Forwarding Services for International Customers

If our checkout process provides carrier rate quote(s) for your country, we are able to ship directly to your address and Dive Gear Express offers guaranteed safe arrival of your order. For countries where we are unable to offer insured international shipping with guaranteed timely safe arrival, third-party package forwarding services provide an alternative.

This page explains how package forwarding services work and how they may affect tracking visibility, delivery timing, and responsibility after the shipment reaches the forwarding address.

Forwarding services allow customers outside the United States to ship purchases to a U.S. address, where the forwarder consolidates packages, arranges export, clears customs using their own broker, and manages in-country delivery. These services can simplify customs clearance and may be cost-effective for very small orders or high-weight multi-package shipments.

We do not recommend any specific forwarding service. Commonly used U.S.-based services include MyUS, Shipito, Ship7, and Stackry. Many options are available; searching for international package forwarding will identify additional providers. In some cases, using a local forwarding service in your country may offer lower cost and shorter transit times.

Forwarding services vary widely in cost, handling, guarantees, and transit time. Review their pricing structure carefully, including all fees, responsibility for loss or damage, and return handling policies. Most services require registration and will provide a U.S. address with a customer identifier to use when placing your order.

We are required to collect State of Florida sales tax when shipping to Florida addresses. We recommend using a forwarding address outside Florida (commonly Delaware, Oregon, or Washington). Some Florida-based forwarders qualify for exemption if they hold a valid DR-14 FAA Florida Certificate of Forwarding Agent Address. A copy of the certificate must be provided to Dive Gear Express, and the shipment must be sent only to the certified address (including ZIP+4) to qualify. See Florida Sales Tax Exemption for details. Note: typical small parcel consolidators do not qualify for tax refunds because they commingle shipments.

Proper address formatting is important so your package can be identified promptly. Customer account numbers or suite identifiers required by the forwarding service may be removed by address validation systems or truncated by label printers. Do not append this information to the street address. Place it on a separate line ABOVE the delivery address as shown below:

Caution: If the ship-to address is a forwarding service or commercial mail receiving agency, special delivery conditions apply. If carrier tracking shows delivery but your forwarder does not acknowledge receipt, contact them immediately and request a search. Carriers document delivery at these locations, and if their records show acceptance, claims for non-delivery will be denied. Dive Gear Express cannot assist in these cases. If the package is not located, file a claim with your forwarding service under their guarantee.

Advisory: During peak shipping periods such as holidays, there may be a delay between carrier-confirmed delivery and the forwarder recording receipt.

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.

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† 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.