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Shipping WITHOUT Insured Guaranteed Delivery

There are a few countries for which we are unable to offer insured international shipping with guaranteed timely safe arrival. If you are willing to accept the risk, Dive Gear Express may ship directly upon receipt of non-refundable payment by international wire transfer. Please consider carefully before purchase.


This page explains how non-guaranteed shipping works, when it may be offered, and how it differs from our standard guaranteed safe arrival shipping methods.

Dive Gear Express offers international shipping with guaranteed safe arrival via USPS, UPS, and DHL to most countries. For some destinations, we are unable to offer insured shipping with guaranteed timely safe arrival due to factors such as extended transit times, difficulty clearing customs without high fees or commercial brokerage, or limitations in available carriers or shipping methods.

When guaranteed service is not available, Dive Gear Express may ship directly upon receipt of non-refundable payment by international wire transfer. (We cannot accept payment from or ship to entities subject to United States Treasury Financial Sanctions.) By making non-refundable payment, you accept responsibility for: (1) transit times that may exceed one month. (2) delays or complications with customs clearance or delivery. (3) all import duties and taxes. (4) damage, pilferage, or non-delivery.

To place an order shipping to a country or using a carrier method for which safe arrival cannot be guaranteed, proceed as follows:

  1. Shop our website as normal and add your selections to your shopping cart. When complete, view cart and select "Proceed to Checkout."
  2. Select In-Store Pickup as the shipping method. This will override the shipping address and may display Florida sales tax; tax will be removed later.
  3. Select Wire Transfer as the payment method.
  4. Uncheck "My billing and shipping address are the same" and edit the address as needed.
  5. Enter the desired shipping address and preferred shipping method in the Special Instructions/Order Comments box and submit the order.

We will prepare a proforma invoice with the correct addresses and shipping cost and send it along with wire transfer instructions. Once funds are received, we will ship your order. For non-guaranteed shipments, delivery terms are CPT Destination (Incoterms 2020). Under CPT, we are responsible for packing, export documentation, and shipping costs. Risk transfers to you when the shipment is delivered to the carrier at our location. You are responsible for customs clearance, import duties and taxes, and final receipt from the carrier.

Customs Clearance for Small Parcels

International Notice: Orders shipped outside the US are subject to local import fees collected by the courier upon delivery. Please read our SCUBA Diving Equipment Import Duties and Taxes (VAT) page for detailed country by country guidelines to estimating duties and taxes.

Nothing in life is certain but death, and taxes. - Ben Franklin 1789

Purchasing low-value consumer goods for international delivery is simple. The process is not much different than purchasing online from a local merchant, but consumers unfamiliar with international transactions are sometimes not aware that their federal government may have import tariffs (duty) on goods entering from outside their country. Likewise, local governments also have their usual consumption taxes (GST) or value added taxes (VAT). They are assessed during Customs clearance and paid by the carrier as the package enters the country; then the monies are reimbursed to the courier by the package recipient upon delivery. Carriers may also include a surcharge for paying the duty and tax in advance then collecting in arrears. Import fees may be different for named individuals at a residential address than addresses containing a business name or delivered to a business address.

As a global retailer, US Dollar (USD $) prices shown on the Dive Gear Express website can not include your local tax or duty. In almost all cases, we also can not include these as part of our order transaction† because tax and duty must be determined by, and remitted in local currency directly to, your government. When purchasing locally, the duty and tax may be "invisible" to the consumer because they are included as part of the merchant's retail price, although this practice varies widely depending on the locale and product.

Dive Gear Express has already pre-paid all shipping fees. While you do not have to pay any shipping fees, international package recipients should always expect to pay import fees appropriate for your location. Please be aware that refusal to pay your government mandated duty and/or tax can ultimately prove to be very expensive. If the package is returned to us, any refund amount will be reduced by both the outbound and inbound actual shipping costs from the order. If we are unable to retrieve the package, or the return shipping costs exceed the value of the contents, then the abandoned package will be impounded by Customs of the import country resulting in a total loss and no refund.

We guarantee safe arrival of your order.

Guaranteed safe arrival means we are responsible for delivery of the undamaged order to the ship-to address. You are responsible for providing the correct address of a delivery location that is accessible, safe and secure; then collecting the order from the carrier and promptly notifying us of any discrepancies. For international orders shipped outside the US, you are also responsible for paying import fees upon delivery. Please note the special conditions for orders requesting non-guaranteed shipping, and orders shipped to package forwarding services.

† We do our best to make our international customers aware of duty and tax. We prominently display the International Notice in bold type on our Ordering Guide, Pricing & Payment and Shipping & Delivery information pages, as well on our Shopping Cart. We also include the notice in the Thank You page shown following a successful Place Order plus in the order acknowledgement e-mail.

Tek Tip Link

15 FAQ International

The short answer is YES for most countries. If our checkout process provides carrier rate quote(s) for your country, then we are able to ship to your address and Dive Gear Express guarantees safe arrival of your order, for details see Shipping & Delivery. (However, we are unable to accept payment from or ship to entities with United States Treasury Financial Sanctions.)

For countries that we are unable to ship and guarantee safe arrival, we recommend hiring a third party package forwarding service. For more information see Forwarding Services for International Customers.

Dive Gear Express IS able to ship directly to most countries for which we are unable to guarantee safe arrival, upon receipt of non-refundable order payment by international wire transfer. For further information see Non-guaranteed Shipping.

International Notice: Orders shipped outside the US are subject to local import fees collected by the courier upon delivery. Please read our SCUBA Diving Equipment Import Duties and Taxes (VAT) page for detailed country by country guidelines to estimating duties and taxes.
Our free shipping offer is not available in a few countries where there is no low cost reliable postal service carrier available, but that we do continue to offer a paid shipping option via a private carrier such as UPS and/or DHL. Frequently requested countries for which we are currently unable to guarantee timely safe arrival via other than paid carriers include (but are not limited to): Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, and Thailand. For countries that we are unable to ship and guarantee safe arrival via postal service, it may be faster and cheaper to hire a third party package forwarding service. For more information see Forwarding Services for International Customers.

Packages shipped via UPS and DHL expedited services typically take about a week, occasionally less. Delivery via USPS to any address outside the US is historically about two to four weeks, not counting any time required to clear local Customs.

However, reduced airline schedules has reduced air cargo capacity which in turn can cause unavoidable transit delays, especially in expedited and international deliveries, so the carriers have announced suspension of various service level guarantees.

International shipping is very reliable and Dive Gear Express guarantees safe arrival of your order.

Please read our SCUBA Diving Equipment Import Duties and Taxes page for detailed country by country guidelines to estimating duties and taxes.

Orders shipped outside the US are subject to local import fees that will be collected by the courier upon delivery. Please read our article titled Customs Clearance for Small Parcels for a detailed explanation of import duty and tax. Please read our SCUBA Diving Equipment Import Duties and Taxes page for detailed country by country guidelines to estimating duties and taxes.

When preparing the documentation required for Customs clearance we are careful to accurately describe the nature, value, and contents of the shipment. Our long experience is that Customs agents are thorough when inspecting our shipments and providing anything other than an accurate description would likely result in a substantial delay and penalty. Keep in mind that Dive Gear Express guarantees safe arrival for all our packages and we would not want to do anything to put that guarantee at risk.

For our export of your order we are now required to enter descriptions using the Harmonized System of nomenclature. The HS number we must enter from our end is 9506.29 which is titled "Water-sport Equipment, Other", and that is sub-category of "Sporting Goods".

The classification for your order upon import is determined by your local Customs agents, also using the HS system. There is no guarantee local Customs agents will use the same HS number, although they usually don't question the 9506.29 export code. In most countries, you can appeal their HS classification of your order if you feel it is inaccurate.

Signature is almost always required for international shipping, but packages might deliver without signature required when no duties or taxes are due. Packages shipped with DHL can be delivered without signature required if you have made prior payment arrangements via DHL On Demand™.

If you see DHL as an option for your country in our shopping cart shipping estimator, but you do not see DHL expedited shipping as an option during checkout once you enter your actual ship to address, the issue is likely the precise format of your international address. The DHL online calculator used to determine exact DHL shipping prices is somewhat restrictive about allowing local variations or omissions in the ship to address. DHL is particularly troublesome about requiring postal codes and territory names, even when they are not widely used locally but do exist. You can Contact Us, mention the full address you wish to use and we will communicate with DHL to determine exactly how they want your address formatted.

In some cases, one or two carriers might appear as shipping options but all three of our carriers (USPS, UPS, and DHL) may not appear as a guaranteed international shipping option. This is based on our consistent loss experiences when shipping via specific carriers to a few specific countries where once the package enters customs and/or the carrier local offices it has disappeared or remained undelivered without recourse.

Frequently requested countries for which we are unable to guarantee timely safe arrival via some carriers include (but are not limited to): Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Portugal and Thailand. For countries that we are unable to ship and guarantee safe arrival via your preferred carrier, we recommend hiring a third party package forwarding service. For more information see Forwarding Services for International Customers.

Dive Gear Express IS able to ship directly to most countries for which we are unable to guarantee safe arrival, upon receipt of non-refundable order payment by international wire transfer. For further information see Non-guaranteed Shipping.

International Notice: Orders shipped outside the US are subject to local import fees collected by the courier upon delivery. Please read our SCUBA Diving Equipment Import Duties and Taxes (VAT) page for detailed country by country guidelines to estimating duties and taxes.

A low weight or inexpensive order may be affected by what is known as the first pound, last mile distribution logistics of parcel carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL. Due to the industry switch to dimensional weight pricing, the minimum price to ship an empty box or one that weighs a few pounds can be surprisingly similar and even more so for packages with expedited customs clearance fees or remote destination surcharges. Keep in mind that minimum fees and surcharges can be disproportionate to the value of the order, so consider carefully before ordering low value goods with expedited shipping. The shipping price can be most painful when greater than the price of the item being shipped!

When you need one or two relatively inexpensive low weight items, the best strategy is to find some other items on our website that you or a dive buddy can also use. Combine those with your order so that the cost to ship the small item you wanted becomes insignificant. Keep in mind that once you reach a minimum order value that depends on the destination, Super Saver shipping for most orders is FREE.

Origin documentation requirements are fulfilled with a U.S. International Customs Form together with our retail invoice. Both are included with every international shipment from Dive Gear Express and both clearly document "Country of Origin: USA".

On very rare occasions, some local officials (notably in South Korea and some Middle Eastern countries) may still request a signed Certificate of Origin. A CoO is associated with wholesale export of containerized bulk goods, not small retail parcels. We are not authorized to issue a formal CoO, but upon request we can e-mail a signed copy of our invoice for your shipment with a bold red stamp "Country of Origin: USA". In our experience the stamped and signed invoice copy has always been accepted as a substitute for a formal Certificate of Origin.

Yes, your order will ship with a certified true and correct itemized invoice that lists any paid shipping charges separately. When you take advantage of our free shipping option, then shipping terms are DAP destination (Incoterms 2020) and no shipping charge is reflected on the invoice. For orders with free shipping, upon request we can provide an pro forma invoice that lists our actual shipping cost together with equal discount line items such that the total value of the invoice remains unchanged.

We have three carriers we can use for delivery to Canada: US Postal Service (USPS) plus UPS and DHL. USPS (delivered via Canadian Post) is slow, but has a modest CAD $9.95 clearance fee. Our Canadian customers tell us both UPS and DHL, while very fast sometimes also have objectionable clearance fees. Normally, we prefer to ship to Canada via USPS, but international shipments via USPS have recently been experiencing very long transit time delays and so we recommend avoiding USPS to Canada as the lesser of the evils. DHL has recently been unreliable in Canada as the result of a labor dispute. This means UPS is currently the only reliable and timely carrier for international delivery to Canada.

Clearance fees can be egregious on small orders, so Canadian customers may wish to consider self-clearing.

Regardless, you are responsible for Canadian Taxes applicable at the delivery address. Although the carriers are required by Canadian law to contact the addressee either by telephone or letter regarding the disposition of taxes, our customers tell us sometimes they are NOT receiving any contact. If the addressee is not proactive about settling taxes, the package may simply fail to deliver and eventually automatically return to us.

We strongly recommend monitoring your package using the tracking number we send you when we ship your order and once it clears customs then use the appropriate Canada Post, UPS My Choice, or DHL On Demand website to make payment online ahead of delivery.

Shipping to Mexico has historically proven to be unreliable. Because Dive Gear Express guarantees safe arrival of your order, for many years we would not ship via any carrier to addresses in Mexico even though there was significant demand. In late 2024 as a trial we lifted the restriction on shipping to Mexico for all three of the carriers we use (USPS, UPS, and DHL).

USPS proved almost immediately to be unreliable and we quickly restored the restriction on USPS. Eventually too many packages via DHL snagged in bureaucratic "red tape" and after consistently having delivery problems with DHL to Mexico we again restored the restriction on DHL in March 2025. Currently, the only remaining carrier for which we are able guarantee safe arrival is UPS. The cost of shipping to Mexico via UPS is relatively expensive and we recommend hiring a third party package forwarding service. For more information see Forwarding Services for International Customers.