"Low level employee" have you talked with the postmaster or contacted your congressman's office? May of missed it, but what's different between the two they released and the they are not as far as description.
Buying pipes overseas into US
- Thread starter Pipercat
- Start date
Would you rather have a new guy making pointless posts saying "welcome, I'm new here too" and telling everyone what they're smoking for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week just so they can finally ask their actual question? Seems like a waste of time LOL. What do I know though, I'm still fairly new here too.
Love reading about what people are smoking and eating and reading and watching, hardly a waste of time, lol.
Sorry i love the post and as someone that sat for many hours and days with Ebay service center employees i love that he is all in on "they talked to the legal department", oh by the way most of those agents are overseas and work in a single massive call center. There are some agents in the US but a majority of the front line agents aren't.
I never in my life sat in on so many calls where the caller thought they were being scammed and didn't think they were talking to actual Ebay call center employees, remember a lot of the calls are coming from small mom and pop teams from the midwest that are selling whatever, they aren't expecting a guy with a filipino accent named "David" to be answering the phones.
I never in my life sat in on so many calls where the caller thought they were being scammed and didn't think they were talking to actual Ebay call center employees, remember a lot of the calls are coming from small mom and pop teams from the midwest that are selling whatever, they aren't expecting a guy with a filipino accent named "David" to be answering the phones.
Have to toss an lol at "contacted your congressman's office" over a piece of mail at a local post office!
I agree, when it's not from people just trying to get a post count. I believe a person doing it just for numbers are wasting their own time, and consequently ours too. If you find the entertainment value to be worth it regardless, I guess you have less wasted time than I do, HAHA the joke's on me!
Thanks to this thread some of us will be a little less surprised if it happens to us, and hopefully soon will know what to expect as an outcome. I think there's value in that. Also, in a sick and twisted way it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only person getting screwed by the USPS. hehehe tell me more of your sorrows...
I've found that tracking overseas shipments an exercise in futility. In the last two cases the tracking number showed the item at the origin up to their arrival in my post box. The shipping company site and USPS (who take it the final mile) both said the same thing. DHL and FEDEX seem to do better at providing accurate and up to date tracking info for overseas shipments.
Was delivered today, after over two months, a threatening letter from the postal inspector (5 years in prison), and much lost sleep.
I will never really know what started this mess but, here are a few take aways:
•If you buy a pipe from overseas make sure the seller accurately fills out the customs paperwork, and never use the word "cigarette" in any capacity, that word would be a trigger. If there is no other option, as was this case, use "collectable item".
•If possible don't use USPS. Not that you are intentionally trying to skirt some law, but avoid overreach like I went thru.
God bless, and thanks for all the comments, they were greatly appreciated.
I will never really know what started this mess but, here are a few take aways:
•If you buy a pipe from overseas make sure the seller accurately fills out the customs paperwork, and never use the word "cigarette" in any capacity, that word would be a trigger. If there is no other option, as was this case, use "collectable item".
•If possible don't use USPS. Not that you are intentionally trying to skirt some law, but avoid overreach like I went thru.
God bless, and thanks for all the comments, they were greatly appreciated.
Oh and you should see the tracking, it possibly broke a Guiness Word Record, lols.
As far as I know, your local USPS post office has no authority to seize the contents of a package for perceived customs violations. Work your way up the chain of command until you reach someone with gonads and common sense.
Which reminds me of a joke:
Which reminds me of a joke:
Maybe redact your personal info and post a copy of the letter so all can see what any stated regulations were at issue were and any other issues the P.O. felt applied - that would be helpful to pretty much anyone on here I believe and yes, would explain what started the mess.
Honestly without that your take doesn't really help all that much, but does point the finger at the seller pretty squarely - now is it fairly? No way to know without knowing what the P.O. says was the cause of the bottleneck. And again, would be helpful to anyone dealing with any or certain overseas shippers.
No doubt misidentification of contents is a pretty big deal when dealing with overseas shipments.
People are complete idiots for even using the word "cigarette", "cigar", or "tobacco pipes" in descriptions in the mail. Don't these morons know that these words are triggers for weaker minded humans? I would say all of this is because of the moron that mailed the objects and wrote that in the description, fucking idiots?
I agree, and not saying this happened, lol, but imagine:
Customer calling: "Hey, where is my package, I see it sitting there on tracking."
[Exchange of information and blah, blah].
P.O.: "There are some questions about the description on the customs declaration. . ."
Customer: "Don't worry about that, what's in there isn't what is on the declaration form for customs."
P.O.: "Thank you sir, we'll have to get back to you."
However it happened, could be something got through customs someone down the line caught later that maybe shouldn't have (which I would assume spells disaster for getting the package) or something related to the particular state. No idea, just spitballing, but would honestly be interesting to see what the P.O. has offered by way of admonition or explanation or both.
This is what I get for not reading the entire thread!
However, the USPS has no authority to enforce customs regulations. If they suspect something is amiss, they can contact customs, or the police. Either of them would need a warrant to open the package, unless there was probable cause to believe there was imminent danger related to the package.
However, the USPS has no authority to enforce customs regulations. If they suspect something is amiss, they can contact customs, or the police. Either of them would need a warrant to open the package, unless there was probable cause to believe there was imminent danger related to the package.
Last edited:
Haha, I was teasing someone yesterday about a pipe they asked about whether to buy and ……. too late to edit when I saw he already bought it. Oops, I meant great purchase!
Why? they have a bunch of people you are paying to do just that.Have to toss an lol at "contacted your congressman's office" over a piece of mail at a local post office!
There was zero communication. No apologies. All they would discuss with me when I was able to get a hold of someone, is it has been intercepted by the Postal Inspector. They were playing a game of cloak and dagger with me. I only know of the declaration from the other two boxes. The last one arrived today.
The seller has sold over 200 pipes into the US, and this is the first time this has happened.
The shipper, Haypost, is to blame for the declaration, not the seller. And he had reason to believe that was ok as there has been no prior issues. Haypost insisted on using "cigar holder/cigarette holder" as they did not have "smoking pipe" in thier system.
He will be using "collectable item" in the future. He is dealing with a mail service that has limited selections for declaration. No write in. Only other option in DHL Express and that is over $70 where he lives. If I buy from him again, I will probably ask to hold untill I buy two or three, and ship all with DHL.
I have bought from Smokingpipes Europe a few times, and never had a problem. I even bought a few pipes in the middle of all this (before I received the letter). They put the invoice on the outside, and described then as "smoking pipes".
So smoking pipe "should" be ok as a declaration, but you never know what someone at the Post Office will do. They are instructed to flag anything they "feel" is suspicious, which just fuels overreach, people getting falsely accused, and going thru a similar nightmare.
In my opinion it is USPS's fault, and thier overreach, possibly Haypost, but not the seller. USPS was quite eager to try and go after me, without even looking inside the box. I know this, because when I talked to the federal agent, after receiving the letter, she asked if they can open them. Even as declared by Haypost, a holder is not directly listed in PACT as contraband, but it is certainly open for interpretation. I mean there are still fights over the reading of the US constitution for goodness sakes.
Needless to say, I will not be using USPS anymore for anything overseas, that much is for sure.
1. Glad you got it.
2. Guess that's a "no" on the actual letter, so we won't be getting much light shed on the reasons.
3. You could have included the info about "Haypost" to start with and some of the other, would have been helpful, more facts, less rant!
4. Other than languishing in NY or god forbid Chicago 3-4 times for clearing customs and whatever they were doing with the pipes, books, gifts and etc. in those orders in the meantime, I've never had an issue with any overseas shipping agent from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Brazil, France, Canada, or a seller (yeah, he should have known better) not knowing how to declare goods for shipping BUT clearly there was an issue with whatever "Haypost" is in your case - something tripped a red flag but absent the letter to know exactly where USPS was coming from, can't blame them at this point, but that's all IMO and I'm not the victim, so again, glad you got it and glad you can now get some sleep!
5. Only solution I'm seeing is doing an "Outlander" and speaking up when you get there - lots of tobacco growers!
Thanks. Sorry, one of the issues with this type of communication is no tone/inflection. Not ranting, just trying to make sense of a strange and concerning situation, and possibly help others out who may run into this briar patch.1. Glad you got it.
2. Guess that's a "no" on the actual letter, so we won't be getting much light shed on the reasons.
3. You could have included the info about "Haypost" to start with and some of the other, would have been helpful, more facts, less rant!
4. Other than languishing in NY or god forbid Chicago 3-4 times for clearing customs and whatever they were doing with the pipes, books, gifts and etc. in those orders in the meantime, I've never had an issue with any overseas shipping agent from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Brazil, France, Canada, or a seller (yeah, he should have known better) not knowing how to declare goods for shipping BUT clearly there was an issue with whatever "Haypost" is in your case - something tripped a red flag but absent the letter to know exactly where USPS was coming from, can't blame them at this point, but that's all IMO and I'm not the victim, so again, glad you got it and glad you can now get some sleep!
5. Only solution I'm seeing is doing an "Outlander" and speaking up when you get there - lots of tobacco growers!
View attachment 240223
As far as the letter, it is a matter of keeping my anonymity as much as possible, as no two letters are likely the same, to my knowledge, and can still be possibly traced back to me. I don't want to poke the bee hive.
I can tell you that it said "it has been been determined that you have knowingly sought to import contraband tobacco products" and the statute mentioned was the PACT act. (Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking) Was threatened with fines and imprisonment.
While pipes can be categorized as a "tobacco product", the key word would be "contraband". A lack of communication and tight lipped answers I did get, leaves allot to the imagination. A more accurate wording would have been "reason to believe" in place of "determined". That still would have not been any less stressful, lol. Either way it was an overreach.
Please just take my situation as a warning that this kind of thing can happen with any foreign purchase. Not saying avoid it, but maybe not use USPS. If you are in a small town, and know the people at your PO, then it would most likely play out a bit differently.
I have even heard of people importing pipe tobacco for personal use, and technically it is supposed to be ok, but I wouldn't try it, not after this. The only thing I would be after anyways would be HU, and I just heard the owner is shutting down, so that temptation is no longer there.
Personally, I am close to done with my collection anyways, I have enough pipes, and any further purchases will be sparse.
Looking forward to conversing with you all on happier posts.
God bless,
P.C.