A 'custom' made enquiry

yasmine · Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:24 pm Post subject: A 'custom' made enquiry

You can just imagine the concerns US customs had when the package I had expedited to the US from Canada showed up in their hands, they must have thought they were onto something here, and sent by someone with a Muslim name, Ha!
I recieved a phone call from a custom officer in the states the other day, he was enquiring about the package with 70 TB's, he seemed rather confused at first, maybe he expected me to have a mans voice, and a bierd....I assured him, that the contents of the packet was as stated, 'feng shui items' and were to be used at home to clear and change energies, much like windchimes, he seemed unconvinced that it could be this simple, he continued to ask me what the ingredients were, ![you have to be extra careful these days, all these bombings and all these middleeasterners around,] I told him that they were metals and a selection of gemstones, this could offcourse be seen externally, [in the name of homeland security! ]
He says to me, 'they aren't much to look at are they' HA! give me a break!
I guess he heard me snigger, offcourse I was blasting him!! I told him that it was a matter of taste, he appeared to feel abit ignorant after that, saying that he would send them on their way to 99 percent, whatever that means in custom lingo, I thanked him, and remembered to say 'HAVE A NICE DAY' just in case he thinks that middleeasterners are all without manners as well as involved with making not so goodlooking 'bombs' he must have thought we are cheap too, since i had even put my own address in the sender section on the package, did he think that I would have wanted it back......reality is really stranger then fiction for custom officers, they seem to be on a paranoid high right now, it's a rat race out there people, welcome to their matrix....!!

constantin · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:28 pm Post subject:

Yasmine, this is the way that i would handled it if I were you. When someone calls you and says I'm so and so with the US customs, or District attorney's office, etc, first thing you ask, are you calling in you official capacity or your private capacity.

If, he/she says I called you in my private capacity, then you can go ahead and talk about the weather, about your neighbor's dog, whatever casual conversation.

Now, if he/she says I called in my official capacity, you stop them immediately. You tell them, look number one, it is no way for me to verify over the phone your identity and number two, there is no way for me to verify the reason/s you're calling about.

So , any questions or concerns that you might have, address them through mail.
Thank you and you hang up, that's it, simple.

Really, you're taking a big risk talking on the phone to government people since you can't possibly know their true motive for calling and/or their true identity.

The conversation itself with the "customs representative" is irelevant since in my opinion you shouldn't engage in a phone conversation with a government official to begin with. It is not wise, plain and simple.

One might find this hard to believe, but from my experience, government employees, DO LIE.

Constantin