’s a difference between duty and sales taxes. Items which are often exempt from duty will be subject to sales tax when imported.
I’ve seen the same problem. Sent a set of Old Hendersons to Dunbars to have them remounted and had trouble getting them back through customs. They held them for about 2-3 weeks and after many phone calls I got them without paying anything…
I think that if you are sending for repair, you need to have a receipt to prove it and shipping documentation for initial trip to the pipemaker. If you are buying, you won’t have this unless someone wants to lie about it and make up dummy receipts. I don’t think that this is the wisest way to deal with customs and could result in deeper problens if the seller isn’t willing to cooperate with the fraud. Duty into the US for example is about 4% I think, and if they are holding your goods, you haven’t any leverage.
ALso, if you have an old set with ivory, you just want to pay up and get them delivered. The longer they sit and the more arguing that you do, the more trouble that you invite if they decide to open the box to take a look at the goods and try to find evidence of fresh repair work, and find instead, ivory mounts and no CITES certificate.
For repair, US Customs wants a percentage of the repair cost. You’ll need to document the item on the way out of the country and, of course, on the way in the country.
