2006-06-07
Customs and Federal Express Oh My
OK ... I realize people need to be careful, and I realize that, in this day and age, countries want to know what is coming and going.BUT
Can I just say,
I have spent the better part of the day trying to ship a box of books and a couple of school T-Shirts to some students who will be joining us this Fall.
Fed-Ex returned the package because it didn't have a declared value and needed descriptions other than "books".
OK ... that's fair enough. I forgot the value.
Just in case, I called the International Fed Ex Rep. She explained the whole "Invoice" thing, and proceeded to tell me that for books, I have to list each title, author, where it was published, what it was about, and the value.
What it was about???
You have got to be kidding me.
Do I LOOK like a book reviewer? To review books for U.S. Customs?
So, she sends me copies of the form to fill out. Nowhere on there does it SAY to write a review, so I just put the titles and authors and whether it was a paperback or hardbound, and the price in USD.
For the shirts, however, they wanted to know the composition (down to % of each fiber) and if it was sewn (as opposed to what? glued? stapled? duct taped?), and country of origin and all that happy horsefeather stuff.
I dutifully filled it all out (no pun intended there) and it will have to do. If it still isn't enough, they can pick up their books when they get here.
Now on to the next package.
This one was for hissandtell, and was three pair of earrings and a necklace, in satin bags. You know, I just kinda wrote "beads, wire glass and satin bags" and with any luck it won't cost me my left eye to send the damn things.
And you know the part that just killed me?
After going through all that the Rep tells me that the reason they want to have all this there is so they only have to look at the paperwork and not open all the packages.
***BLINK***
OK ... we're so paranoid that we want the shipper to detail EVERYTHING ... but we're gonna trust they aren't lying?
*Buries her face in her hands and just whimpers*
Ah well time to call it a day. My head hurts.
Mitakuye Oyasin
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