Customs and shipping Advice please

Hi,

we have found suppliers in the US, China and India for the goods we want, now comes to what should be the simple bit but seems very complex and after spending 2 hours on the phone to customs i am none the wiser. I was transferred to around 10 different people, told i was vAT exempt from one guy, had to ring another guy to confirm, but he couldn't tell us either, i then got onto the person who could give me what i'll be charged, he said that i would need to give him a 10 digit code first for each product but that i would have to google it and then ring him back (Is this a job???)!!!!!!!! surely this is not the way business is done..there has to be a simpler way...YES????

Can anyone explain or direct me to a website, with these codes and what charges i apply? and a step to step guide to costs

Also, the companies in india and china will only do FOB, so i have to arrange transport from my end. I rang cork port and they put me onto another firm and was told that these are the only crowd you can use to import goods...i rang gave my details and stil waiting 2 weeks and no response...is there a simpler way.

The US company offeres air freight...would this be more costly than sea from the US?

What are the best ways to import goods? If you get the supplier to include shipping to an irish port, am i still liable for charges at the port?...these seem simple questions i'm asking but i can't get a straight answer

I would appreciate advice from people who currently import goods from abroad as it can't be that hard to do, maybe it is but how can you do business with this level of incompetance??? Just to note we are a small business with limited resources so hiring some one to do this for us is not an option

Cheers

OK, you need to work with one of the big freight forwarders like Civa logistics or Expeditors. They can collect the goods and ship them to customs in Dublin and on to your location.
Call them and talk to them about the size of the packages you need shipped. Air Freight, Consolidated air freight and Sae freight are your options. Air Freight from the Far East is very expensive and takes 1-2 weeks (depending on the proximity of your supplier to the nearest post), Sea Freight is about one tenth of the price but takes 8-10 weeks (it can take less but work on that figure). The same cost differential between air and sea freight also applies from the USA but prices are lower and times are shorter.
A good source of info is the DHL, Civa and Expeditors website, e.g.

Apart from shipping/transport companies, also try specialists in customs advice and clearance, such as http://www.beaganslimited.com/index.html

try tel 01 8776600
They operate from Dublin Port

thansks for those websites...will check them out..nice to see other options

try Ace express we use them in our business from China Transit from the main ports is 5 weeks to Dublin.freight rates are falling very fast at the moment as there is oversupply of ships