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Australian Customs Service

tooninoz

tooninoz

Finally today I got my hands on some seeds that Patrick sent me nearly 3 weeks ago.

The parcel had raised suspicion, re-routed to Sydney, and opened. They threw a couple of pamphlets in, and the opening line on one is "DO NOT send plants or plant material, or animal matter..."

Then they neatly repacked it (ground peppers and seeds included) and forwarded it onto me :lol: Lucky seeds aren't plant material huh....

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Mate, I don't really know? Each officer makes their own mind up I think? ;) I tried a few times earlier this year to send some pods to Ajichombo in England, and no go. Our addresses were flagged, so we posted to his work and I left my address off, and bingo!

Still curious why they sent to Sydney instead of Brisbane for processing...might have something to do with ACS Brisbane having their hands full with the little matter of 454kg of cocaine found just of the coast on Tuesday? :lol: :lol:
 
Damn, that sucks! But at least you got it in the end! :D

I always get a little nervous when ordering from overseas. In fact, I am waiting on a parcel now....

Way to go to make me even more nervous! :P
 
at least its customs that's opening your packages - lately it seems like my domestic packages are being opened by the US Postal Service - i guess that big brother has his hands in everything
 
well seeds coming out from australia, no problem. as i've had 3 packages come in from australia. i've had a bunch of packages come in and come out of my country. lost about a total of 5 packages so far that got "lost" or stolen.

just saying.

each country has problems with their post. it just sucks is all.
 
just had a little idea for folks sending seeds international----

take some coarsely ground chile pepper or spice mix (one that does not have visible seeds in it) Add the desired seeds to small baggies and ship as "spicy herb mix". Get creative if you want with the names!

I know it might be a little more work for the recipient to fish the seeds out of the spice mix, but if only a small amount of "spice" mix is used relative to the amount of seeds added to the mix...shouldn't be too bad!

I'm even thinking a person could go to the effort of drying and grinding whatever the chile is that the seeds are being shipped, but that's a whole other step~

just an idea. ;)
 
nova here sent me seeds from aus and he got them through by packing them in a post card envelope. the seeds were sandwiched between cut up calendar paper, stationary, scratch paper in the size of the envelope. even had some chili powders and dried chilis too. got here fine. =D

he says it's a surefire way to get them through almost any country. hasn't failed him since.
 
That's the way I send to other countries also Franz. For some reason a greeting card even with cardboard in or many seed packets inside the card gets through every time. I have never had any problems using that method.
 
All of my packages from overseas seem to go through Melbourne for some reason. I dont usually have a lot of troouble as long as Botanical and common names are clearly marked on the bags and the outside of the envelope has "ATTN AUST QUARANTINE, CHILLI SEEDS ENCLOSED" They seem to sail straight through, sometimes they open them and other times they dont. Funnily enough I too got a pack frrom Patrick with the chilli powder in and it was not even detected or opened. After watching that Border Patrol series on TV I thought all mail was Xrayed and if so the chilli powder would have surely looked organic, like coke or other powders.
 
i really don't mind them opening them at all. so long as they actually arrive. i don't even mind them delaying the delivery. so long as the stuff i'm waiting for come in. been having trouble with the local post the past 2 months. no packages for the past 6 weeks. fark!
 
Well, I just had my first package inspected by quarantine. They destroyed some fresh pods on the spot; kept some dried pods but are not letting them through because they are non-commercial; let some powder through; let some seeds through that were labeled with botanical names but were holding some others due to them not being labeled with their botanical names. Getting the held seeds through was simple enough though, I just rang up and gave them the botanical names and they are releasing them to me. What I thought was odd though was that the powder was allowed through but the dried pods weren't.... after all, powder is crushed dried pods! (not that I'm complaining... at least I still got the powder! :D)

What I thought was going to be a huge hassle getting the seeds actually turned out to be simple enough and took less than five minutes. Could have turned out a lot worse! I actually think they were quite reasonable about the whole thing too considering the document they put in my package stated that I would have to get a full declaration from the supplier with botanical names among other things. :eek:
 
Ugh! Most of my problems with the postal service are package/envelope damage or not related to the service, per se, at all. Every time I get one of those "lovely" plastic sleeves with shreds of envelope and contents, I just cringe. The funniest was actually something I didn't care about at all - a heavy-weight ad from a retailer, of which only maybe 10% got through (I saw the ad at the retail shop later - it was HUGE compared to what I got!) I did manage to ship a box of stuff to my mom last year, which the box was received in total shreds, but she actually got all of the contents I sent. That seemed like a minor miracle occurred! The other problem I have from time to time is people stealing mail that I'm trying to send out - right off my front porch even. I pretty much take stuff to the post office now - what a pain!
 
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