Guitar from US - customs clearance time?

[Stormfly1985]

I have bought a guitar from the US and it was shipped via FedEx. It arrived at Stansted for customs clearance last Wednesday and it's not moved since

Any ideas if this is the norm or is there some other issue? I haven't had an invoice for duty from FedEx.

Thanks

[chevy55]

I think this is normal, I bought some stuff from the US and it sat in customs for about 10 days, that was with parcel force though but they were pretty quick once it cleared and I paid the VAT.

[Stormfly1985]

Cheers - that's reassuring (and annoying that it could be a longer wait still!)

[Stormfly1985]

Update - FedEx didn't have an accurate phone number so they wrote to me to pay the duty. All paid over the phone and guitar was delivered next day.

It's a 2007 Les Paul Classic Custom, in black with ebony board and gold hardware Immaculate condition and plays fantastic. Apparently it's a limited edition from that year and they only made 400.

With duty, taxes and shipping it worked out about £1750. I'll upload some pics in the main guitar thread later.

[Evangelion]

In my experience quite a lot of imported stuff goes to Coventry first.
The last time I ordered a guitar from the States, I received a card through the post to say it was in Rotherham, which for me is a fifty mile drive! (Why not Lincoln? Who knows.) I went onto the Royal Mail website to pay the VAT plus of course the dreaded handling fee, and it arrived a couple of days later.