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Post by Peruano on Jan 1, 2021 17:01:35 GMT -5
Along with my holiday greetings I included 1 or 2 pendants or cabs with magnets to a variety of our friends both in the US and abroad. Such stones went to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, and Oz. A few days after the padded envelopes were mailed we received a Skype call from our South African friend who lives in the south of England. She was asking if we had send a very expensive gift. She had received notice from the postal folks that she had a package that was valued at 1,000 pounds which would have a duty of approximately that same amount. She had checked with her daughters in Canada, and New Zealand and ultimately concluded the package had to be from us. We confessed to having sent the package but that we had marked it as having two stones each valued at $5.00, yes for a total of $10.00 US. Apparently the UK folks missed the decimal point and interpreted the value in pounds and with all zeros counting as units. We supplied her with photos of the stones, and she went forth to the Postal Office to wage a counter argument. They did not have the authority to adjust the duty due, but agreed to send the package back to the central customs unit so that they could consider whether an error was made or not. I advised her not to pay 1000 pounds (the equivalent of $1200 USDS) for the stones and that I would make it up by getting stones to her some other way. There's still a chance she will get the stones duty free, but its likely going to take 6 weeks for the process to be finalized. Go figure, maybe my work is worth more than I thought (or admitted to).
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jan 1, 2021 17:06:24 GMT -5
That sucks. Whenever I bought any opal rough from Oz, but sellers always put "mineral specimens" on the customs form. Never had a problem with that.
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Post by Peruano on Jan 1, 2021 17:14:53 GMT -5
I have always assumed that things under $20 in value went duty free as gifts. Mineral specimens sound like a good descriptor.
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 3,793
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Post by gemfeller on Jan 1, 2021 19:04:38 GMT -5
Murphy: If anything can go wrong, it will.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jan 2, 2021 10:45:40 GMT -5
Holy smokes that really sucks! There's no better way for me to say that! It's amazing how a "clerical" error on the part of customs seemingly takes an act of Parliament to fix! It's not the first nightmare I've heard of with regards to incorrect values being placed on an import... On the other hand...way to find out the "true" value of your work!
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Post by Mel on Jan 3, 2021 14:36:18 GMT -5
Along with my holiday greetings I included 1 or 2 pendants or cabs with magnets to a variety of our friends both in the US and abroad. Such stones went to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, and Oz. A few days after the padded envelopes were mailed we received a Skype call from our South African friend who lives in the south of England. She was asking if we had send a very expensive gift. She had received notice from the postal folks that she had a package that was valued at 1,000 pounds which would have a duty of approximately that same amount. She had checked with her daughters in Canada, and New Zealand and ultimately concluded the package had to be from us. We confessed to having sent the package but that we had marked it as having two stones each valued at $5.00, yes for a total of $10.00 US. Apparently the UK folks missed the decimal point and interpreted the value in pounds and with all zeros counting as units. We supplied her with photos of the stones, and she went forth to the Postal Office to wage a counter argument. They did not have the authority to adjust the duty due, but agreed to send the package back to the central customs unit so that they could consider whether an error was made or not. I advised her not to pay 1000 pounds (the equivalent of $1200 USDS) for the stones and that I would make it up by getting stones to her some other way. There's still a chance she will get the stones duty free, but its likely going to take 6 weeks for the process to be finalized. Go figure, maybe my work is worth more than I thought (or admitted to). If you're gifting stones worth $1,000, you just let me know where to line up Sounds like it should all get sorted out, but man, what a headache for doing something very nice.
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Post by rmf on Jan 3, 2021 19:26:05 GMT -5
With all the countries around the world printing $$ out of thin air to cover covid costs and loses, maybe they need hard currency worse than we thought. I figure the US will be out robbing piggy banks soon.
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