Hello everyone, I have a very big unexpected problem. My order has been stopped in the custom clearance of my country, Spain, and is now being returned.
The order contained:
With this post I hope to reach to european customers of DT to get help. To make it clearer I will write a timeline:
March 27 - My order gets shipped
March 28 - Shipment departs from Seattle
March 29 - Shipment departs from a DHL facility in Los Angeles
March 30 - Shipment arrives at DHL facility in Leipzig, Germany. This day I get a mail asking my full name, ID, gmail, phone number, a confirmitation that the documentation is correct AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE PACKAGE to which I wrote “Subdermal RFID implants loaded in sterile inyectors. For more information refer to dangerousthings.com”
April 1 - THE SHIPMENT ARRIVES AT MY COUNTRY, SPAIN. “Clearance event” starts.
Later on this day I get a call from DHL Spain and a mail:
DHL MESSAGE 1
"We regret to inform you that we cannot carry out the customs clearance of this merchandise as the import of RIFD subdermal implants from outside the European Union is not permitted for individuals.
We proceed to inform the sender of the impossibility of customs clearance at destination. Please contact your supplier for information on the return policy for your shipment."
Of course I contact DHL support, first I reply to the “Your Dangerous Things order has shipped!” mail. I didn’t get an answer in hours so I contacted through the “Help” button in the DT stote.
This is what I was told:
DT support mail
*"I contacted the DHL rep and he sent me some information that I’ll provide below. It’s possible you can contact customs and ask them to divert the shipment directly to your installer. *
Info from DHL: "Certain products to Spain are only allowed to ship to businesses as they require an import license from the receiving business. And often times individuals do not have import licenses or the product is not allowed by Spain Customs to individuals. In this case the customer would have to work with Spain Customs on options available for importing this product. Sometimes they can apply for a license if Spain Customs would allow or they can hire a broker to clear. This would all depend on what Spain Customs advises. Even with those options it is possible that Customs would not approve. Does the customer have a business he can ship direct to?
Please have the customer contact customs in their country for further details. Spain customs can be very specific and have lots of regulations. It is possible they will not allow or will need the receiver to get a import license."
*Please let us know if this is helpful and we’ll continue to see what we can do on our end to help in anyway. *
Kind regards,
Dangerous Service"
Today April 2 - In the DHL tracking, it said “The clearance process for this shipment is pending due to incomplete Shipper paperwork”.
But later I called DHL myself to try and ask what was necessary to ship the package to my piercer that was going to install it (I said it to her too and she offered to do it).
During this call I realized I got the worst case scenario, basically they told me THE IMPLANTS ARE A MEDICAL PRODUCT THAT NEED A LICENSE, THAT IT GOES THROUGH THE SAME CONTROL THAT CREAMS AND PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCT FOLLOW AND THAT EVEN THOUGH I GOT DT ORDERS BEFORE THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE ARRIVED TO ME (I said I bought similar products from the same store in an attempt to get an explanation of why it is considered a medical product).
They wrote me a mail with all the necessary things, and really I can not believe this, they treat the package like is something illegal (which isn’t, implants are not illegal in Spain) only allowed for medical purposes. And now in the tracking it says “A DHL Representative will contact the consignee/importer prior to clearance processing.Clearance will proceed after receiving instructions from the consignee/importer. If you are the importer, please contact us.”
Here’s the last mail translated:
DHL LAST MAIL
ARRIVAL NOTICE SHIPMENT SUBJECT TO CUSTOMS CLEARANCE
We inform you that a shipment consigned in your name from a country or territory outside the European Union is scheduled to arrive. We attach a copy of the documentation consisting of the invoice that your supplier/sender has given us and the DHL AWB with which the merchandise travels.
By responding to this email with the requested information, you authorize the DHL company to process the dispatch of the merchandise with the shipping number indicated above. In order to proceed with customs clearance, you must provide the following documentation:
1. Commercial or proforma invoice where the importing company appears.
2. CE marking and declaration of conformity of the merchandise. If you don’t have it, you have to get it from your supplier.
3. Import License granted by the Ministry of Health.
4. Letter of use and destination written by you for which we give you instructions:
1. The writing must go to the attention of the Pharmacy Inspection Service
2. Reference the shipping number (you will find it in the subject of this email) and country of origin.
3. Name of your company and CIF.
4. Full name, ID and position held within the company of the person who provides us with the document.
5. Detailed description of the goods
6. Indicate the use and destination of the merchandise
7. It must be signed and/or with the company seal
We inform you that the importation of non-community goods, with or without a commercial nature, are subject to customs clearance and the corresponding payment of import taxes. In this case, the expected customs expenses including VAT, tariff (if applicable) and clearance management will be approximately €140.
The payment of these expenses can be made through the following payment systems. Please confirm which medium you will use:
1. Payment upon delivery (cash, check or card).
2. Payment prior to delivery through a telematic system with card or Paypal through a link that you will receive in the email you indicate or by text message.
If your merchandise is in transit, it is of great importance to receive instructions from you within 24 hours, this way you will be able to connect with a quick dispatch upon arrival of the merchandise.
My guess is that I fucked up saying IMPLANT in the description, I should have said just RFID CHIPS or animal chip or something like that. I didn’t have any idea this could go so wrong.
I HAVE HAD DELIVERED TO ME WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM 3 DT ORDERS WITH SEVERAL INYECTORS, IN TOTAL 4 XSERIES (if the problem are the needles) AND THE TITAN AND NEVER GOT ASKED ANYTHING
Please help, anyone from the EU that has had problems and please somebody explain to me how Dangerous Things returns works in this case.
I think DT support (Amal, since he is the shipper in the package bill) may have gotten messages but I haven’t been told anything and really I don’t have any idea what to do.