It has been a few weeks since I delivered my bike, the “Leading Ladies” to the shipping agent in LA, so a few days ago I enquired about when the bike would be back in the UK. I was told by the shipping agent there is a problem as the US Customs people in LA wanted to see the original import paperwork before they are prepared to release the bike for shipping. However, the US Customs people in New York (where the bike was imported) don’t have any paperwork because they use a totally computer based system, so the NY Customs people cannot supply the paperwork that the LA Customs people want to see. It doesn’t exist.
After lots of going forward and backwards, the customs people in LA have refused to release the bike for export back to the UK until they have the paperwork that does not exist. The only way around this is for the bike to be re-imported into LA so a paper trail can be created and the one piece of paper that satisfies the LA customs people is available.
You would think that the US customs department used a common system across the country, or at least had different systems that respected each other, but no, it seems they just make up the rules locally. In the meantime, my bike still sits in LA until the two different customs teams and the shipper can sort this mess out.
To use a common UK phrase, what a load of bollocks!
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