Terms & Conditions of Service 2007

Liberty International, Inc & International Delivery Service

Payment Terms & Conditions - Unless credit terms have been offered by Liberty to your company in writing, our invoices are payable upon receipt (as noted thereon).  It is very important that any questions or discrepancies are communicated to your Liberty representative immediately upon receipt of our invoice and that you carefully review the Customs entry copy provided in our invoicing backup.   Any changes to your Customs entry must be made within 10 business days of cargo clearance so we must receive notification of changes at least 8 - 9 business days after clearance date.   After the 10 day window has passed, the entry must be "protested" through a lengthy, fixed process managed by Customs if corrections are required.  As you know, duties are due and payable to Customs 10 business days after release of your shipment.  Should payment not be made, Customs issues liquidated damages/fines against the importer of record.  You, as the importer of record, have the obligation to insure your Customs entries are correct and duty payment is made in a timely fashion. CBP requires us to advise you of the following on a yearly basis:   

“If you are the importer of record, payment to the broker will not relieve you of liability for Customs charges (duties, taxes, or other debts owed Customs) in the event the charges are not paid by the broker.  Therefore, if you pay by check, Customs charges may be paid with a separate check payable to "Bureau of Customs & Border Protection” which will be delivered to Customs by the broker. "

Duty payments may also be made by the importer via ACH (electronic funds transfer) or PMS (Periodic Monthly Statement - monthly settlement of duties with CBP).  Please contact your Liberty representative for additional information regarding these programs.

Invoicing & Credit Memo Processing - Should it become necessary for Liberty to issue a credit memo against a particular shipment, it will be mailed to your company along with a clear explanation of the reason for the credit (to be noted in the remarks section of our invoice).  Our financial services group will track all credit memos to be sure they are properly deducted or applied and will periodically notify you of any unused credits. 

International transactions are complicated and offer unique challenges in the billing process.  We are implementing process changes to help eliminate additional bills and credits whenever possible.  We also ask that your accounts payable staff confirm credits have not been previously deducted before including them in a future payment.  Please take the time to update us whenever your billing contact or accounts payable contact information changes to insure proper communication.

Cargo Insurance & Claims Processing - All of our clients are strongly encouraged to secure their own marine insurance policy to cover all air and ocean cargo for which they have an ownership interest during transport.  Airlines, steamship lines and trucking companies have very limited liability in the event of cargo loss or damage and will not accept claims for transport delays.  An importer's only recourse, outside of these limits, is through their own cargo insurance policy.  If you are not currently insuring your shipments, please contact your Liberty representative for a referral or a quotation.

Please note that, according to all airline, steamship line and trucker terms and conditions, claims against cargo loss or damage, regardless of liability and/or insurance coverage, will not be processed by the carrier until full payment is made for transport services.  In these cases your Liberty or International Delivery Service invoice, therefore, must be paid in full before the formal claim is made.  

Strict time limits apply to the filing of preliminary and formal claims for all modes of transport.  Please contact your Liberty representative for details regarding those timelines and notify us immediately of any loss or damage related to your cargo.