goods seized by customs

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BettyRedondo

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Jul 18, 2008
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Bournemouth England
Ted, you can buy anything from abroad as long as it is legal. If it has been labelled as 200 cigs you will have to pay duty on 200 cigs, as far as I know. I expect you could argue your case with them or just pay the duty, the choice would be yours. This however is not a good situation, I assume it is from heavens gifts and he normally puts item is childs toy/gift on the package?
 

BettyRedondo

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Jul 18, 2008
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Bournemouth England
I think that you will have to fill in the form and argue your case, that it contains no tobacco. I just looked up importation of cigarettes into uk and it states that you cannot import them unless correctly labelled, otherwise will be destroyed. I know if you personally bring them through customs the duty is about £30.00 on 200 fags. It maybe worth contacting smokester or pillbox to see what they say to customs as they import all the time? This is worrying though perhaps they are now actively looking for imported e-smoking stuff, not a good day for you or any of us :(
 

ApOsTle51

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Aug 29, 2008
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UK
is there not a phone number on the form you can try to contact them on . I'm sure thay cant label them as tobacco products when there are clearly not.
They have probably just seen the word 'NICOTINE' on the cartridges or 'e-cigarette' on the cigar box and wrongly jumped to an incorrect conclusion.
Ignorance is a bad thing.

Saying that of course , if customs have seized them then Duty is owed as anything that is imported is subject to duty.
therefore they probably have no idea what to class the cigar carts as and just used cigarettes as the closest comparison.
 
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trog100

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May 23, 2008
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customs are a law unto themselves dude.. it could be an "official" attempt at a backdoor ban on e-cigs.. their policy is simple.. seize the goods and make u get em back..

they have seen the word cigar.. the rest is pretty simple.. they consider it legally your responsibility to make sure the goods are correctly labeled..

technically if the goods are not correctly labeled the import is not legal.. i think u have been very unlucky but who knows.. i wouldnt place too high odds on u getting them back.. in my view customs do as they like and wait for court action to make em change their policy.. in some ways they are the law..

the only thing i have ever "lost in the post" was a bling and fifty carts from HG.. mine just went missing.. it tracked on the airplane and then disappeared..

trog
 

vafvaf

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Mar 31, 2008
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What would the import duty be on £40 worth of goods ? £15 ish ?

for tobacco products they can go up to 74%, thats why i suggest to try to make a statement about wrong labeling and maybe give a description of ecig as an imitation etc...but at the end it will depend from the mood of person on duty ;-(
 

trog100

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May 23, 2008
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they are legal.. if u read the small print on HG it pretty much over-states what happens at your end is not covered by them..

its the down side with buying from china.. the plus side is cheap.. wayne covered my loss but it was tracked as "lost in the post" not seized by customs..

your case is different i would tell them its not arrived and see what happens..

i always split my orders into smaller lots.. this costs more in postage but spreads the risk and lessens the chance of a customs hit.. a small scruffy jiffy bag is way more likely to come straight thru than a bigger parcel..

express postage is also more likely to get hit than normal airmail.

the problem with yours is a ruyan cigar is expensive or should be.. its perfect for them to hit..

my only customs hit was a big 200 quid pipe order shipped with TNT.. they delivered the goods then sent me bill for £100.. i whinged but still ended up paying 60 quid..

your case is different but mostly we win.. sometimes the odd unlucky bugger loses.. it aint a perfect world and u have been bloody unlucky.. put it down to experience and move on it if dont turn out in yer favour..

learn from yer lesson and try and make f-cking sure it dont happen again..

what the customs see.. an expensive 300 dollar ruyan item.. miss-labeled as a cheap gift.. u are fiddling em.. and from their point of view they are right.. u are trying to put one over on em.. he he

i do it on a regular basis.. mostly i succeed.. he he..

trog
 
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ned Zeppelin

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Jul 24, 2008
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uk
What would the import duty be on £40 worth of goods ? £15 ish ?

I reckon it's got pulled because of either the weight, and shape, but feel of the package itself and we all know how crappy the Chinese packaging is regarding their quality of boxes which amazes me as they can invent all these gadgets and can't manufacture good cardboard packaging.


The last L. T. delivery did get delivered straight away and not pulled but about a week later I received a bill from TNT for nearly £30. The value of the goods on the packaging L. T. had stated was $80 so I reckon you'll probably be paying roughly the same as what I did but who knows.


I also received two other packages from different manufacturers in China each costing me around $600 each parcel and each parcel stated from the manufacturer the value was five dollars each parcel .so I was lucky with these
 

trog100

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May 23, 2008
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TNT act as an agent for the customs.. they charge a fee to cover their time.. it seems to be a percentage of the overall duty.. the bottom line is they only bother if they think the fee is gonna cover their collection costs..

there are thousand of chinese mis-labeled parcels arriving.. they certainly dont check them all.. they cant.. putting myself in their place as i often do... big expensive looking parcels i would go for.. cheap looking jiffy bags i would let pass.. i would use my time in the most cost effective way..

i assume customs agents do the same.. they are too under-manned to do the job as it in theory (and by law) it should be done..

i love the cheap looking DX packaging.. it saves me a bloody fortune.. and lets me sneak in things i perhaps shouldnt be sneakingm in.. he he he

quite clearly none of my DX packets go anywhere near customs.. this suits me fine.. the joys of free DX postage.. tons of little cheap packets.. all duty free.. he he he

i order six items its six different packets.. never one big one.. the joys of free postage.. i love it..

trog

ps.. and as my friendly postie lady tells me.. its helps keep her in a job.. she quite likes delivering all my little yellow parcels..
 
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TropicalBob

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Jan 13, 2008
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Port Charlotte, FL USA
Been this round in the U.S. It begins with a lie. About contents. About worth of contents. No lie, no problem. Your contents are legal, after all.

Imagine you're a cop who has scanned "wanted" posters. As you walk the streets, you might miss that robbery suspect, but another face might ring a bell. That's customs. They have lists of known liars for imports and they're wising up. The "gift" crap of yesterday is about to become history. If the shipper is known for falsifying labeling, customs will seize the package.

It's really not your fault. You didn't ask a company to lie. They did it "to save you money." It will cost you money in the long run.

Now you have no choice but to jump through whatever hoops are put in front of you. I experienced a month of hoop-jumping and Customs learned that E-Cig is a lying company. Your country might now have "Heaven's Gifts" on its liars list.

You'll likely get your parcel. You'll likely get a bill too. In the future, do as Trog suggests: order small and ship via mail, never "express".
 

DeviLFisH

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ECF Veteran
Jul 5, 2008
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Been this round in the U.S. It begins with a lie. About contents. About worth of contents. No lie, no problem. Your contents are legal, after all.

Imagine you're a cop who has scanned "wanted" posters. As you walk the streets, you might miss that robbery suspect, but another face might ring a bell. That's customs. They have lists of known liars for imports and they're wising up. The "gift" crap of yesterday is about to become history. If the shipper is known for falsifying labeling, customs will seize the package.

It's really not your fault. You didn't ask a company to lie. They did it "to save you money." It will cost you money in the long run.

Now you have no choice but to jump through whatever hoops are put in front of you. I experienced a month of hoop-jumping and Customs learned that E-Cig is a lying company. Your country might now have "Heaven's Gifts" on its liars list.

You'll likely get your parcel. You'll likely get a bill too. In the future, do as Trog suggests: order small and ship via mail, never "express".

true maybe , last time order from heaven gift , wayne have no problem sent to me in singapore , three orders come and very smooth with sg customs and yup stated as usual as gift and price is low , just wrap in small plastics package.

the last order he got mention to me don;t order two kits cos the package will be big and will get caught , I instruct him don;t included those boxes of the kits and carts .and he did it nicely put in ziplock bag
and pass throught smoothly sg customs.

recently I told me want to order a bling , but he told me he stop shipping to singapore because recently got two cases of package been cosifcated at sg customs.

I feel curious janty can pass throught sg customs :pI check the janty package they same stated as gift than label electronics stuffs + accessories..

maybe using TNT is more safer?

or maybe recent china milk cases?

the customs more strict on package from china?
 
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