I live in the US and have purchased many watches from CW. I have never had any problems with DHL or US Customs until this week.

My new CW is in lockup at a US Customs facility in Atlanta. They are requesting my social security and tax form information. Not very happy to share this information for a watch purchase.

Contacted CW but it will be next week before I receive a response. Has anyone else had this situation and what was the outcome?

Thanks, frustrated in the US.

^^^^ From CW's Website;- Duties and Taxes

Social security and tax identification numbers

Local laws sometimes mean customs officials are obliged to request your Social Security Number and/or Tax Identification numbers. Where this is required DHL will contact you directly for the information.

Seems straight forward to me; share the info or you don't get your watch.

In all honestly I don't see the issue in sharing information issued by one Government Department with a second Government Department; although you might think they'd 'talk to each other'.

Guy

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2024 12:19 am although you might think they'd 'talk to each other'.

@scampbell61 I’ve never run into this. The last time I bought a CW over the import limit was mid 2023 and I didn’t have to do this. I wouldn’t much like it either.

With the US now being CW’s largest market, I wonder if they will establish a US based corporation to get around the hassles? Maybe the forthcoming Dallas showroom has something to do with this? I have no business knowledge of how any of it works, I’m just guessing.

DO NOT give them anything.

Wait until you speak with CW. According to CW, you pay customs duties upon checkout so they take care of all the paperwork with DHL, take care of paperwork for customs, and pass on the duty you pre-paid to customs. This might just be a paperwork mix-up.

Stay out of it. Let CW figure it out.

And CW has made it clear that shipping/distribution will continue from the UK and they have no plans to setup stock in US though they will have a non-purchase showroom in Dallas coming soon.

I’ve bought one CW watch over the limit; it came via LAX and DHL to Washington and I also had to provide my tax information — I did so and got the watch a couple of days later.

I don’t imagine there’s anything CW can do about a question between DHL and US customs, but perhaps I’m mistaken.

This does not feel like a CW problem to me (nor one that they can be part of the solution of)

I thought that US social security number was a regular requirement over there in the land of the free?

I can offer only very limited and aged experience for thinking this way: shopping in Cabelas back in 2018 and I became optimistic about opening an account with them (they'd long since stopped exporting purchases to the UK) and I now had a local address I could provide. I was talking with their sales team all was positive and my hopes were rising and dashed by "May I take your US social security number sir?" No ma'am I don't have one of them but thank you for your time.

@scampbell61 , I'd be asking why your information is required.

Seems creepy that US Customs needs your SSN for purchases when the tax and duties are collected by CW. I do know that the selling platforms need to collect this info thanks for EU laws. I didn’t think Customs needs that info.

I’ve now sent quite a few watches to the US over the past six months or so (mainly using UPS) - I’ve been asked for the customer’s social security number on only a couple of occasions by UPS.

No idea what has triggered those requests for those specific watches, but it seems to have made no difference to the end customer with duty being payable on watches more than USD800 whether or not the SSN is provided.

Here’s is the thing. The manner in which this is done seems entirely arbitrary, much like some of the airport security screening is conducted. I think goods with an over $800 customs limit are pulled at random as they lack the manpower to do it for all of them. Does beg the question though if asking for a social security is that important if it isn’t required all the time? I am not saying that they don’t have the legal right to require it but I question the consistency to which it is done. In this age of increased fraud, it is understandable why people are hesitant to give out their social security numbers. Used to be your social security number was used for your drivers license number but understandably no more. I have bought over a dozen watches from Christopher Ward over the years & some of them were over the $800 limit. Not once have I been required to provide my social security number. Next time I buy one, they might. Who knows? This brings us to another issue. With inflation & rising prices for everything, wouldn’t it seem reasonable that at some point the $800 customs limit be raised to reflect that? Lastly, with the US becoming Christopher Ward’s largest market, would it not seem reasonable that the company invest in more than a U.S. based showroom in which product may be viewed but not purchased? I understand the position of Mike France in not wishing to have capital tied up in inventory. But, if your number one market is the US, then a US based servicing center would make sense. That would eliminate some of the customs headaches & substantial cost of sending watches back & forth over the pond for basic servicing. For those of us that already own CW watches it would be a relief & remove some hesitancy for those considering buying a watch. Just my thoughts for what they are worth.

Delmar

WileyECoyote wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2024 4:43 pm Here’s is the thing. The manner in which this is done seems entirely arbitrary, much like some of the airport security screening is conducted. I think goods with an over $800 customs limit are pulled at random as they lack the manpower to do it for all of them.

So…I don’t know what hubs DHL uses, but it begs the question of whether it would be more likely to be randomly pulled at some airports (e.g. Atlanta or LAX) than at others??

Random doesn’t seem quite fair.

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2024 12:19 am Local laws sometimes mean customs officials are obliged to request your Social Security Number and/or Tax Identification numbers. Where this is required DHL will contact you directly for the information.

From my perspective, if in the UK, and a private company such as DHL requested this data for the UK equivalent, say a NI Number, they wouldnt get it. They have your name, address, and NiNo, and they are away, nice way to use that data to commit fraud. It seems strange that a non-Govt. agency is authorised, or expected to collect such data.

But maybe that's okay in the US?

In the UK, I am sure we don't pay the same importance to NI numbers as the US give to SSN numbers. It's hard for us to see why SSNs are treated so carefully in the US. I know IT solutions gave to guard them.much more carefully that we guard NI Nos fir instance.

Any parcel that comes into the UK can be opened by customs, but I suspect that generally they accept the declaration and release the good for delivery with little intervention. In most cases all there is to be charged is a flat rate VAT, and no variable duty, and no further declarations required.

I am not sure how income tax declarations work in the US. In the UK we are generally trusted to pay any income tax due with a fairly modest amount of paperwork. It always seems from US films that you have to account for everything you spend, however small. Is that right? Therefore I presume the SSN helps US tax authorities track citizens tax returns in some way, so.it must be much more important.

Assuming that UK Customs and Tax service are part of the same department it's difficult to see why it's such a problem to disclose the number. I presume you need to be there.

@Caller. I'm not so sure we wouldn't give out an NI No. You have to give it to open an ISA with any financial institution, for instance. If customs needed it for import documentation I am sure we would give it without a thought really.

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2024 4:51 pm

WileyECoyote wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2024 4:43 pm Here’s is the thing. The manner in which this is done seems entirely arbitrary, much like some of the airport security screening is conducted. I think goods with an over $800 customs limit are pulled at random as they lack the manpower to do it for all of them.

So…I don’t know what hubs DHL uses, but it begs the question of whether it would be more likely to be randomly pulled at some airports (e.g. Atlanta or LAX) than at others??

Random doesn’t seem quite fair.

Steve, I can tell you two of the hubs that DHS uses for US distribution. New York City is one & Cincinnati is another as I have tracked delivery of my watches in the past. Cincinnati seems to be the main DHL hub the for Midwest region of the US. Not sure about the West Coast but LA would be the most logical guess.
US Customs & the IRS belong to entirely different, mammoth sized departments. Since 2003 in the aftermath of 911, US Customs has been part of the newly created Department of Homeland Security & is under the heading of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). With the well publicized issues of illegal immigration that has overwhelmed the system, it would seem logical that Customs would have much bigger issues than collecting social security numbers from watch buyers. In contrast, the Internal Revenue Service is part of the Department of Treasury. With enormous agencies independent of each other, there could be some disconnect. I will add that there’s a huge difference between providing your social security number to open an account with a financial institution such as a bank or investment service & giving it out to a private company like DHL! I would suspect the asking for social security numbers is done at random to instill a fear for compliance. They simply lack the resources to check everyone. Very similar to when I wheel a cart of goods out at a grocery wholesaler after checkout. They will have someone at the door to scan a few random items to guard against shoplifting but not everything. When it comes down to it, our respective governments depend on us to do the honorable thing in reporting our taxes honestly.

Delmar