I've got a one-time drawback claim to file (duty over $10,000 on non-conforming goods), and the broker who handled the original import doesn't do drawback at all. Everyone else I've called either wants a bigger claim than mine or only takes clients they already work with regularly. I can fill out most of the paperwork myself; it's only a handful of SKUs. Is a claim this size just not worth anyone's time, or am I looking for the wrong kind of firm? I'd rather understand that than keep getting turned down without knowing why.
To mark the difference: what you are describing as drawback would be repayment or remission under our own customs code, and the economics are identical. A specialist takes on multi-year exposure to a customs audit in exchange for a fee, and a claim this size does not clear that bar for anyone doing it professionally, on either side of the Atlantic. The size of the duty at stake is not what determines whether it is worth doing: the years of standing obligation afterward is.
$10,000 is not a mid-sized claim. In drawback terms that is barely one line item on a normal case. Not a knock on you; it explains the reception you're getting. Before anyone starts building a claim, they need drawback-specific software and their own account set up with CBP's system just to pull your entry history. That overhead does not scale down for a small claim, which is exactly why the size of the duty owed is not what decides who will take the work.
There are two obligations here, not one. The claim itself is straightforward, if it is really only a few SKUs. What filing it commits you to afterward is not: a compliance obligation running years past the filing, during which the underlying entries can still be reviewed. Anyone quoting you a fee is pricing that tail, not the paperwork. And if you have not exported yet, get an application on file first. Without it, you are not looking at a quick refund but at ordinary liquidation, years off.
Here's what matters operationally: if this is already exported, stop looking for someone to file it. Nobody wants a one-off relationship where they inherit years of exposure for a single small refund, and chasing one down costs more time than the duty back is worth. If it has not shipped yet, you are asking the wrong question: the filing is the easy half. The desk review that can land on it years later, addressed to whatever email your company still answers, decides whether this was worth it.
That's fair, and it changes what I'm asking. I've got the inventory and haven't exported yet, so the real decision looks like whether to file the application now, before anything moves, rather than shop this around as a small job afterward. Is that the right way to think about it: application in first so the obligation starts on my terms, then work out who does the filing? I'd rather get the order right than keep asking people to quote a job I'm framing wrong.
Thank you for narrowing the question, Hana. On your point, filing an application first does not by itself fix the obligation on your terms. For non-conforming goods, what usually decides the claim is a separate notice to Customs before the merchandise actually leaves, giving them the chance to examine it if they wish. An account or software set up in advance does not stand in for that notice. I do not know the exact form your side wants or how far ahead it must go in, and would rather say so than guess. As a parallel only, not your law, at Nhava Sheva the drawback claim lives inside the shipping bill itself, declared at export, and no earlier application repairs one that missed it. Wishing your claim a clean passage.
