MBC Brokers

the only thing i know about getting stuff through customs is, it’s a pain in the ass!
had a large crate incoming via slow ship from australia — had various furniture, artwork, antiques, what not, with a 4 week estimated arrival time. let me tell you, it really is complicated. it is not nearly as simple as UPS or FedEx providing tracking updates and delivering an oversized box to your door step with home or ground delivery. nope. if it has to go through customs and if it is big, with lots of different items… it’s complicated. if you can believe it, there were «department of homeland security» forms where we had to describe not only the incoming items but if i.e. it was made of wood, you had to list the genus of the wood. the what?! i didn’t even know what that was. thank you google — it means like, species origin. not only that, but whoa then there’s also this other form, that other form, ISF this and that, you have to prove your taxpayer number because california will later tax you out the wazoo with use tax. and more! then besides these forms, you also have to arrange pickup and transport of your shipment /​crate, and once again, it’s not as simple as you drive up to the ship unloading area and you throw it in your truck or tie it to your roof! so ugh. all these details and procedures and forms. all this government stuff, in the name of taxes and «security». i get it, i get it. and i’m also getting a headache from it!
anyway… that’s where mbc brokers comes in! because everything you don’t know about dealing with the details, intricacies, forms and headaches of a shipment… they do!
i was actually told upfront by the australian shipping company that i would need to get a customs broker to guide it through the system on this end. customs broker check up on Unilocal… here i come!
contacted MBC by email, and was promptly answer in a few hours back by katie. more and more emails back b/​c lots of initial details to pin down — bill of lading number, ship, origin yada yada yada!
i’ll be honest, it is a laborious and time-​consuming process — just like going to the dmv and filing income taxes are! and it’s an expensive process too. that’s the way the guhvuhment works i guess! i can’t say it’s pleasant, because lets face it – it’s not. but i’m glad that MBC and katie knew exactly what was going on and what to do. and what i can tell you is, they got my crate delivered to my door (which took a mini unloader off a flatbed truck…) and that’s exactly what i hoped they would do! ’cause i sure as hell didn’t know how to do it!!!
suffice it so say if you’re confused about customs… in utter confusion about imports… MBC will help un-​confuse you and get your stuff to you!

I would not recommend this company for several reasons:
–The did not communicate the pricing clearly, they told me their fee and the customs/​tax but once the goods arrived the bill was much higher and they had marked up the pallets and added other charges that were not agreed upon in the beginning.
–My good were held up from being release because they overnight ed the check instead of sending a wire transfer to the logistics company which ended up costing me more money in storage fees.
–They charged me for coordinating the pick up of the good and I ended up doing most of the work
–Communication was poor, when asked about overcharges it took them 2 days to respond
Lastly their attention to detail was very poor on the shipping releases the shipping company and destination were wrong and i had to request corrections on the documents.

We had bought something from China that was being ported at the Los Angeles Port.
To be honest, i had absoluetly no clue how to get my Crate out of the port and or what to do?
Thankfully i had the pleasure of dealing with Katie, which went out of her way to explain everything in detail and rested my worries.
At the end, i had my Crate out of the dock and delivered right to my door. All of this done with very great communication and step by step directions.
She took care of everything and made what looked to be such a headache, a very easy experience.
Thanks again Katie, you were awesome.

Katie was amazing! She helped us get loose cargo through customs quick, and was an absolute doll to deal with! We would definitely use this company again! (Thank you, Katie!)

MBC Brokers are the real deal. They were able to assist us through every step of our companies importing needs. Thanks for all your help Katie.