OK I am ticked off here!

Originally Posted by allissa

I don't know if they open each and every box or do random box checking.
Everything I got from another country was opened, but maybe that's just my lack.

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I have a friend who has horrible luck, if he was to ever recieve or send anything over seas I imagine everything would be opened too. It might be the season, time of year, alert of threats.... ??

No that's fine I understand. I won't be sending catnip out of the country any more. I wonder if that's why Anne's package hasn't been delivered- I put one catnip toy in there too for her beasts-

Originally Posted by hissy

No that's fine I understand. I won't be sending catnip out of the country any more. I wonder if that's why Anne's package hasn't been delivered- I put one catnip toy in there too for her beasts-

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Hissy, I am curious, when you say catnip toy, are you meaning one with catnip in it, like plant catnip, or treated with? Not that it makes a difference either way, just curious.

I am talking about a toy filled with catnip-

Originally Posted by hissy

I am talking about a toy filled with catnip-

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aahh... I wonder if they would do the same for one that was treaded with? It makes sending gifts to our friends overseas a pain in the butt!! I'm sorry. That is so rude though!!!!!! Will that effect contests? If someone wins catnip stuff from a company on a contest, and they live overseas, will they have the same rude treatment? Poor kitties

I can maybe understand the catnip. If they were stupid, they'd think it was a scam and that it was pot . I can't really understand the toys. Those are sealed. But okay, I'll let that pass. Open a card though? That's just rude. I know letters don't get opened!! And the person could have potentially taken the cheque. And then they burned the box!!! THAT was uncalled for..

::censor::censor::censor:: I've been to plenty of other countries, and shipped things accross as well, and some, even during political unrest in the US or other countries. There's no reason to go *that* far. I think complaining about that is to be accepted! Usually, though, they have to have an official document that states why certain products were removed, and it has to be signed or stamped by the customs officer, so if anything is unaccounted for, they can catch the guy. Hopefully that helps.

Originally Posted by MyRage

aahh... I wonder if they would do the same for one that was treaded with? It makes sending gifts to our friends overseas a pain in the butt!! I'm sorry. That is so rude though!!!!!! Will that effect contests? If someone wins catnip stuff from a company on a contest, and they live overseas, will they have the same rude treatment? Poor kitties

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Sometimes they ship the prizes from the business. In that case, as it is a business, then it is more respected than the personal mail. (commerce is important.)

Originally Posted by turtlecat

Sometimes they ship the prizes from the business. In that case, as it is a business, then it is more respected than the personal mail. (commerce is important.)

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Okay... I guess they don't expect companies to cause problems then? lol...

I have been sent big bags of catnip TWICE from the USA to here in NZ over the last year, and yes they went through all my stuff and checked everything out - but the catnip arrived just fine! That's a bummer Mary Anne.

what a load of b******************S***T I feel so sorry for you!!
I finally got my order from petsmart full of cat nip goodies! but my kit doesnt like it so much.
Damn thats so horrible what they did!!
But dont you have to write on the box what you have inside it and then the post office then tells you what you can and cannot sell????
Damn thats a real bummer

I had Australian customs open a box I sent, too to someone. There were "cat oat grass" seeds in it. They however unwrapped my package and didn't put everything back in the main wrapped present box but did try to wrap it back up O.K. Amazingly enough, the seeds arrived in the package. I thought that I had read that seeds were O.K. because they weren't actually live plant material.

I think it's probably random checking and you got unlucky, MA. I've received parcels from the US with bags of catnip and catnip filled toys, and nary a sign of them having been opened -- though my Secret Santa parcel, which was quite obviously a book, had been. Go figure!

Major bummer!! And vigilance carried very much to the extreme. Quite apart from the fact that they had no business opening the card. I'd be POd too, and looking for a way to complain officially.

MA that is ridiculous!
Did you fill out a customs declaration? If you did and they knew there was catnip in it and allowed it to be sent (if it were not allowed to leave the country they SHOULD HAVE told you) I would be making major complaints.. to the US post and Customs!

Originally Posted by allissa

Plant material apparently is illegal to send into another country as well. When you send or get a package from another country, it goes through customs.

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I sent catnip to my SS and had it on the customs declaration.. no problem, when I worked in the post office, plant material is legal to send to other countries as long as it is store-bought and packaged

Originally Posted by captiva

I thought that I had read that seeds were O.K. because they weren't actually live plant material.

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I have catnip seeds!!! lol

Righto you catnip addicts! They did say that if I payed $55, I could have the catnip toys but that they would first be gamma irradiated and may be destroyed by that.

I don't think so.

I can just imagine the conversation:

Customs Officer 1: Aha! What do we have here?
Customs Officer 2: They all say catnip - yeah right, we know dried 'weed' when we see it!
Customs Officer 1: Yeah mate, we've made a good bust here, that Yank is going down for drugs!
Customs Officer2: We better make it official and get the machine to test it.

15 minutes later...

Customs Officer 1: Well blow me down, it IS catnip. Could've sworn it was the whacky tobbaccky.
Customs officer 2: Ah well mate, at least we'll scare the pants off this Tania sheila when she reads the letter from us.

Lots of other toys arrived though and the kittens are having a great time enjoying those. They say thank you to their American Aunty MA.

MA, did you really send me a one pound bag of catnip?? It never arrived. Probably confiscated.

Oh by the way, it was Australian customs in Sydney that confiscated the toys.

I have had packets of cooking herbs confiscated at customs before now. And be thankful you don't live here - the customs guys are so corrupt that they will take anything. I hade three fedex boxes opened when I moved here, and a load of stuff taken, while the boxes sat in customs waiting for 'approval'. I think the only approval they got was people rummaging through and 'approving' what they wanted to take.

As stupid as this may sound, i never write down the word "catnip" whenever i've sent toys abroad because i've often thought you would get one "plank" of a person who thought it was something else

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So sorry for that rotten luck. It is somewhat arbitrary but the 1 lb designation probably set off some suspicion to them and the holidays and from the U.S. I doubt Anne, if you sent it to Israel, will recieve hers. I'm so sorry - how utterly frustrating. Send the Aussie gov't a bill with one huge pawprint on it. And some poop!