UPS USA CUSTOMS HAS GOT ME IN THE DUMPS
GREETINGS TO ALL FROM TAIWAN! FIRST OF ALL, I JUST WANT TO SAY THIS IS AN AWESOME SITE AND I HAVE HAD SO MUCH ENJOYMENT READING POSTS BY MY FELLOW GAMERS, THANKS TO ALL. WELL, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME. LAST WEEK, I WON 4 SEALED NES GAMES FROM DOV. I WON MAGIC'S JOHNSON'S BASKETBALL FOR $6.50, SUPERSPIKE VOLLEYBALL FOR $6.50, SWORDS AND SERPENTS FOR $24.49 AND SNAKE'S REVENGE FOR $127.50. WELL, THE PACKAGE ARRIVES TODAY AND WHEN I SEE THE BOX IT HAS A BIG UPS US CUSTOMS STICKER ALL AROUND THE BOX, MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS NO BIG DEAL, BUT WAS I EVER WRONG! I OPEN UP THE BOX WITH A FAIR AMOUNT OF EXCITEMENT AS ALL OF US DO WHEN WE RECEIVE A NEW GAME IN THE MAIL AND I THEN I QUICKLY NOTICE IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE DOV'S USUAL GREAT PACKING, I START UNWRAPPING THE BUBBLE WRAP(DOV IS AN AWESOME PACKER) AND THE FIRST 3 GAMES ARE FINE, I GO FOR THE "MAIN" GAME (THAT I HAVE WANTED FOR A LONG TIME) AND TO MY HORROR IT IS 100% OPEN, THE CELLOPHANE ISN'T EVEN THERE! NEEDLESS TO SAY I WAS DEVESTATED TO MY CORE! I GUESS I NEVER KNEW THAT US CUSTOMS HAD THE AUTHORITY TO OPEN A BRAND NEW PRODUCT, BUT I DO NOW. FIRST, I HAD THE BAD LUCK OF CUSTOMS PICKING MY PACKAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEN THERE IS A 75% CHANCE THEY WILL OPEN ONE OF THOSE OTHER 3 GAMES THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE CARED ABOUT. THIS ALONG WITH BUYING RESEALS FROM LEATHER BY VINCENT AND COUNTLESS OTHER PROBLEMS THAT I HAVE ENCOUNTERED BUYING GAMES ON EBAY HAS ME FEELING LIKE IT IS TIME TO LEAVE THE HOBBY OR AT THE VERY LEAST TAKE A VERY LONG BREAK FROM IT. I AM PRETTY DOWN ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. I MUST ADD THAT I HAVE DEALT WITH MANY GREAT SELLERS THAT ARE ALSO MEMBERS HERE, LIKE RAREBUCKY,THA NOTHING,DOV,DANGEVIN,NINTENDO_GAMING,CLASSIC GAMING WAREHOUSE,BIGHEDKINGPIN, AND WORMHOLECOLLECTIBLES TO NAME A FEW. THEY ARE ALL TRUSTWORTHY AND HONEST SELLERS. I ALSO WANT TO SAY THANKS TO BRONTY FOR HIS GAMING WISDOM AND DAIN FOR RUNNING NINTENDOAGE. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS OR IF I SHOULD JUST LABEL IT AS "TOUGH LUCK". THANKS TO ALL AND HAPPY COLLECTING!
Comments
What was the declared value on the customs form ?
I go to Europe every other year and customs in all the other countries I've been too are pushovers compared to how crappy it is coming back HOME and getting back in USA. I remember coming back from Scotland with a sealed TIN of shortbread cookies as a gift for my parents. US customs made me open the gift wrap, then made me open the plastic wrap around the factory sealed cookies, then open up the tin and they took out the cookies and looked under the wrapper thingies that held the cookies in... sure wrecked that gift made it look like I was giving my parents leftovers.
Then I bought a minty cart and book Rodland from a member here in the Netherlands. It got here with one of those inspected by US customs stickers and a huge slit in the package. To my horror the book was gone and the cart was snapped in half and had small holes drilled in the sides. Game never worked. Was just brutal experience.
yes, i agree that it does suck. maybe the problem so many people are encountering is because the shipment's contents are being declared as gifts rather than more accurately categorized as collectibles.
yes, i agree that it does suck. maybe the problem so many people are encountering is because the shipment's contents are being declared as gifts rather than more accurately categorized as collectibles.
Not quite ... Mexican customs opened a sealed Quadrun for Atari 2600 because the value was declared for $400 usd and the checked the inside of the product to confirm the contents and find out about the high value of that old game.
So to answer the question of why did it reach the US if I'm shipping from Canada to Tawain? Most, if not all international shipments from North America, are sent to UPS's main facility in the US prior to it being shipped off to it's ultimate destination.
Maybe you can try to get sealed games locally instead from abroad...
Dear Customs Official,
Please understand that the contents of this package are valuable. I understand that your inspection maybe require intrusive observations. Please conduct your methods as respectfully as possible and please leave the contents in their original condition if possible. Thank you.
Sincerely, Sender.
Anyone think that would go well, or piss off the inspector??
I know how it feels, it has happend to me too.
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=3655&highlight_key=y&keyword1=tetris
My experience with UPS has always been very very bad. I've asked sellers to ship with USPS instead of UPS and paid double the shipping just because of those experiences. This is another example that makes me think I should start putting notes in the package like this:
Dear Customs Official,
Please understand that the contents of this package are valuable. I understand that your inspection maybe require intrusive observations. Please conduct your methods as respectfully as possible and please leave the contents in their original condition if possible. Thank you.
Sincerely, Sender.
Anyone think that would go well, or piss off the inspector??
I would bet for every person that would even acknowledge it is in there and be careful that there would be another guy who would just enjoy ripping through your package even more than if the note weren't in there
1) too high declared value
2) outer box was damaged
3) all\partially outgoing taiwan packages are being examined by the customs. It depends on the outgoing customs policy.
4) ups is major uber shit. And yes, it is. Most express postal services has their own standards and also much lower customs declare values then the national ones. For example in russia, you need to pay VAT for parcels with declared value over 300$. But for Fedex it's about 100$ if i'm correct..
Darksol, shipping an item from a foreign country into the US ALWAYS has to go through US customs, no matter how you ship it. Whether it's with Canada post, DHL, UPS, Fedex, etc. it always has the possibility of randomly getting stopped and checked. In this case, it was just unlucky.
After shipping over 2000 games this was the FIRST time (to my knowledge) that US customs has opened a game up. Hopefully (knock on wood) it will be the last!
Dov
So to answer the question of why did it reach the US if I'm shipping from Canada to Tawain? Most, if not all international shipments from North America, are sent to UPS's main facility in the US prior to it being shipped off to it's ultimate destination.
There's no guaranty that the game will arrive to the VGA guys unopened...