Saturday 6 November 2010

Spanish Costoms vs 'I' (about retained package)

Hello everybody!

I'm 24-year-old korean girl who study Hotel Management in Bilbao, Spain. I've been in Spain for years, and have felt a lot of thing living in this country. I may need some help from you, or I could give you a piece of advice to live as foreigner (especially from Asia) in Spain.

It's very sad to start my first page with this story. 

This case started with the package of my winterclothes which had been sent me from my mother. She sent me 2 package through EMS (Express Mail Service) on Sep 13, and the next week arrived just one of them. So I called to the Cental Post Office of Korea, and they told me it is retained at the Spanish Costoms. I thought it wouldn't be long to take it back, but I was totally wrong.

At first, I made some calls to Spanish Costoms in Barajas Airport to ask how I could get it back, but NOBODY picked up the phone, so I called the Central Post Office of Spain, however they just kept saying me they didn't have to do anything about it because it was not what the Post Office could do while the package was at customs. As I'm korean, I couldn't understand it but finally accepted because I'm in Spain, not in Korea. Therefore I waited patiently untill they sent me an arrival notice to continue the necessary process, but nothing arrived me. The grandma who lived with me at the moment also tried to ask thousand times but still NO ONE in customs picked up the phone, they didn't even have an internet page nor e-mail address, what could I do??

Finally I asked Beatriz, the secretary of the school  for help (on Oct 5) because I couldn't see anything positive on my way, when she called they finally picked up the phone! They explained her they had already sent me the notice, and we found that they confused the number 7 with number 1 (how could they!), so the notice had arrived to my neighbor on the first floor. It wasn't funny, because it had already passed 3 weeks without doing anything. Anyway, at least I could receive the notice, and they prolonged the time limit(the date of return to origin of shipment) until Oct 25. Again, I thougth then would go well everything, later I realized I was totally idiot. 

There was another korean guy who was at the same class, his package was also retained at customs so we did every procedures together. After received the arrival notice we sent the necessary documents (the copy of arrival notice, affidavit of value even thought I didn't know exactly what were in the package..) via ADT Postales, which is costoms agent authorized Correos (Spanish Post Office), then they sent us back a sheet of paper from Speedtrans International S.L., which contained the import budget about our package. His was just 30 euros, and mine was 90.33 euros. Everyone (even the korean guy) couldn't understand why mine was much expensive than his, while his package was 6 kg heavier than mine. 

But, as I really wanted to get my package soon, I sent them the money via EFT on Oct 13. and my friend did it too. Three days later, he got his package with a receipt but I didn't, no one at my school could understand the situation, why he could, and why I couldn't. I wrote an e-mail to ADT postals again then they wrote me back, there was only a single line of text.


"SU PAQUETE TIENE QUE PASAR INSPECCION DE SANIDAD"
(your package must pass the health inspection)

So, I found some information about it on Correo's page, they had written that after received the fransfer a package could pass the health inspection and nomally it took a week. Being stupid, I waited a week while I was losing my temper, if I have been in Korea I would have found other solution but as I'm in out of my country, I didn't want to make a trouble (when I was in Salamanca I used to get in trouble although I hadn't done anything because I'm from Asia.. so sad), and finally last monday (on Oct 9) they told to Beatriz (the secretary) that my SSN didn't worth for the process because it was from foreigner (here I have a question : so how could my classmate get his package? Both of us are from KOREA, not just me.). So Beatriz sent them her SSN, because there was no way to solve it with mine.

Now, do you really want to know what's going on?
Yesterday Beatriz got an e-mail from Speedtrans International S.L., it was totally rubbish. 

They asked me 150 euros if I wanted to get back my bloody package, because they had gotten the bank transfer after the date limit, (it wasn't true, I had sent them on Oct 13 and the date was Oct 25.) and if I didn't    agree, they would send back my package to Korea. 

I was so pissed off, I had spend almost 2 months with this worthless crap being under stress, and I didn't want to handle it no more, so ask Beatriz for writting back that I DON"T WANT TO THE PACKAGE ANY MORE, I don't even care if they will send it back to Korea or to Japan. 

Do you know what they did? I attach an image from the Correo's page. 
Untill yesterday, there weren't the last two lines. I had been checking this page everyday and there had been only the upper 4 lines. They added those cute 2 lines hurriedly to excuse everything. As I wrote before I sent them 90.33 euros on Oct 13, however they had mentioned that they had got my bloody money on Oct 29. It's time to ask agian, how could it take more than 2 week to transfer money? Is it normal in Spain? This is completely unacceptable and unfair. Now they aim to make everything is my fault. 


The result of this case is, I lost my money, my package, and last 2 months. Is there any way to sue them? I'm sure there isn't, I will lose more money and more time, getting more stress even I win the case. It's not worth to do. 

I'm just hopping the package won't be disappeared on the way back home. My mother will be so sad and disappointed... She also tried everything that she could do in Korea, how can I explain her? 
If I have to give you an advice, 

DON'T RECEIVE A PACKAGE FROM OUTSIDE EUROPE!

For me? I won't. Never.
Good night!

4 comments:

  1. Rahee, if you still want to fight with them, you have an ally in me because a very similar thing is happening to me right now with a birthday gift from my sister in Canada, and I'm sure there is fraud or something involved because incompetence just cannot explain it. please contact me at mookie_smith[at]hotmail.com

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  2. Oh I've just seen your comments, so how's going on it? Last month finally the package arrived to KOREA not SPAIN, because I was so fed up with fighting against Barajas Customs and requested to return it to the origin, and.. it took exactly 2 more months to be back. And I found new way to receive packages safely instead of fighting with Customs, I thought there was fraud as you're thinking, then tried everything I could do but there was no single way to prove it....
    Anyway if the package is less than 5 kg and costs no more than 60 dollars, they won't retain it. I tried it and it totally works..

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  3. Hi Rahee,
    Unfortunately I think the same thing may happen to me.
    The story is that my friend and I left our laptops in a trip to USA. then a friend of ours sent them through USPS post to spain. but today in the post website I saw that they have been retained at the customs office. Also it is completely obvious that the laptops are used as there are many scratches on them.
    But the bad thing is that our friend in USA has put an insurance on them for the value of 500$. and Also he didn't mention if they are docs or gifts or whatever on the post paper.
    Do you think we will face any problems?
    if yes, Is it still (given that they have been insured for 500$) possible to claim that they are worth less than 60 euroes?

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    Replies
    1. I'm so sorry that you're getting into a problem with the Customs.. it is quite difficult to explain why your package is retained (and when you ask them, they never give you a right answer, but worth to try). But don't worry, if it's retained with any reason, they'll send you a card with the process you have to follow to get it back, although there is every likelihood that they don't care of this matter at all.

      Officially they say when the package is more than 5 kg, or values more than 60 euros the receiver has to pay an amount of tariff. And I have no idea how they calculate it, suppose they do it very subjectively, because my friends who received a package of 20 kg, full of new stuffs, paid 1/3 of what I paid for my old clothes beside mine weighed much less than his.

      I think the only way to claim that your package are worth less than 60 euros, to visiting directly the Customs which is in the Barajas airport in Madrid, of course you should prepare some Docs to prove it (for example, if you keep the receipts of them.. with the exact date you bought them). Most of people who visited Customs could get their package back more easily than the one who claimed via e-mail or fax.

      And make sure every doc you send and receive just in case of they pretend not to know about them. In my case, as it was very first time it happened I didn't know what to do, but since then almost all of my foreign friends got into the same problem, and it helped a lot. And it may help you if you write them a letter about the situation when you send them the copy of the arrival notice and the affidavit of value.

      I hope this will help you. If you have another question the door is always opened. Good luck!

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