Airgun import experiences - via post/ courier route

[TC]

Too many complications. I cancelled my order with Pyramidair. They are processing the refund.
To me a pellet shooter is not worth all that headache.

TC

[Lucky Luke]

@ TC : you did pull the trigger a bit early there I think. Pyramid uses FedEx who are fairly proficient with clearing customs ( despite the new constraints ) . All it needs is a bit of patience and a few docs. Incidentally , if your club is NRAI affiliated then there is no need for a separate letter. But then I guess it is a bit too late since you've already requested for a refund.

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@ Shaji -

Costs for Post route in comparison to Courier?

For me it was pretty much the same. Not much of a saving.

Time?

Post sucks - 2 months instead of 2 weeks. Clearance took 9 months.
Also tracking stops after a while unlike say FedEx.

Issues during clearance if any?
Issues were clearly the mandatory visit to Mumbai and 2 days stay. Around Rs.20,000/-
Clearance - you pay when the local GPO calls and informs you to pay and collect. In my case Rs.10.500/-

[nevil]

Hi I was really surprised yesterday when pyramid air cancelled my order for an air rifle. According to the mail they have said that they have stopped shipping to India as the custom authorities are not clearing anything that shoots. Till the matter is sorted out no more orders for air rifles/pistols are being accepted. This is really ridiculous. If anyone else has any news on this please share.
Regards
N


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[ebenezer]

Hi I was really surprised yesterday when pyramid air cancelled my order for an air rifle. According to the mail they have said that they have stopped shipping to India as the custom authorities are not clearing anything that shoots. Till the matter is sorted out no more orders for air rifles/pistols are being accepted. This is really ridiculous. If anyone else has any news on this please share.
Regards
N


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They did the same when the Delhi HC banned import of airguns and Customs started detaining airgun shipments. Did you try Relish Sports?

Ebenezer

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[nevil]

Hi Ebenzer no I have not tried relish sports. I just have doubts that what stops these importers from using your club membership to import a second or third rifle after your order. Besides being a member of a rifle club entitles us to import an air rifle and besides a bit of paperwork it was quite simple to import an air rifle/pistol from pyramid air.
I think the reason must be that due to the ongoing elections maybe fedex may have told them to put a hold on all new orders. The mail sent to me clearly says no orders for anything that shoots it does not say anything about pellets or accessories.
Well all we can do is wait and watch and hope for the best.
Regards
N.


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[riahmoso]

Hello everybody today I order a co2 pistol to PA but they cancel it and They mail me that they can't ship order India right now,if you have any alternate address we will ship it.
I exactly don't know what is the problem. if any one know about it please share it.
Thanks.

[ebenezer]

It seems Fedex has asked PA not to take orders from India as Customs in Delhi are not clearing airgun shipments due to some people misusing rifle club IDs and giving false addresses (don't know how).

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[nevil]

Hi I spoke to the fedex guy at IGI Delhi and was informed that they had refused to bring any consignments as customs were creating problems in clearing. The reason he have was that there were lot of shipments were highly questionable the example he quoted was " six air rifles of the same being ordered by the same member" ??? According to him they are scrutinising all cases and will resume after the matter is cleared. I was surprised to learn that FedEx is doing 1.5 million dollars of business from India in this segment alone and rest assured they don't want to lose this revenue.
From what I understand that either people or importers are misusing their membership to import rifles and sell them in the market.
Really sad that genuine people have to suffer due to others ignorance / misdeeds.
Regards
N


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[ebenezer]

Hi I spoke to the fedex guy at IGI Delhi and was informed that they had refused to bring any consignments as customs were creating problems in clearing. The reason he have was that there were lot of shipments were highly questionable the example he quoted was " six air rifles of the same being ordered by the same member" ??? According to him they are scrutinising all cases and will resume after the matter is cleared. I was surprised to learn that FedEx is doing 1.5 million dollars of business from India in this segment alone and rest assured they don't want to lose this revenue.
From what I understand that either people or importers are misusing their membership to import rifles and sell them in the market.
Really sad that genuine people have to suffer due to others ignorance / misdeeds.
Regards
N


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Customs should issue a showcause notice to such people alone if they have any doubts over their intent. Why take away the privileges of genuine shooters?

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[TC]

I got a wind of this and that's why I cancelled my order, explaining to the Pyramid Air sales and customer care team why I was doing it. They were very cooperative.

TC

[jatindra Singh Deo]

I can see this malpractice of rifles in sale all too often ,all over the place.What they can do is stop bulk orders and develop a mechanism to track the id card of club members who are importing and get a confirmation mail or some other mode of confirmation from them.Denial of import will be a real disgrace to genuine shooters due to a few greedy idiots .

[riahmoso]

Today PA send me a reply by mail.


Dear Sir, Currently we can not ship any product to India. It has to do with Customs in your country. At this time we do not know when the ban will be lifted.

Jerry

[nevil]

I really don't understand why these guy behave like this it gives people of other countries such a bad impression. Shows how unreliable the country is, today everything is fine and rules change at the drop of a hat it's really very saddening


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[andy_65_in]

Hi I spoke to the fedex guy at IGI Delhi and was informed that they had refused to bring any consignments as customs were creating problems in clearing. The reason he have was that there were lot of shipments were highly questionable the example he quoted was " six air rifles of the same being ordered by the same member" ??? According to him they are scrutinising all cases and will resume after the matter is cleared. I was surprised to learn that FedEx is doing 1.5 million dollars of business from India in this segment alone and rest assured they don't want to lose this revenue.
From what I understand that either people or importers are misusing their membership to import rifles and sell them in the market.
Really sad that genuine people have to suffer due to others ignorance / misdeeds.
Regards
N


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I am not surprised by the customs view-there are chaps who continue to import and sell but then the govt order doesnt anywhere lay down a limit on number of airrifle imports. i think the personal carry route is still the best provided you can MANAGE to get the airrifle through (after all all these chaps here flaunting .25 and .22 cal airrifles have used this route only)

[Lucky Luke]

The present tightening by the customs I think could be due to the ongoing elections.

During my interaction with the officials at the FPO I was informed ( off the record ) that after the Taj debacle, no one in the department wants to take responsibility in case of any such future incident. One major concern which was stated was whether Airguns could be converted to firearms. Despite my clarifications regarding that issue, we had to make a trip down to the PS at Crawford for the opinion of an " expert ". ( But that is another story )

I would like to state here that I found the officials at the FPO sincerely willing to help out. There did not seem to be any sly references to bribes etc. That was something that I found surprising to say the least.