Customs Almost Gotcha
Dirty little bastards. Apparently use of an express service is more likely to generate suspicion for customs inspections in Europe. Not only does it defeat the purpose of 'on time delivery', it can be expensive. Filling out a customs declation can add significant expense. So can not fillling out the form. (WHat the hell?)
Saved only by the vicous nature my dear Tarja attacked the customs woman, my boxes were cleared and I avoided paying taxes on the duty. Whatever. A guy I was talking to said the same thing. (Not that Tarja is 'even tempered';) In Germany , customs service opened a package to make sure "no value" meant "no value"; it was just a rough draft of a sales presentation. On one document they charged about $15 customs duty plus $3.00 tax, and included 12 pages of paperwork with the invoice.
Grrr. People, be warned. Customs can be an evil thing.
Scary when you consider how easy the security clearance was to enter Scandanavia. SAS doesn't pat you down prior to boarding (randomly, like the U.S. airline carriers.) I guess they figure no one is coming up to the middle of nowhere to cause harm, so removing your shoes for the metal detector is the only check point. Except they never asked me to do that at Newark. A tad bit unsettling, but I got here, didn't I?
posted by irene @ 6/11/2002 09:02:00 AM
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