Airgun import experiences - via post/ courier route

[Anand]

Thanks for the reply Mulki, I have one more question:
The package has arrived in Delhi and is awaiting Clearance.Will FedEx get in touch with me or should I initiate contact?
Thanks,
Anand

[mulki]

Thanks for the reply Mulki, I have one more question:
The package has arrived in Delhi and is awaiting Clearance.Will FedEx get in touch with me or should I initiate contact?
Thanks,
Anand

They will contact you if they have an email or mobile contact for you. I suggest you contact them with the Tracking Number as a reference and give them your mobile and email so that they can email you the list of docs required. You can get their helpline number from the Fedex website for India.

PA does not usually include your email or telephone details on the package, so Fedex may not be able to get in touch with you.

[bawa]

I have numbers of FEDEX at Delhi Airport Cargo terminal.
These are: 011-47700282, 011-47700302, 011-47700200 Ext-282. Please ask for Ms. Sheetal (Courier Dept.). As she was in charge of this department till my recent import about One month ago.

I suggest that you call FEDEX your self & inform them tracking number of your parcel. Otherwise you may have to wait for their call for many days. FEDEX people act very fast , upon receiving all proper documentation from you & clear your shipment within 1or 2 working days, if everything is in order.

[Anand]

Thanks Mulki & bawa, I have gotten in touch with FedEx and after being informed of the required stuff, sent in all the paperwork by email and am awaiting a response if anything else is needed. Will let the forum know my experience with the process.
Regards,
Anand

Update as of 29/05/2012
After unsuccessfully trying to reach FedEx by phone yesterday & today to get confirmation of receipt of my documents, I get an email from them asking for "NRAI letter" -- email doesn't specify what letter, I assumed its the membership letter sent along with the card and emailed that. After that, called them and got confirmation of receipt of email(s) said they would"forward the same" to the Customs.
Lets see what happens now.

Update for 30/05/2012
Received a phone call from FedEx asking for ' expiry date' on Life Membership card and any additional proof of Life Membership. So I sent them copies of my payment receipt and letter that came with the receipt which clearly mentions the payment made was for Life Membership. Again keeping my fingers crossed.

Update for 31/05/2012
Good news, looks like all that paperwork paid off. According to the FedEx tracking site the shipment was cleared today. Lets see how long it takes to reach me now.

Update for 02/06/2012
Called FedEx several times today to check on package which was cleared on 31/05 but been sitting at the Fedex Delhi office! No response at the Delhi Office where previous communication took place, so called customer care number, and was informed that a "Form 600" was required because the "banned" goods had to be transported by "ground",the guy could not tell me if I was to provide this form, or if there was a delay because this part was being done by FedEx or anything.He did take my contact details and said that some one would call within 24 hours.

Update for 04/06/2012
Yesterday being a Sunday nothing moved, but after speaking to the same lady who helped me clear Customs, I found that the package had been moved to the FedEx Mayapuri Office and she asked me to get in touch with them by giving me their phone number. Unfortunately, I could not hear the last digit of the number after that the call got cut. So I had to try all digits from 0 to 9 and it turned out to be 9 .I had to do this"detective work" because Customer service would not give me the number and repeated attempts at calling back the lady who helped me did not succeed.
Then the Mayapuri office lady gave me the local contact in Hyderabad, Mr Jagdish who is trying to help the matter as I am typing this at 12.40 pm. After explaining to him that Customs had cleared my stuff on 31/05/2012, I was waiting for 4 days and that nothing was moving. The Form 600 is a Way Bill for shipment of goods internally and I sought his help in filling it sending it to the concerned person so that I don't have to wait forever.
Unfortunately, Mr Jagdish insisted that he needs to have the Form 600,upon which I contacted the Maypuri office again and this time I was told that in case of goods for personal use, a declaration to that effect is required and connected me to Mr.S.Kumar and his senior Mr.Naresh Sharma, these guys are the document experts. Mr.Kumar told me pretty much the same thing about the declaration but Mr.Sharma said he would get back to me after checking, so far nothing since 1.30pm. Being pro-active, I tried sending the declaration and other documents by email to both above, but their emails bounced So after several attempts, I sent it to another guy in the same office whose email id was also given to me by the Mayapuri office people.

Update for 05/06/2012
Got a reply email stating that they received my attachments and that they would try forwarding by "sfc". I am assuming "sfc" means "surface freight cargo".While checking on the status online which now shows as "In Transit" as against "At FedEx location" for the last five days, I called the Mayapuri office to make sure my package had infact left Mayapuri FedEx location and the lady confirmed that it did, and that it may take between 5 and 7 days to reach Hyderabad. Checked with the website and it shows that the package has reached Gurgaon. So I guess its on its way!

Update for 09/06/2012
Okay guys, finally my package was delivered at about 3.30 pm today . The shipping carton obviously showed signs of being opened and repacked after Customs inspection. Though the contents did not show any damage, the company packaging(within the shipping carton) was opened with less care than it should have been, and was torn in 4 places .
My sincere advice to one and all is, if you are importing expensive Air Rifles, please invest in a good Rifle Box made of rugged composite/plastic and has a lot of cushioning inside and make sure that Pyramid Air or other seller packs the rifle in it. If specific instrucions are not given to do that, they may ship both items but not one within the other(which defeates the purpose of buying a box). The pellets were packed well separately, but it looked like the protective glasses in their original "card backed-transparent shrink wrap" (which was torn) were removed and put back.
All in all, my assessment of doing this import was painless upto the point of Customs asking for paperwork. After that, while I provided all documents asked for, time was wasted in further emails and calls, back and forth between FedEx and Customs and FedEx and me for corroborative evidence for my Life Membership with NRAI. But I must say that they cleared it quite fast. Next up, even though they should have contacted me for further paperwork such as asking for the "Form 600/Declaration for personal use", they did not. I had to repeatedly call them, and was not successful in reaching them at all by phone on two days. Then I had to call,the 800 number,the office at Mayapuri and basically given the "run around" for a couple of days. I must say though, that once I could contact them, they tried as best as possible to help me. So the problem areas are:
1.Lack of complete list of required documents for Customs clearance
2. Lack of documents required for shipping within India
3. that of not being able to continuoulsy deal with one person, since they will not give personal numbers.

If any one has any specific questions please ask away!
Regards,
Anand
P.S: I am grateful to all those members who have taken the trouble to post their experiences so that all may benefit. I must say that with the exception of a couple of documents, most things were in place for a smooth import all thanks to this thread.

[andy_65_in]

whats the latest on imports-i have a airgun waiting for import but i gather that the customs are insisitng on a nomber of documents-incidentally i only have a membership card-should i also cater for a certificate for the import-i dont want the airrifle stuck at customs-planning thru fedex whose dushyant incidentally is never availaible on tele

[andy_65_in]

anand please update us when u recive your airgun especially on what documents were asked for

[tiwariarrun]

Dear andy_65_in,

Your clud ID card is useful- however you need to get the letter from your clud, which should mention that you're an active member, and you need the gun for club target practice. The letter needs to mention your membership code and validity. Your club needs to be affiliated with state level club and NRAI- the letter needs to mention that.

Customs would need the original copy of it. You need to attach 2 letters:

1. Addressing Deputy Commissioner of Customs stating why you need the gun
2. Authorising Fedex to clear your gun on your behalf. If your shipper is not Fedex, you need to check with them if they do clearance. If not, hire a customs agent. A smart fella who knows the rules.
3. Gun invoice copy
4. Import Export code copy

The club letter is mandatory or forget the gun.

Thanks,
AT.

[andy_65_in]

thanks arun

[zaknan]

Okay armchair airgun fanatics, I have my QB 78, .177 air rifle Mac1 Version stuck in Delhi customs and have been issued a show cause notice. I have 25th as the date for the opening of the parcel. Naturally, I am now in need of prayers so let us see.



Regards,

Dev

had it released

[zaknan]

Hi friends,

I got a Baikal 46M pistol delivered yesterday at home from Pyramydair.
It took 14 days after ordering.

regds,

how you order it via paypal or amazon
they didnt ask for document
reply me

[dev]

Okay armchair airgun fanatics, I have my QB 78, .177 air rifle Mac1 Version stuck in Delhi customs and have been issued a show cause notice. I have 25th as the date for the opening of the parcel. Naturally, I am now in need of prayers so let us see.



Regards,

Dev

had it released

Hi,

Friend this happened at least five years ago and is not something one should quote now.

Warm regards,

Dev

[Anand]

As you can see above in my updates,I have given as much detail as possible without boring everyone . The list of documents I sent to FedEx via email to enable:
Customs Clearance were:
1.Order Confirmation(email print out) & Invoice as sent by PyramydAir
2.Payment Receipt made via Paypal with transaction number
3."Order Shipped" Confirmation from PyramydAir
4.Copies of Notifications: (i) No.52 (RE-2007)/2004-09 Dept. of Commerce Dtd.21 Nov 2007
(ii) No.95 (RE-2010)/2009-2014 Dept. of Commerce Dtd.09 Feb 2012
(iii) No.120/2008-Customs Dept. of RevenueDtd. 04 Nov 2008
5. NRAI Life Membership Card and the letter that was sent along with it when it was issued to me
6.Authorization to Fedex to clear Customs and all formalities on my behalf (proforma of this will be emailed to you
when asking for documents.)
7.Cover Letter addressed to Dy.Comm of Customs detailing the list of items imported, package number and the reason/purpose and request for Duty Free import and the eligibility for such along with the list of enclosures above from 1 to 5.
8.Letter to FedEx requesting that the above documents be submitted to the officer on my behalf

Please Note that FedEx may routinely ask only for some of the above documents, however I took the initiative to send all the above.
After the above "tamasha" process is completed,the Customs cleared goods now have to be shipped to your home, unfortunately, they will not ship them by air as the goods may be "Restricted" (or as one FedEx guy called them "Banned" ). But they will send it by surface or ground transport which I was informed after asking several times may take anywhere from 2 days to 5-7 days. Now they need some more documents for that to happen, and they may not contact you for those, while you are wondering what happened to your stuff. All this while, the tracking website may only show the last place of exit/storage/scanning.

After a little research and a lot of time wastage you MAY be informed by FedEx that a Form 600 is required for this ground shipping. This form 600 is only required if the items are for further resale/commercial purpose. After my own research I found that this was not needed if the items are for personal use and that if a "Declaration" of the same is given, then it will be used in lieu of the Form 600.

The list of documents I sent to enable the surface /ground shipping:
1.Copy of Invoice
2.Declaration in lieu of From 600
3.Copy of NRAI membership card
4.TNT India Interstate Regulatory Requirements (pdf. found on internet)

The Declaration itself will detail the imported contents, the fact that Rifle association members can import in that capacity for personal use, that fact that I am a NRAI member and that these are for personal use and not for resale or any other commercial use and that this declaration is being given in lieu of Form 600.

Regards,
Anand

[rcdoma]

Congratulations on your new acquisition, Anand! Have fun introducing your kid to shooting, I hope he likes it. Thanks for taking the time to share all the details about the air rifle import process with us.

[Anand]

Thanks a lot RC, its been a while since I heard from you. Alas, my joy on the new acquisition was short lived once I saw that it was leaking CO2 and could not fire a single shot. The main CO2 cartridge seal was broken. I guess it came from the factory this way, so much for quality control. Either that, or PyramydAir sent me a lemon that some one else may have returned to them, since there were a few finishing "blemishes" on the barrel as well.
I did disassemble the damn thing and while it was disappointing not to be able shoot it immediately, I did figure out how it works!! The other down side was I wasted 6 C02 cylinders testing it .

Anyway I sent off an email to PyramydAir about the seal and also mentioned that they should strongly recommend their 10 for 10 certificate (I think that's what its called), for their international customers, where they open up your gun, check it for leaks, and do a chrono and accuracy test and send a certificate along with the rifle/pistol all for $10.

I did tell them that I would not be able to send it back for replacement or repair due to the shipping costs and associated red tape, and asked if they could send me some seals for which I was willing to pay even though it wasn't my fault (I guess it wasn't PyramydAir's either, just shoddy quality control from Crosman.) Already spent $97 on shipping for a $65 faulty Air rifle, I'm not gonna spend more on it for a silly seal that probably costs $1.

So all those ordering expensive Air Pistols and Air Rifles from PyramydAir, please look up their website and take advantage of their 10 for 10 certificate thingy. I came to know of it only after I ordered , so I guess you live and learn .

Regards,
Anand

[rcdoma]

Oh no! Sorry to hear that Anand Their "$10 for 10" plan seems worth it for international orders, especially when we hear horror stories like this. Hope Pyramidair ships the seals out to you ASAP. Let us know how it goes. I am ordering a scope from them next week, if you still need the seal give me the part number/link. My friend in Hyderabad knows someone who can source them locally, I am PM'ing you his number. Good luck!