EMS Shipping + US Customs = :(

[sk8er4514]

I got an order of 10 30mW green lasers in today from Sure Electronics and customs took all of them and exchanged them for a letter stating >5mW will be confiscated

this is upsetting as I put about $200 into those lasers and the lasers & money are now gone. I'm probably on some sort of US Customs red flagged list now too

[highlight]NEVER USE EMS SHIPPING WITH LASERS >5mW[/highlight]

let my experience me a lesson for all.

thanks,
Kendall

 

[iccy]

I just got your email! That would be really discouraging. I hope you arent flagged by us customs now.

 

[Razako]

What were the lasers labeled as? Usually they make it through if they are labeled as LED torches/light pens.

 

[TheMonk]

I got an order of 10 30mW green lasers in today from Sure Electronics and customs took all of them and exchanged them for a letter stating >5mW will be confiscated

this is upsetting as I put about $200 into those lasers and the lasers & money are now gone. I'm probably on some sort of US Customs red flagged list now too

[highlight]NEVER USE EMS SHIPPING WITH LASERS >5mW[/highlight]

let my experience me a lesson for all.

thanks,
Kendall

Sorry to hear that and thanks for sharing the information.

BTW: you may want to double check to see if it is OK to sell Laser Pointers with outputs higher than 5mW on your web site. :-/ May be a license is needed to sell high power Lasers? Just a though.

 

[MarioMaster]

i've had a box taken by customs before, i have no problems ordering lasers from DX and such

 

[sk8er4514]

ah cool. thx Mario for that, I had already ordered 5 more 30mW greens from DX a while ago but Sure is so much faster shipping.... i guess we don't have a choice, must use the slowest of slow shipping possible.

and yeah there are licenses that I need like Aixiz has. I'm not that big yet and don't make much selling this stuff anyways, at least not yet...

 

[FrothyChimp]

You don't need a license per se to sell laser systems unless the systems are for medical use or designed for laser light shows. However, selling illegal laser systems will get you a hefty fine. Laser pointers >5mW are ILLEGAL for sale in the U.S. Portable lasers that meet FDA safety regulations for Class IIIb and Class IV operation are legal to sell.

The problem is that customs stopped 10 of the same laser pointer. Someone will think, hmm I wonder if this person is distributing these illegal laser systems. That's what I would be concerned with. Because you sell homebuilt systems as well as illegal pointers the FDA may come knocking. They are pretty brutal if you get caught. They will fine you for each illegal laser system you sold. They will require you to obtain all illegal lasers from your customers and refund their money. Those laser will then be destroyed.

Continued violations can net you real jail time. This isn't like the town constable showing up asking if you stole a street sign. This is federal.

 

[TheMonk]

How does Wickedlasers get away selling high power Lasers in the US? :-/

 

[Razako]

How does Wickedlasers get away selling high power Lasers in the US? :-/

They're located in china so the FDA has no authority over them.

 

[FrothyChimp]

The Chinese companies bypass FDA inspections by illegally labeling their customs documents as light pens, or flashlights or what not. They don't even use their real company names on the documents. Wicked usually sells as a flashlight company. I've even seen customs documents labeled as toy parts. Because they have to do this these companies are fully aware of the U.S. laws and have no qualms about breaking them. Welcome to the black market.

 

[sk8er4514]

hmm thanks Frothy... I think once I empty my inventory I'm going to stop while I'm still ahead. I'm not going to sell the DX30mW greens any more either. but you say that selling home built laser systems is OK? what is the difference?

I was planning on expanding my sales but I'm going to think twice about it....

 

[FrothyChimp]

Selling homebuilt lasers is as illegal as importing them. If you add the necessary safety features required by the FDA for the class of laser and register the laser you can sell them.

 

[lamborgini8]

That sucks to hear, I would be gutted if that happened to me.

Im getting my scanner delivered through EMS or TNT, that may make me reconsider paying the extra price to get it here. Although I have had a scanner kit sent to me via EMS before, a ticktly packaged box of electronics would look more suspicioius than a laser pointer, maybe its random boxes that get opened?

 

[sk8er4514]

Selling homebuilt lasers is as illegal as importing them. If you add the necessary safety features required by the FDA for the class of laser and register the laser you can sell them.

I'm reading up on the safety features and actually I have already been doing them with my laser warning labels.

21 CFR 1000-1040.11  has the safety regulations
"Affix to each medical laser product, in close proximity to each aperture through which is emitted accessible laser radiation in excess of the accessible emission limits of Class I, a label bearing the wording: "Laser aperture.""

I'm pretty sure this qualifies

which i have been putting on every laser that i sell.

I made some different labels for my Blu Rays & higher than 245mW lasers which I have been putting on as well...

I'm getting a laser power meter in today or tomorrow which I'll be using a lot.. I'm going to make graphs and give the peak & average over 60sec values of every laser that I sell. make a "certificate of compliance" and make it look nice I think this will help w/ the legal stuff also.

just thought I'd share this.

 

[Aaron636r]

I work for a company that brings in boats full of product from China. I have spent days sitting at customs re-labeling our product because the "Made in China" sticker wasn't visible on the product. I have 2-3 boats of product come a week threw customs...they know us very well...they know were a legit company...but we still get hassled every week. Its insane.

I will tell you, there is always away around customs. Just have to be creative.

 

[electron]

While DX does lie on the customs declaration form, Nova Lasers for example doesn't.

I've used overnight delivery from Nova Lasers and the package is labeled from: Nova Lasers, and through the clear envelope containing the declaration form, it clearly stated Laser and the true declared price.  Yet it had no issues making it from Canada to the USA and delivered to my door in 1 day flat.

I guess customs didn't read it, but it had a sticker on it that said "Customs Cleared", the tamper proof packing tape was clearly untouched and Nova guarantees the Laser will make it through customs.  So I don't know how they can actually do that, because they are not lying about the content or the price; and it is clear that it's coming from a Laser company; declared as an expensive Laser, so one would think they know it's not a cheap <5mw pointer.