How I got busted by Customs and got out of it alive

[Adeodatus]

Some of you are aware of this story already since it was going on for a couple of weeks now...

In short I've purchased a couple of watches from a trusted dealer a few weeks ago. All went smooth as usual with TDs and I was excited to drool over my watches, in person.

In my country we recently were given a huge deduction in customs taxes for imported goods and I was really excited that I will not have to pay more on the package upon arrival. I received the watches a few days after I placed the order, but to my amazement they contacted me asking to pay some extras in order to release the package. It was alarming, but I went to post office to see what it was all about. They told me I had a package on my name and I have to pay taxes to release it. Knowing our TDs and their shipping practices I was confident in that package, paid the tax and received the package. To my surprise, the watches were wrapped in a simple air cap, with slip stating "watches" and the price of $400. That meant that I had to pay around 100$ in taxes, almost a price of a decent Explorer 1. Not a biggy, but you can imagine how p!ssed I was. How hard could it be to staff the watches in a usual "package" and slap a 20$ value on it? Also I felt that the whole situation was pretty dangerous, but since the package was released I didn't pay too much attention to.

I contacted the TD expressing my disappointment a few days later, but nothing more than that. At first he denied everything and said that my customs are "playing games" with me and he never wrote "watches" nor the sum on the slip. But it was definitely his mistake, because the slip was in a sealed envelope, same ink, same hand writing etc. A few emails later he offered me a free shipping on my next purchase (Like I'd ever buy from him again....!)

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. A few days later I got a phone call from a guy, who introduced himself as a customs officer, saying that they have information that I had received a package with counterfeit goods and that they have it recorded and have my signature on the slip etc. Obviously I told him to go to hell, denied everything, even him being a customs officer, me being me, existence of god and earth being round . He hang up, but a few days later I got a formal letter stating all the facts, our conversation etc. Pretty sneaky of them

At that point I contacted my lawyer to figure this out and luckily just now I got a call from her and this matter is settled, mainly due to me being able to present an invoice of purchasing toys, not watches. Unfortunately, in any case, I'm on the radar now and my lawyer said that I'll will need to keep low profile for now and avoid purchasing reps for a while.

The reason I'm posting this is to try to alarm good people of this forum and especially noobies of dangers of this hobby and remind that not everything runs smoothly all the time. I will not publicly reveal the TD's identity, because it's irrelevant to the moral of this story:

1. Learn your local customs laws and act accordingly.

2. Always specify how you want your watches to be delivered and verify that appropriate actions are taken. Never trust a TD to follow your request, always verify.

3. Always have your invoices handy and make sure that it's for any item except for "watches"

4. NEVER admit anything.

5. Have your lawyer handy.

Happy buying.

EDIT: Note that the reason for Customs to open the package was due to its high(er) value.

Edited April 14, 2012 by Adeodatus

[rogerthat]

That's crazy!

Glad it seems to be over

What country are we talking about here?

[Watchmeister]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. If you were in the U,S, you can expect an anal probe every time you go through customs. Are you in the EU?

[asciwhite]

I am happy I live in Norway where no fucks are given *KNOCK ON WOOD*

[gran]

Newer admit anything now that is good advice

[Ronin]

Since one of the goals of this forum is to help members avoid such problems, it is my opinion that;

1.) You should share what TD this is. This is also why each TD has a reviews section. It is relevant.

2.) What country are we talking about?*

*note to all members-- it is very helpful if you update your profile with some semblance of your geographic whereabouts. I am not suggesting you post any geographic info that makes you uncomfotable. Feel free to be generic (i.e. CONUS, USA, EU, etc.). This not only helps with threads like these but in the FS section. Thanks.

[asciwhite]

+1 on Ronins post!!

[garrincha]

Adeodatus, what country are you from?

[spooky driver]

France?

[Adeodatus]

Sorry guys due to obvious reasons I like to keep my location sealed for now. Lawyer says keep it low.

You are right Ronin, the TD's name maybe important but I wouldn't want this thread to turn into witch hunt. The TD has made a mistake and tried to avoid taking the responsibility for it, but on the other hand this could have happened with any TD. When this whole ordeal started, i have informed an admin team member, so they have yhe tds name on record. If you feel that you absolutely need to know, pm me.

[ExtraExtra]

So the TD has been in business for many years and yet the package was a simple air cap and declared amount of $400? Wtf!? This is not acceptable. Its basically a red flag invitation for customs...and you went through the whole trouble...got a lawyer and now in the customs radar and yet the TD identity is still protected? Come on.

[duke1973]

I personally feel it's VERY important for you to let us know the dealer! Because of his careless mistake (aside the fact he LIED and tried to deny it!) he just basically screwed you from buying ANY rep from ANY dealer for a long while! If any dealer just screwed me to where I couldn't buy ANY reps because of his bull$hit mistake I damn sure would wouldn't want it to happen to any other member!

I have a passion (read addiction) and I buy about one to two watches a week from our beloved TD's here and elsewhere. If this would happen to me and I couldn't buy any watches for a few months I would be out for blood! Well, that's a little harsh but you get my point. Not only did he LIE, cost you excessive customs fees, try to deny the mistake, ultimately he stopped you from buying ANY reps from ANY dealer for the foreseeable future!

Do us all a favor and save this from happening to us.......

[triplehd]

Maybe, when purchasing and depending on what country you are from, the buyer needs to present clear instructions to the TD on what to say is in the package (i.e. toy, camera part, etc.) and value.

Thoughts?

[ExtraExtra]

Maybe, when purchasing and depending on what country you are from, the buyer needs to present clear instructions to the TD on what to say is in the package (i.e. toy, camera part, etc.) and value.

Thoughts?

That would make sense for a complete noob and have not done this before.....but a TD selling reps for many years....its not his first dance....

[Tom Hawkes]

No word on what TD was used or what country we are speaking of..? This thread is useless..

OP made 570 posts in 4 months but wants to keep a low profile by not saying what country he's from.

Edited April 15, 2012 by Tom Hawkes

[cougar1]

I think I know your TD ade, don't worry no names; but I can't understand why they would put 'watches' and a high value on the package. I've bought from this TD before and it always comes with 'novelty items' and 'accessories' on the pack with a low value, without even asking for it...what the hell was the dealer thinking in this case? I'm wondering now is there a certain rule for certain countries or locations and another for others??

Sorry to hear about this, it would sincerely [censored] me off also!

[nlnlnlnene]

What kind of TD does this?

[browngo1]

OP only registered 4 months ago. Just wondering if it really IS one of our TD's he's been dealing with, or has he bought from a "cloned" site??

[rsea]

Name and shame

[Adeodatus]

Just to ease some concerns here, I'm not from US nor EU, as the matter of fact I don't believe the are any fellow countryman here, not active ones afaik, but I'll leave it as that.

@Tom and all the other neysayers: I've been a member of this site for 4 months and posted regularly, some useful posts and some total bs just for fun. Pardon me for being prolific and loving this place. Being 4 months on a forum doesn't make me an idiot, I know who I buy from and know how this "business" works. If you find this thread useless your are more than welcome to move along, I'm sure you can find other useful threads here. The sole purpose of my original post was to warn members and allow everyone to learn from my bad experience about dealing with dealers, not to start a witch hunt on any one of them. As I said earlier, if you are interested I'm more than willing to share information with anyone via PM, just as I shared it with one of the Admin team members, when this saga has started a few weeks ago.

@cougar Yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was as if "Note to Customs:Suspicious Package" written with big red bold letters all over it. :sigh:

[wat44]

Very useful information....

[ExtraExtra]

Just to ease some concerns here, I'm not from US nor EU, as the matter of fact I don't believe the are any fellow countryman here, not active ones afaik, but I'll leave it as that.

@Tom and all the other neysayers: I've been a member of this site for 4 months and posted regularly, some useful posts and some total bs just for fun. Pardon me for being prolific and loving this place. Being 4 months on a forum doesn't make me an idiot, I know who I buy from and know how this "business" works. If you find this thread useless your are more than welcome to move along, I'm sure you can find other useful threads here. The sole purpose of my original post was to warn members and allow everyone to learn from my bad experience about dealing with dealers, not to start a witch hunt on any one of them. As I said earlier, if you are interested I'm more than willing to share information with anyone via PM, just as I shared it with one of the Admin team members, when this saga has started a few weeks ago.

@cougar Yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was as if "Note to Customs:Suspicious Package" written with big red bold letters all over it. :sigh:

@Adeodatus - Sharing your experience, specially with what you went through took courage...and as Ronin stated is one of the reason why were here. Granted you will share the info when requested. But not entirely fair for the rest of the members...specially new members when this thread become stale.....The whole point of dealer review is to specifically address this and for future buyers (old and new) to know and get the chance to be specific in shipping details instead of a broad stroke affecting the rest of the dealers....and this helps to avoid the same witch hunt that you are trying to prevent. It just baffles reason for protecting this dealer.

[Watchmeister]

The weird thing is that I have never even heard of this kind of mistake from any dealer. The only thing I can think of is that it may be another example of a TD having grown his organization too big and losing control of his minions or it somehow relates to his specific concerns about your country. I have never seen one be so stupid. But I also have to say you live in an odd country who has you sign for the package first before telling you what there concern is. Do you live in a communist or Arabic country. That sounds literally like a set-up. In most Western countries they tell you what their concern is and then you refuse delivery.

[vandal.tbh]

Just to ease some concerns here, I'm not from US nor EU, as the matter of fact I don't believe the are any fellow countryman here, not active ones afaik, but I'll leave it as that.

@Tom and all the other neysayers: I've been a member of this site for 4 months and posted regularly, some useful posts and some total bs just for fun. Pardon me for being prolific and loving this place. Being 4 months on a forum doesn't make me an idiot, I know who I buy from and know how this "business" works. If you find this thread useless your are more than welcome to move along, I'm sure you can find other useful threads here. The sole purpose of my original post was to warn members and allow everyone to learn from my bad experience about dealing with dealers, not to start a witch hunt on any one of them. As I said earlier, if you are interested I'm more than willing to share information with anyone via PM, just as I shared it with one of the Admin team members, when this saga has started a few weeks ago.

@cougar Yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was as if "Note to Customs:Suspicious Package" written with big red bold letters all over it. :sigh:

First, I'd like to say that I'm sorry to hear of your bad luck Ade. I guess it's good that you seemed to have dodged the bullet with customs though.

Second, I'd like to comment on those that mention how long Ade has been a member and how many posts he's made. That logic is ridiculous. I've seen guys on this forum who have been members for many years with thousands of posts and their posts are generally useless and annoying. Ade's posts are some of the more entertaining and genuinely useful posts I've read, and this one is no exception. The big message here is to use caution, be specific and perhaps think through how you would react to this scenario should it happen to you. If he doesn't want to share the TD's name, that's his prerogative. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that if he had mentioned the dealer's name he would have been blasted with more criticism than he's getting here now.

It's posts like this that really help other people. I know some would like to know who it was, but I just know that I'm going to be very specific in my direction of how to ship. And if I ever get called in to the post office to sign for something that says "watches" I'm going to tell them I did not order any watches and please return the package to the sender.

Thanks Ade for a great post!

[Adeodatus]

The weird thing is that I have never even heard of this kind of mistake from any dealer. The only thing I can think of is that it may be another example of a TD having grown his organization too big and losing control of his minions or it somehow relates to his specific concerns about your country. I have never seen one be so stupid. But I also have to say you live in an odd country who has you sign for the package first before telling you what there concern is. Do you live in a communist or Arabic country. That sounds literally like a set-up. In most Western countries they tell you what their concern is and then you refuse delivery.

"Odd country" would be an understatement of the century in my case, but I must assure you that I live a democratic state, with personal freedoms and equal right for women, minorities and rep collectors.

At first this is exactly what I thought: a setup for me, because I've purchased a number of reps in the past, but my lawyer believes that it was due to the recent changes in taxes and customs being super vigilant during this period. I must say that I have no idea and frankly I don't want to know. I'm just glad it's (kind of) over.

On the other hand (and this may also answer ExtraExtra's comment) I have never heard of such a mistake from the dealer as well. Moreover, I have never received a watch not in a "regular packaging", if you know what I mean, and I think it's a definite case of growing too large. The reason for me not disclosing the dealer's name is that besides this incident he's been very helpful and trusted and helped a lot of members here to get their dream watches. I don't think that this incident should in any way label him or his operation, loosing clients or, god forbid, money over an idiotic mistake. Although he has lost my business, I don't think he should loose more. I don't want to have on my conscience.

Hopefully he has understood his mistake and will learn from it. I certainly have.