We are back, but trouble at Customs

[su su]

Hi All We Are Back
Hi all arrived back on Sunday am. Sad to leave even sader when we got to Sanford we had to pay $305 for excess baggage Then even sadder when we arrived at Gatwick.
We walked through the Green Channel and got stopped. It was as if he was waiting for use. Maybe it was because we left with 4 suitcases and returned with 4 suitcases and 3 extra holdalls. He explained that we were only allowed £145 each of goods. We of course said that we did not know, and thought it only applied to booze and ciggarettes, so he promptly took us to the big sign outside and made us stand and read it. Then we went back and explained that he could confiscate everything. At this point i was in tears. Then he gave us a choice he could either confiscate everything and still fine us or we could turn round and go through the red channel which of course we did. My DS had his receipts and the guy went through them all and he had to pay £62 then he went through mine, it took quite a while because i had ALL my receipts, Ponderosa, Walmart etc. He checked every one. Then I suppose at the end of the day he was not too bad because he put my Granddaughter's allowance on mine and only charged me 5% for my Crystal's. So I had to pay £162 duty.
I was just grateful he did not open my case because I had 400 cigarettes and 20 packets of tobacco which i had bought going over there, plus 400 cigarettes for my sister in my hand luggage.

They even took into account park photos from the rides which my son had got. They counted for EVERYTHING. Even a baby journal book I bought.

All this took about an hour and and a half. When we got out our Taxi had gone and had to wait for him to come back (luckily it was a friend).

SO BE WARNED WHEN YOU BUY ALL YOUR JEANS AND TRAINERS ETC.

Apart from that we had a good time.

 

[KayleeUK]

Whoops!!

 

[daywalker]

No good to you now but, before my first trip I was warned to remove all labels off new items & not bring receipts home. If you wanted to keep the receipts you ought to have posted them home
Sorry to sound wise after the event, hopefully others will learn & it's good that you have come on & told everyone what happened to you. I am sorry it did happen to you too.
If you are carrying alot of luggage you will be a prime target for being stopped.
Did you make any savings in the end or did all the tax nail you?

 

[eyoreaud]

Oh my Su Su!

How AWFUL

You must have been soooo embarressed
I have never been stopped but i suppose there's a good chance we might one day.

Perhaps we should all be a little more careful in future as i for one have become a little complacent over the years

There must be ways around this?

Luv Audrey,
xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[daywalker]

Wash new clothes when you are out there so they don't 'smell' new. Don't keep receipts on you (post them home) is a good start.
New looking trainers? you can claim you bought them in the UK & don't have the receipt.
But to reiterate, don't keep the receipts with you.

 

[Sian]

Sorry about your bad experience but thanks for posting. I will certainly learn from your misfortune and be very careful next trip. Hope it didn't take the shine off your holiday.

 

[BiGGy]

sorry to hear u went through that


another thing that we do when we go is to take a lot of old clothes too so when we get there we throw them in the bin, and likewise throw all the receipts away cause i spose like a lot of others we use credit cards for shopping u will always have proof of purchase on the statement.

and also take all store lables off the clothes and wash them before bringing them back.


BiGGy

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Su Su

How awful for you it must have been quite soul destroying. But as you said it could've been a lot worse.

Glad that the rest of your trip was fantastic

 

[Penny12]

YIKES! Atleast the Customs guy was a bit bending - he gave you the chance to go back and re-enter thru the Red channel.

Welcome home though...I hope aside from those 'little hiccups' you had a wonderful time

 

[pauldents]

Sorry to hear about your experience with our "lovely" customs and excise. It reminds me of the time I was in Heathrow after an 11.5 hr flight from LAX and I didn't know about the £145 limit aswell. I found my suitcase, not on the carousel, but sitting right outside the green channel at customs. As soon as I stepped over the line, they approached me and took me to a room where they questioned me for 3 hours on the hand tools i purchased in LA. They said they could compound them (and get them back in court later) or pay a fine and they duty owing on them. I opted for the latter and they valued the tools at £2000 ! I agreed to the valuation because I was very tired and basically just wanted out of the airport and had a taxi waiting for more than 3 hours at this point. In the end I paid a fine and the duty owing on the tools which totalled £386.00. Not an experience i would ever want to go through again !

 

[Olaf]

I read an article in our local paper about Brits who come over here just to shop. I live near a very large outlet mall and everytime I go over there I hear British accents (I'm not kidding). I've spoken with Brits at the mall, and they've told that they routinely drop a couple of thousand dollars stateside buying all kinds of stuff. You'd think somebody in the British government would grow a brain and realize just how much money is flowing out of GB because everything over there is so darn expensive!

Maybe the customs guys are trying to crackdown on this? Just a thought.

Sorry to hear about your experience SuSu

 

[mike230652]

I can't believe the amount of sympathy flowing toward su su!!

Top and bottom was she tried to defraud HM Customs and Excise out of a fair bit of cash and got caught. Tough...but no sympathy from me. su su ,are you telling us you DIDN'T know about the £145 limit...??? despite it being all over the travel brochures, inflight mags...and aircrew warning you ?? If you didn't see/hear any of those, and you genuinely weren't aware of the limits ( YEAH! )....I wonder why you hid your cigarettes/tobacco in your cases /hand luggage. It was a bit naive to go out with 4 cases, come back with 7...and expect to get away with it. Good luck to you if you get away with it, but you must have known what to expect if you got caught. As it was, the Customs guy was very fair to you, as you admit...even though you continued to deceive him.

Doubtless, people will post telling me how heartless I am, haven't I ever tried to get away with something similar ( No, I couldn't be bothered ) etc.

Me......my sympathies go out to su su's grandchildren who have to suffer passive smoking while she and her family get through the 800 cigarettes and 20 packets of tobacco ( YUUCCKKK ) that she smuggled in .

................Just thought I'd put an alternative thought forward.

 

[pauldents]

Mike,

I think it is a bit unfair to presume su su smokes around her grandchildren !

As for the "smuggling" I know where you are coming from and igronance isn't any form of defence, BUT the limits are NOT very well advertised and i can see people making a genuine mistake sometimes ( i know i did and i hold my hands up to it, but I learned my lesson and you will be glad to know I definitley won't do it again ).

If you think about it Customs and Excise have been KNOWINGLY breaking the law for years by confiscating law abiding travellers vehicles, alcohol & tobacco for years now at various ports around the UK.

Just a thought

Kind Regards

Paul

 

[Martin S]

Mike,

Any more totally unfounded , unhelpful and frankly insulting comments you want to make ?

Su Su made a post about an experience that she recently had which I for one found interesting and informative. Your post started off in a constructive manner and offered an alternative view point which added to the thread.

To then infer that Su Su is making her grandchildren suffer through passive smoking is outrageous.

Apologies to all for potentially starting a flame war but this really got my back up.

Martin

 

[mike230652]

Martin S

I have no intention of starting a flame war....as I said I presented another view.

if su su and her family don't smoke where there children are i.e. in the house, then I apologise absolutely and unreservedly.

The rest of my post I stand by...........I cannot believe anyone isn't aware of the limits ..as I said there are LOADS of warnings.......and if you decide to risk breaking the law you also decide to take the risk of being caught . By su su's own admission she still had cigarettes hidden away!!..so let's drop the ! I didn't know, guv " to a " It's a fair cop, guv "..........

pauldents......... I certainly have heard about horror stories re: Customs and cars etc being confiscated without full proof. Honestly, I do feel sorry for people falsely collared by C & E............but it's a different scenario entirely to su su, who basically tried to pull a fast one and ( unluckily for her ) got caught.

Hey, I'm not an uncaring person.....and maybe I was a bit OTT about the passive smoking.........that probably comes from losing my mother at the age of 56 to cancer caused by it.

su su , it was not my intention to upset you, I just wanted to put a different perspective on your unfortunate situation.

 

[Sian]

I felt sympathetic towards Su Su because it could easily happen to me where the clothes etc are concerned. Because I don't buy cigarettes or alcolhol or perfume which are the things I normally associate with customs, I don't think 'customs' applies to me. If someone had asked me outright whether I thought there would be a restriction on bringing in clothing, shoes, gifts etc I guess I would have realised there would be limit but I must confess that my plan is to buy my kids clothes and trainers on my next trip and I hadn't even thought about whether that was ok or not. Someone else who doesn't read notices properly. Rules is rules I guess.

 

[IAN5150]

C,Mon I think everyones being a bit hard on Mike, Su Su took a big risk and got caught to get fined that much she must have bought a lot of gear,Think about it 4 cases and 3 holdalls WOW! Each to their own but why take out 4 cases Thats a bit extreme then on top of that wanting to bring back a lot of stuff, I think I would have took less stuff out,Her right but she took the risk I have every sympathy and its a shame to lose £400 in total ,
Mike was making a point (The passive smoking thing was a bit wild though I must admit!!) If you read all these posts theirs tricks I.E. labels off wash clothes,reciept in trash Im not sure how much of these Su Su did so all we can do is learn at Su Su s expense sadly,

Dance on glass ,eventually you cut your feet.

 

[#1MMFan]

hi Su Su

You had an awful experience. It's always easy in hindsight, but I've been in the same situation as you at Sanford a number of years ago. We were charged about $400+ for excess baggage. Fortunately we were flying back to Glasgow and the Customs didn't stop us. I now fly regular airlines (not charter) and so our luggage allowance is much greater so we don't look so different from other people, although truth is that no matter whether you go Orlando International or Sanford, folks always bring back loads from their holidays.
We just came back from Disneyland Resort, California today, and we had mega tons of bags and well, let's just say that we had more than the limit in way of souvenirs (I am well aware of this limit). Fortunately we weren't stopped because I hadn't removed the labels, which I normally do the night before travelling. I had my receipts hidden away, but it's difficult with all the obvious merchandise that says 2002!

Sorry you had such an embarrassing traumatic experience.

John

 

[floridalol]

Customs are wise to all the tricks, would advise to have slightly over your limit in receipts and make the clothes that take you over the limit look like they have been worn - only remove price lablels don't remove garment labels, this means that you have to prove that you did not buy them in USA and without the label you cannot prove anything so they can confiscate all items where proof of purchase can not be ascertained whether they are worn or not! If you are regular visitors you can point out that certain clothes were purchased on a previous trip.

Have never been stopped fortunately.....touch wood!

 

[#1MMFan]

I think it's ridiculous that we have to prove that they were bought outside the country, but on a different trip! How can you do that? I presume floridalol that you mean leaving the washing instruction/brand label tags on the clothes? Obviously a t-shirt saying WDW is going to be bought in the states; regarding making it look worn, what happens if people have washed items of clothing?

I think it's fair to be taxed for things you can get in the UK, but these things can't be bought here. JMHO. I hope I never get stopped.

John