The Magic Librarities

I have an issue that I'm looking to get help with from people more knowledgeable then myself regarding these matters.

I recently sent out two small packages to two seperate members on these forums.

I was contacted by one of these members (Switzerland) - I have not yet heard from the Italy member.

He stated that he was charged CHF55 for 60.00 USD because I put down 500 on the customs slip. I know for a fact that I put down 5.00 not 500.00 on both customs slips and I still have the originals which clearly show 5.00 on both slips. I'm going to scan these when I have access to a scanner. Right now all I have are some photos from my phone and I am unable to upload them as my computer is down for the count. (If anyone can upload these for me it would be a great help).

My questions are as follows:

Can the Italy recipient reject the package and have it sent back to me so I can then ship it back to him if he has a similar issue with his customs?

Can the Switzerland recipient challenge the charge and get his money back? Even if the . did not translate through the carbon copy 5.00 is clearly 2 digits less then 500.00.

Kinda unsure how to proceede here and a little mad because I don't know if the customs office is trying to pull something.

Any help is appreciated,

John

Posting these pics for John as he is unable to at the moment:

Thank you Mark.

Gah Customs! >:-(

Just a suggestion for next time, write 5 instead of 5.00 :)

The recipient in Italy can definitely reject the package and it will be returned to you. Return shipping can take much longer than the shipping to get over there though, since it is not a priority. I would be surprised if this guy even has the same problem though.

I don't know about the laws in Switzerland, but I would bet that once the customs fee is paid it's too late.

Not to stir up any trouble I wanted to add a picture of the envelope that arrived on my side:



The "Nachnahme"-Sticker next to the address is the tax I had to pay. and yes l0qii is right. Once paid customs in Switzerland don't really care if you paid too much.

If I didn't pay twice the amount of our trade I would never have brought this issue up.

one has not to pay the fees if so the pack goes back to the sender as an error could have really occurred.
I had that a couple of times too, but mainly due to the reason I actually did not want the fees I had it shipped back to the sender and ship it in a different manner.


I am not relay sure about this but I have heard rumours of:
With Italy though there is a problem importing Playing cards so depending on the custom guy he may not allow to import the item. Put as it seams they then do not send the cards back to the sender.
only a rumour but I think that's one of the main reasons some sellers do not ship to Italy.

pickle.69 wrote:one has not to pay the fees if so the pack goes back to the sender as an error could have really occurred.
I had that a couple of times too, but mainly due to the reason I actually did not want the fees I had it shipped back to the sender and ship it in a different manner.

Agreed but it is a bit of a "catch22". You only get to know from whom the package came once you paid and then you can't give it back... (I just knew based on the post info slip that it was from the states and since I am expecting a Beta dual at the moment getting an info about paying custom fees getting is not out of the ordinary).

Hi Members
While that's quite long time I didn't trade on the forum, my last experience was bad, because of that Customs issue, while the amount that was written was low, and sent as a gift, the Customs opened the package, and UPS/Customs estimates that it was not the right amount, so to make the story short, I needed to pay 3 times more the real value of what was inside.
I believe that all over the world, government administrations need money, so they grab it where they can. IMHO

markers wrote:Not to stir up any trouble I wanted to add a picture of the envelope that arrived on my side:



The "Nachnahme"-Sticker next to the address is the tax I had to pay. and yes l0qii is right. Once paid customs in Switzerland don't really care if you paid too much.

If I didn't pay twice the amount of our trade I would never have brought this issue up.

See this pisses me off and it's not to be directed at you Markus so please do not be offended as I think I know what happened.

I used a felt tip pen to fill out the customs slips and information on the packages.

Normally I don't have an issue with it transfering to the carbon copy.

Notice how your slip has no USA and mine does; your slip also has a very faint card and then cards written again as well as card written again in the left which is not on the original and it looks as though the 500 is traced over the orginal without the decimal point. My guess - I didn't press down hard enough and the post used ballpoint pen and tried to trace what I put down - utterly ridiculous!

I despise the USPS like no other and the troll of a mail clerk that works at the office near me. Lesson learned use a better writing instrument and don't trust USPS to do a decent job.

Markus I'm going to refund what you had to pay since it sounds like you are going to be unable to fight the charge like you can in US/CA.

I better give Simone a heads up as well.

dragsamou wrote:I believe that all over the world, government administrations need money, so they grab it where they can. IMHO

This is definitely true in the US. Rules which were never enforced in the past are now getting more strict, and costing both senders and receivers more money than ever.

Ertai's Familiar wrote: I used a felt tip pen to fill out the customs slips and information on the packages.

The old customs forms were single copy, and I always used a felt tip pen as well. These new ones are terrible. The carbon transfer is light even when using ball point pens. Note to self, check all the transfers before you mail anything or you might run into this same problem. Ridiculous.

l0qii wrote:The old customs forms were single copy, and I always used a felt tip pen as well. These new ones are terrible. The carbon transfer is light even when using ball point pens. Note to self, check all the transfers before you mail anything or you might run into this same problem. Ridiculous.

Funny you should mention this. I sent something out I think 2 weeks prior with the old slip and when I came in to send Simone and Markus's packages I saw this new slip and was like WTF?

USPS wonders why UPS and FEDEX are slamming them into the ground - crap like this would be why.

Well, I got some cards sent to me by USPS Express Mail and they somehow damaged my cards that were in toploaders. Also had a good amount of packages sent via registered mail to the US that were somehow never logged in the system. Recipent got their cards but tracking says there is no information when I try to track them. If they disputed against me I'll be screwed. Most of the time I send high value items I use FedEx only, definitely one of the best services around.

Ertai's Familiar wrote:
USPS wonders why UPS and FEDEX are slamming them into the ground - crap like this would be why.

USPS charges between $1 and $10 to send an item to Europe, from an envelope to a pound or so. Registered will add $13 or so, and Express Mail flat-rate is $30.

UPS or Fedex will be $60-100 to send to Europe. For a dozen cards or so, your choice is $3 vs $60+. You get what you pay for, but USPS is still by far the best deal around. I've lost a few items, yes, but I have heard just as many horror stories about Fedex and UPS.

I havnt had any problems with FedEx actually. Imports into my country from US using FedEx costs a little higher than what USPS Express Mail would cost, and costs ~$30 export to Europe. Costs are billed to my account. Arrives faster than Express Mail too.

My Express Mail package looked like someone just threw something extremely heavy over it, or applied a large force on the envelope. The toploader and the cards were damaged, and the Express Mail envelope arrived in a rough shape.