[JerryBurks]

I ordered 3 Chinese ball screws/nuts on eBay from China (complete with bearings and blocks).

The seller just declared them to be "Bearings" which seem to have some very specific customs rules. Now they are stuck and I have to fill in a bunch of forms for Fedex including the specific type of bearing, seller physical address (no idea), bearing manufacturer (no idea), and a homeland security form with my social security number and other detail. They did not ask for my food preferences and sexual orientation, though.

Is that normal? That should kill the whole China business on eBay....

[Connor]

No. It's not normal. Who was the seller?

[JerryBurks]

No. It's not normal. Who was the seller?

Somebody with the smart name of "jamesbondtb". But I ordered other things in China with eBay from sellers with worse names like "LoveHappyShopping".

If that gets all too complicated I will have customs reject the import and try to get my money back. But it was a pretty good price at $100 for a 650mm long 1605 screw/ballnut with helical coupler, bearings and bearing blocks.

[neilw20]

Did you use paypal? or similar with buyer protection.

[coherent]

hmmm something doesn't sound right. I ordered screws/bearings from China a while back and had no issues. They came from Shanghai I think and took a bit timewise, but no forms etc for me. I've also ordered bearings for my metal bandsaw and a number of other items from China/Ebay without issues... my guess is either seller doesn't know what he's doing or didn't fill out the forms on their end properly. Good luck!

[JerryBurks]

Did you use paypal? or similar with buyer protection.

Yes I did. In the meantime the seller provided me the information for the manufacturer and I will submit that to customs with more detail about the merchandise.
But I am not going to give them my social security number on the homeland security form. Who knows who is going to handle that between FedEx and Customs.

If that is not good enough, well, then it is going back and I will see if the eBay money-back guarantee is worth anything.
I don't know what may have triggered that except the incomplete and illegible customs declaration. But in the future I will try to order such stuff from domestic sellers. Just not worth the trouble.

[Dylwad]

I had the same thing happen twice with UPS and bearings from China marked as bearings. Some things we import do get taxed. They should start marking them as leadscrews.

The fees were around 10%of the marked value. UPS was kind enough to pay the tax for me and send me a bill including a fee for paying the tax and sending the bill...

[JerryBurks]

Update....
I filled in the Customs forms and sent them back to FedEx (without my SSN). Sure enough it was insufficient and they asked me to do it again (maybe they did not like my snide remarks on an official government form).
I was almost ready to give up but then the package is dropped off on my door step today without further notice or request for my signature . Maybe is was not held up in Customs after all.

Don't know what to think about that but I will just ignore further communication about this from FedEx and start detail design of my new machine.

At least the screws are straight and they shipped it even with 6 helical couplers instead of the required 3. Pretty good deal for 100 bucks each set including the bearings and blocks.
The ball screw feels smooth but very tight. There is no discernible backlash, I am wondering if the ball nuts are somehow pre-loaded or filled with matched balls.

[nlancaster]

Jerry, good to hear on getting them.

Who was the seller? I am looking into a small machine with some IKO LWES rails I received for a killer price. I will want to go ballscrew on it.

[JerryBurks]

.....Who was the seller? ......

This guy

These are medium length screws (650mm total, about 540mm stroke). He was fast to turn the order, including "free" shipping less than 2 weeks. But he should learn to declare the parts properly for Customs (NOT "bearings") and to include a legible commercial invoice.

I have also ordered a shorter 350mm one from a domestic seller (obviously also Chinese origin). That was $54 with shipping but does not include the bearings, blocks and couplers.