Did I get scammed or is this real

R

Repairman99

I was not sure where to post this.
 
I ordered some seeds from a person on Ebay, from Peru. Today I got this in the mail. It was in the original evelope which had been opened at the end and resealed with green plastic tape. NO seeds.
 
 

 
They are Aji Charapita seeds
 
Here is a link to the Ebay ad
 
\http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aji-Charapita-30-seeds-from-Peru-Chili-pepper-/151689591244?
 
So, does it look real or just a way to keep my money and not send any seeds?
 
Thanks,
Steven
 
That sucks.  Its real though.  I would contact the seller.  He requests additional payment for insurance and tracking in US dollars.  To me this signifies that he intends to sell these to US buyers.  If he did not notify you of the risks involved IMO he took responsibility for those risks.  If I were shipping seeds internationally I would put a disclaimer to make instances like this not my fault, not my problem.
 
Several vendors from there that INDEED Send what you paid for,just takes awhile to receive due to the defunk postal system of the country
There sre a few threads here on THP about them,I got my shit FWIW!
 
Well thanks for the confirmation that the notice is real. I think I will just let it go as they probably got my name in their computer and if I order any more and I come up in the computer as trying a 2nd time,  they may have to go and take an antacid pill or something.
 
Does anyone know where I can get  genuine south of the border Aji Charapita seeds in the US.
 
Thanks,
Steven
 
You didn't get scammed—The seller probably didn't know what a pain in the ass the USDA is these days.
 
I'm too lazy to search for it now, but THP member semillas, who sells seeds to U.S. customers from his business in the Canaray Islands Spain, posted about this issues, warning U.S. customers to get a phytosanitary certificate, or risk getting their seeds confiscated by customs.
 
I don't have an answer to your question of where to get such seeds, but I do have a comment on your experience. You *might* have actually received those seeds if you didn't live in CA. California is the only state I know of (and I've been through quite a few) that has crossing stations between it and other states. One of the things they specifically look for is plants, as they don't want plants (and related pests) brought into the state and risk their agriculture. So while that's a federal notice, rather than a state notice, your experience may have been different if you lived elsewhere.
 
Also - regarding:
 
"where I can get  genuine south of the border Aji Charapita seeds in the US"
 
P.M. THP member -wheebz:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/user/3078-wheebz/
 
I seem to remember one of his posts was about a beer recipe which included Aji Charapiuta Peppers.

geeme said:
I don't have an answer to your question of where to get such seeds, but I do have a comment on your experience. You *might* have actually received those seeds if you didn't live in CA. California is the only state I know of (and I've been through quite a few) that has crossing stations between it and other states. One of the things they specifically look for is plants, as they don't want plants (and related pests) brought into the state and risk their agriculture. So while that's a federal notice, rather than a state notice, your experience may have been different if you lived elsewhere.
Click to expand...
California actually has Fruit and Vegetable police - A friend of mine was driving into California and their local border patrol stopped the car and inquired whether he was carrying any produce!
 
That's what the form looks like. I tell people all the time about what it takes to legally bring in seeds to the US. Any seeds can be confiscated if you don't have your import/export permit, and they have to provide a phytosanitary certificate that shows your permit number. Then in the case with cycads, which is what i mainly deal with, then on top of all this, then there are CITES permits.I had talked about this subject a while back here, and the guy who was getting seeds was getting them from a well known Australian seed dealer. Their answer was " our shipments go through all the time, but we don't know what your country requires." Seeds get through all the time illegally, you were just a bit unlucky. The truth is, different port of entries are harder or easier to get things through. LA and SF are some of the toughest ports in the country. Mainly because many people are smuggling through California, and California has a lot more rigid agricultural requirements, even between states here in the US. I know I have my nematode inspections and various certifications, and I can ship to every single state, except for California.
 
Have not had this happen with seeds, but recently had it happen with bog oak that was coming in from Russia.  Purchased same thing from same person before, no problem.  Wrote and he said it is a crap shoot sending to the US and he much prefers the lack of regulations in Russia.  Not sure if he was serious.  Sometimes customs snatches it up, sometimes not.  They do seem to love exotic woods.  He sent another batch, no problem what so ever.
 
 
The permit you need is free to get, but was a little painful for me.  It took over 3 months.   Have heard of others getting it in a few weeks but I was not so lucky.   Not sure all foreign sellers would be willing to print it and use it properly.  I got mine mainly to order from semillas.de and Peter is happy to print the proper documents after you email them to him and knows what hes doing.  I ordered from him a few weeks back and all came through fine.
 
While looking around for some Aji Charapita seeds I came across this notice to US customers at the Semillas website which was updated Mar. 1,  2015
 
 
 
Important Notice to all US customers!

Some recent shipments to US have been confiscated by USDA and the customers got an empty envelope together with a note that seeds were confiscated because of missing phytosanitary certificate.

We highly recommend to apply for a import permit (small batches of seeds), that can be done online at theUSDA APHIS page search import permit PPQ 587 - Plants for planting including seeds.

US customers ordering without this certificate declare that shipment is at their own risk
and they will not get a refund if the seeds were confiscated!
 
http://www.semillas.de/home/strato/www/me/www.merle-online.de/htdocs/cgi-bin/shop_en/shop.cgi  
 
 
Steven
 
 
Does anyone else think the import permit is silly?  If all you have to do is fill it out, wait a bit, and you are good to go then what is the point of the thing?  I could understand if something like inspections went with the permit, but there does not seem to be a difference between someone having it and not having it.
 
Well, I found some seeds in Canada and ordered them. I did check into it and found that they allow seeds from Canada with out the Phyto-sanitary Cert.
 
Got some Cumari do Para also.
 
 
Steven

dragon49 said:
You didn't get scammed—The seller probably didn't know what a pain in the ass the USDA is these days.
 
I'm too lazy to search for it now, but THP member semillas, who sells seeds to U.S. customers from his business in the Canaray Islands Spain, posted about this issues, warning U.S. customers to get a phytosanitary certificate, or risk getting their seeds confiscated by customs.
Click to expand...
 
 
 
Yep you did, Sorry, but I do have an excuse. At that time I had just learned that the notice was real, so I turned off all my lights, closed the drapes, and was listening for anything that sounded like Black Helicopters coming my way.
 
 
Steven
 
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