US Customs' lousy service

Originally posted by Cougar Allen
When two government bureaus are involved there's a lot more than twice the potential for delays and screw-ups. Does anybody know exactly what paperwork is required to prove exotic leathers aren't from an endangered species? If somebody can post that information that could be helpful to a lot of us in the future.
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Key word here GOVERNMENT:barf:
 
ganjakid, the GOVERNMENT isn't a conquering army from some other country that invaded one day and it isn't aliens from another planet. The Federal, state, and local GOVERNMENT is one of the largest employers we've got. That means the people who make up the GOVERNMENT most likely include your family, friends, and neighbors.

There is excess, there is incompetence, there is complexity mandated by the interfaces among elected officials and civil service bureaucrats and contract employees. But the jobs they are supposed to be doing are jobs many or most of want done. That's why we contribute our taxes so cheerfully to support their efforts.

So look on the bright side: some day a GOVERNMENT official may stop by to help YOU. :D
 
I just have to say that Jens has been great through all of this. He's been working his tail off on his end, trying to get things straightened out. Jens has been making the right phone calls, and gathering as much information as possible. His communication since I first contacted him has been superb. He also assures me that he'll do whatever is needed to get one of his knives into my hands. It’s great to have such tremendous support from the maker. And after all this, I bet he’ll be the most knowledgeable European maker out there, as far as this whole import thing works. He’ll be the expert on getting an exotic knife into the US successfully. So, no matter how things look right now, Jens is at least gaining an extraordinary amount of knowledge for future U.S. orders. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to deal with Jens in the future. He’s a man of excellent character.

I've got another couple calls to make on my end today, to try to get things straightened out with Customs and Fish and Wildlife. We’ll see what happens.
 
It looks like everything will work out well. I talked to the import division of DHL today. They are arranging to have the knife and sheath released, and then sent back to Jens. He can then get a CITES permit, and ship the knife back. The whole deal should take 2 or 3 weeks.

Yeehah!!!!!! :) :) :)


Thanks again to Jens, and the team at DHL for going to bat for me.
 
On my job, not too long ago, we were expecting a sample of catalyst in from Italy. The catalyst was a very fine carbon powder and was coated with platinum. It was labeled as such. We received a call from Customs saying that we had to confirm that No Human Body Parts were contained in the sample. Our first reaction was to laugh. Her first reaction was to become insulted and irate. We complied and signed off on the necessary paperwork, and we got our sample. Lesson learned - Don't Laugh when Customs asks a question, no matter how bizarre it sounds to you.

Ken
 
That's okay. They asked me if there were any living animals in the box with the knife. I ALMOST said, "Not if they've been trapped in a box with a knife for a week!!!!" I just ended saying something boring like "No sir".

I'm such a wimp. :barf:
 
Christ..I better start being more carefull what i write on slips....I wrote something like:
"Knife:
Damasteel, Snakewood, lizzard.."

hahaha....man...I hope it all works out!

Thanks Buzz for taking this in a very good way and for sorting things out in you end of things!
 
Hey Ansoknives,

All you have to do is run the contents by an import broker from the destination port before you ship. They can also do the paper work so that you will not have to wait for it to be rerouted to you to be reshipped.

Import regulations change yearly, so it may pay to be prepared.

-Sundsvall
 
I have been consdering buying some knives from a company overseas and I tried to check out the Customs Service web site to see what was involved but it it like trying to understand the tax code.

I did a trade with a knifemaker in Europe. It happened to be near the time of the Guild show, and he happened to have a friend who was attending, so he gave his friend the knife to bring with her to the US, she sent it to me from the US and I sent her the trade knife to her US address, and she brought it back with her.

Not always possible, but it avoided any possible problems (thanks again, Kevin).
 
The customs code is a legal code.

Take this example:
"A fish is subject to duty rate of column one except for fishes that have contact with non-fishing territories owned by US not including Canada as provide for by article 56 of the Nafta Agreement." Or some other bs that sounds like it.

There are people who are specially trained to interpret and deal with these issues. Usually, knives don't have any problems, unless they are automatic.

Ansoknives problem was with the lizard skin sheath. A customs broker could advise on the proper declaration to minimize delay and minimize any duties.
 
Sorry about joining the discussion rather late in the day, but I don't get over here to GB&U very often and I just saw this thread.

Blues, I just wanted to say that I think you over-reacted in your posts to Buzz. You lost respect for him because he implied that government employees might be less than 100% honest? Well, I'll let you ponder this. I'm an attorney and place a high value on integrity and honesty; I feel that my reputation is my most important asset.
Should I be offended, then, when I read posts proclaiming that "lawyers suck", that "lawyers are all crooks" and the like? C'mon now, it just wouldn't be worth the time and energy, would it? I think that posts like that are basically mindless, but I don't really feel offended by them. Nor do I necessarily lose respect for the poster, depending on who he or she is and what else they have said in their post. It's hard to get upset, for example, when the poster has a legitimate gripe ands needs to vent. You were right to point out to Buzz the complexities of moving merchandise through Customs. However, I just can't see how Buzz's post could have been deemed personally offensive to you. If I identified so strongly with the Customs service, I would be more upset by the fact that, apparently, Customs employees made untrue claims to Buzz about having tried to contact him.
 
Buzz,

Here's a tip, Next time you are getting a knife from outside the country have it labled as a Camp Tool no matter what the value they won't look twice. :D
 
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