Devllin

Attaining Certificate of Origin from FCA

I sent an email to FCA explaining the duty charged without having a certificate of origin from the manufacturer and that I can get a refund with it. This was the entire response:

"unfortunately we do not provide the Certificate of Origin thanks"

Looks like we may be on our own, folks. Good luck. 

I sent this FCA response to Fidelity and they are still going to try and help me out. Fidelity has been really good with working within the boundaries they can. I also have the same certificate request into Ford... stay tuned.

COMPLIANCE LETTER UPDATE, CONCLUSION + LEARNINGS FROM HIRING A TRANSPOTATION COMPANY TO IMPORT (bonus!)

We left off with trying to get the compliance letter from FCA, with the package in regular, non-registered email (FCA wouldn't give any contacts to send registered). Canada Post noted it could take up to 10 business days to get to Michigan, so I waited 13 business days to ensure it was past that time and called FCA US to confirm if they had received it. When I called, the lady was quite confused as to why I was trying to fax and mail this in as this was definitely NOT the process. "It can all be done electronically, by email" 😡. She escalates this and within a day or two I get a call back from a gentleman who informs me that the office I was told to mail this to is not even open due to the pandemic and no one would have received the package I mailed, ever. However, he asks me to send him the documentation electronically and within a few hours of him getting all the requested documents, I received the compliance letter a few hours later by email. 

Total time from request to delivery - ~5 weeks total (~2 days after talking to the people who knew what they were doing)

WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!

TRANSPORTATION COMPANY LEARNINGS

In total we are bringing down three vehicles to the USA for "permanent" entry since we will be here longer than a year: An MDX which we bought to drove down in since we couldn't get the FCA compliance letter in time (Honda was good about the letter, FYI), the Dodge truck which is getting transported on an open trailer and a sports car getting transported in a closed trailer. I received a quote from Fidelity for the truck and car. The quote they gave was for $6,800 USD for both. Truck was $2,500, car was $3,500 + the remaining $ for the paperwork for the permanent entry. I agreed to this and at the end of our conversation they noted that "there COULD be additional duty charges that I would be responsible for". To which I didn't think much of due to NAFTA and at worse pay a few thousand in duties. Oh boy was I wrong....

A few days ago, I received an invoice from Fidelity for EIGHT THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS USD. Yes, that is right. This in ONTOP of the $6.8k I originally paid. I pretty much puked in my mouth as I really was not expecting anything else, just delivery of my vehicles. This was very confusing since we were not charged anything when we crossed with the MDX ourselves. I talked to Fidelity and it worked out like this:

Duty

I was charged duty on both vehicles ~$2.6k. Apparently customs is getting more strict and will no longer just use the VIN to identify origin of manufacturing (VIN starting with "1" is made in the USA). We need... you guessed it, a letter from the manufacture to confirm it meets the NAFTA requirements. Here we go again. So now I need to reach out to Ford and FCA to get this letter. Fidelity is going to help me to try and get back the duty charged. Some relief.

Single Entry Bonds

This is huge. Fidelity charged me $4,000 between the two vehicles for this bond. This is a non-refundable addition that Fidelity charges in the event there is some problem with the entry that, in the future, customs comes back at them with. Kind of like "insurance". It is $15/$1,000 on 3x the value of the vehicle. I asked why this wasn't on the quote if they knew it was coming, the response was something to do with fluctuating currency. Which would be miniscule relative to $8.3k and would have changed my plans. But they got me.

Transportation Summary

Some of this might not be Fidelity's issues, you might get charged this regardless of the company, but it was straight out of no where. Severe lack of transparency from Fidelity. When someone is told there could be "more charges at the border", it is not going to be anyone's assumption that it will be eight grand. Had I know this, I would have flown back and drove everything down. Lessons learned:

- If you are importing for "permanent status" you can get hit with a 120% invoice on top of the transportation costs, after the vehicle is in transport. They do not release the paperwork required to register the vehicle until this is paid. It looks like you may be able to avoid this if you drive them across yourself. But if you hire a company, you will get this applied even as a personal vehicle.

- To try and avoid duty you need the letter from manufacturer confirming location of manufacturing, VIN is not sufficient. Also, this might be avoided if you drive it down yourself.

- Ask questions about they grey charges.

Hopefully others can avoid this from my pain.

Good luck

We are re-locating to the US on a work VISA and I am going through this compliance letter process with Ford and Dodge at the same time and thought I would share the drastic differences:

Ford

Contacted my local dealership, someone gets back to me next day and says its $100. I pay the $100 the next day and the day after that I have my compliance letter. Total time from request to delivery - 3 days

Dodge

Contacted my local dealership, multiple phone transfers, finally just told that someone will get back to me. Someone gets back to me a couple days later. Says they can't help and I will need to go through FCA Canada for it, here we go...

Contact FCA Canada and after a bunch of transfers talk to someone who informs me that I will have to fax or physically mail this into Dodge US... FAX OR MAIL!! Its 2022! **I cant wait for Dodge to re-introduce tape players in their vehicles while they are at it** Anyhow, she also give me the FCA US number to see if they can help. 

I call FCA US and immediately when they discover that my truck is a Canadian VIN, he tried to send me back to FCA Canada. I slow him down and explain the situation that I was just transferred from there. He says he cant help and he will get a "document specialist" on the line. The "specialist" comes on the line and he gives a quick "bye", then I realize this lady is from FCA Canada, again. Little awkward, I explain the situation to her that I was just talking to FCA Canada and she tries to help. She again notes the fax option, so I decide to pursue this. How the hell do you fax something now days... bought an app. Go to fax, but I don't have a Dodge fax number, cant find one. Call back FCA Canada back and get 586-497-2112 as the number to fax this package to. I also try to get a 800 number as mentioned in the post above, but they won't budge. So I try the 586 fax number twice and it doesn't go through. I try calling the fax number and it just rings and rings. I call FCA Canada back and this lady tells me that they no longer accept faxes (explains the ringing and ringing, out $14 for the app...) and I will have to PHYSICALLY MAIL this package in. Fine. I go to the post office and when I get there I am informed that express mail can only be delivered with a contact name and phone number. I don't have contact info and snail mail is up to 10 business days with no confirmation that they received it. With no other option I mail it, old school style. 

These delays start putting the timing of this into question and it is becoming apparent that I will not have the Dodge letter in time for our departure to the US. The next day I call the CBP to ask how it plays out if I show up without the compliance letter. Can I still enter the US and finish the paper work when I am in the US and have received this from Dodge? Nope. Don't have all the paperwork at the time of entry, no entry.

So now I need to figure out if I can express mail this package, which again I need a name and contact number for. I call FCA Canada back to see if I can get a contact name and phone number so I can overnight this paper work. They are no help and give the generic, Googled 800 number for FCA US. I call the FCA US and they refuse to be of any help and will only give me the generic Auburn Hill address, but no contacts. So there is literally no way for me (or anyone, apparently) to express mail anything to Dodge. Total time from request to delivery - 9 days and ongoing (will probably be a month, if ever).

I am absolutely blown away this is still terrible process after years and years. This process really tarnishes the company as a whole. If this process is this inefficient and paper heavy, the company will most likely be riddled with the same inefficiencies in other groups. I am actually just going to sell my truck now and be done with Dodge/Chrysler.