NEW US SHIPPING INSANITY

If you're in the US and you aren't yet aware of the absolute clusterf*ck that happened at the end of August 2025 when the de minimis import threshold is removed then we'd advise you do some reearch on how comprehensively you've been f*cked over by your government.Theres a decent explanation of what is going on HERE.

Up until the end of August 2025 the US had a de minimis threshold of $800, which means that US buyers could import up to that value in a single shipment before they got charged any import fees, but as of 29th August 2025 this was completely removed so you'd have to pay import fees on absolutely everything regardless of the value, and regardless of where its coming from. This wouldn't be so bad for us as the tariff charge from the UK to the US was only 10%. Its wasn't ideal, but it'd was workable. Unfortunately as far as we can tell this was originally meant to be phased in by 2027, but because the malignant muppet in charge of the US is essentially an impatient toddler, he demanded it all happened by the end of August with less than 2 months notice. Obviously none of the systems were even remotely ready, so the solution US customs appear to have gone for is to just temporarily treat every single package as if it was worth $800, plus the value on the customs form, possibly just because they already have the systems in place to deal with charging for that. This meant that EVERY package coming into the US from the UK that didn't have tariffs pre-paid (see below for more info on this) had a minimum $80 customs fee added to it, regardless of the actual value. It doesn't seem like a coincidence that $80 is the same as a 10% tariff on $800. Purchases from other countries had even higher fees in line with whatever horsesh*t tariff has arbitrarily been set.

As of July 2026 this all changed again and the initial tariffs were removed to be replaced with what appers to be a tariff of 12.5% between the UK and the US. Slightly bizarrely the tariff amount depends on the country of manufacture of the thing you're buying, which inexplicably means that if you were to buy a vintage modified Yamaha effects unit from us that was manufactured in japan 40 years ago then the tariff would be 12.5%, but if it was an Alesis unit that was originally made in the US then the tariff would be 5%. Obviously the trade in four decade old effects units is far more threatening to current US industry if the unit was made in Japan 40 years ago, than if it was made in the US... for some reason we fail to undrstand.

Rest assured that everythig we sell had its 'last significant manufacturing process' done in the UK, and therefore counts as UK origin and not anywhere else in the world.

I can't quite believe we're having to say this, but if you are buying from the US then despite what your orange narcissist in chief might say, it is actually you that pays for the tariffs and not the shipper, even though the US bullied the world into a tariff pre payment system to try and hide this awkward fact... see below.

There is a workaround...

Royal Mail have come up with a new Postal Delivery Duties Paid Solution (PDDP) service to the US where US buyers pay the 12.5% tariffs at our shop checkout, and then we pay this to Royal Mail as part of the postal charges, who then pass it on the the US authorities. Obviously this is good news for us, but also excellent news if you're the US government and are trying to convince the American public that its other countries imposing these charges or that its the shipper who pays the fees...

What this means is that if you're buying via our shop from the US you're going to see a new 12.5% tax amount added at the checkout. In theory thats all the difference theres going to be and the package should go through US customs without further charges being added. Thats the theory anyway... In practise we have seen some confusion and delays, presuably because the US simply didn't have the infrastructure to operate this sytem when it was introduced. Please don't hesitate to contact us before buying if you have any questions, or if US customs are demanding extra fees. I'm not sure theres a lot we can do as we're absolutely sure that everything is done right at this end, but we're happy to help out in any way we can.

IMPORTANT - We would advise US buyers to add their phone number in the box at the checkout. This is supposedly a requirement of US customs. They don't seem to be bothering to actually enforce it, but better safe than sorry.

 

Sorry about all this, but its out of our hands. You can blame Trump.