Mye Stands were held up at the border.

Mike D · « **on:** 27 May 2005, 12:41 am »

Very sad. The stands were picked up on the 12th, held up on the 13th, and I didn't run the tracking numbers until today. Bummer. Here's the story:

Grant VanderMye is selling me his prototype stands for his personal IIIA's. This will give him an opportunity to build his new design of floating stands. The new design will be very cool because you will not be able to see the feet from the front. Needless to say, he gave me a used price on the prototype stands. He packed his stands up and had UPS pick them up. They were held at the border pending my telephone call. They needed my tax ID (social sec. number) to clear the stands. It was random check. Now the stands should be here approximately June 1st or 2nd.

How 'bout dat.

Is this a result of our new homeland security or has this type of thing been going on forever?

Scott F. · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 May 2005, 02:19 am »

I've never had any issues with shipments coming from the Great White North but I have had some coming from Europe.

A couple of pieces of gear (which will remain nameless) got held up by customs because the person who signed the shipping reciept was on the Interpol list of suspected bad guys.

Come to find out, he just had the same name as a bad guy but it took almost a month and a boat load of phone calls to get it straightened out.

Oh, all this was a couple of years before 9-11. I can only imagine what it would be like now.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 May 2005, 03:52 am »

Quote from: Mike D

They needed my tax ID (social sec. number) to clear the stands. It was random check.

Not sure how random it is...starting earlier this year, I've had to provide a Tax ID for every shipment that has come from my Canadian manufacturers. The tax ID has to be of the actual receiver of the package, which kind of sucks for me because it means that if I am having product drop-shipped to a customer, I either have to ask the customer for their SSN or I have to have the stuff shipped to me first and then ship it to the customer (doubling the shipping costs and chances for shipping damage). One of my manufacturers uses their own customs broker, so they keep my Tax ID on file. Another one, however, uses UPS, and they actually call up the person receiving the shipment for their SSN every shipment...

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 May 2005, 01:54 pm »

I've shipped a few things up to Canada and a few things have come to me from Canada in the past few months ...all without a hitch.

For business, I have had entire containers from China held up for routine/random inspection. Before 9/11 this happened about 1 in a 1000, now more like 1 in 20.

Your post comes right at a time when Grant is finishing up my MMG stands (the first full stands he's made for the baby Maggies), so I'll be aware of similar holdups if they come my way. Thanks.

Mike D · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 May 2005, 04:18 pm »

How honorable is Grant VanderMye? He is sending me a full set of different brass points in addition to the killer deal he already gave me on his prototype stands. He certainly is more concerned with his customers than his profit margin. Even though the stands were held up for reasons beyond his control, he is assuming responsibility. Three cheers for hard-working small businesses like his.