Caution, US Customs Crackdown!!

[DevilDog]

As far as I know... That's what that means. Hopefully your stuff should be ok!

[WTS-Mike]

Yep, your good!
that is the customs point (transit point)
;D

[DevilDog]

Cool!!! At least someone is getting their stuff! Hpefully this is just a phase the Customs Service is going through while they try to participate in the Homeland Defense plan. It's sad that they have to wait until now to do their job right. I mean orange paint is orange paint. Who really cares what shade it is. As for making the weapons all orange plastic... It you build a better mousetrap, they will just build a better mouse!

Things are starting to relax in the military community abit. Our Threat Condition isn't near as high as it was almost a year ago.

[Bigmack]

how does it show up if the order has been halted?

[Minky]

"Your parcel is now being fondled by sweaty Customs agents, and will be promptly processed and delivered to you in various states of broken"

;D

[Bigmack]

now you're getting grease-gunned.

[DevilDog]

Hopefully you have super glue and patience to put ti back together!

[WTS-Mike]

It says:
17 Aug 2002 09:40 Los Angeles
Held customs-awaiting clearance instructions from receiver

next day after you call TNT with your shipment contents and invoice with individual costs ........

You see this

17 Aug 2002 18:00 Los Angeles
Consignment held for inspection by customs

and if all goes well it will say out for delivery..... ;D

just in my case it was missing all of the guns, only the non-trademarked items & accessories arrived.......

[WTS-Mike]

I just spent all morning on the phone with TNT and US Customs, and I have to retract my attitude a little.
The broker at TNT made it sound like one agent was inspiring this, but in talking to the actual customs agent, he was very helpful and courteous, in fact he even called me back on my cell to tell me he was faxing me some copies of the actual import law for my reference.

He also explained that there is an actual color number for the orange paint and honestly the orange that WGC had been using was not very "blazing"
Now as far as trades go he said that as long as they were puttied over and not easily uncovered, that would be ok, he said of course the dremel treatment would be sufficient too.

I also asked about the solid orange flashhiders that have been coming thru (without inspection) and he said while he hadn't dealt with any yet, the law reads that the orange part/paint must be an integral part of the gun , so he was going to see if I had any of them (orange flashhiders on gun) in my seized goods and send it up to the commerce department to make a ruling on whether or not that was "integral" enough.
I explained to him that I could dissasemble the gun into little peices and yes some of them would leave the end of the gun NOT ORANGE, but in the same sentence I also said but how ridiculous do we want to get.......?? he agreed.

Also he said that he would see if there was a way to send back the ones that were seized for barrel paint to be repainted. but as far as the trademarked ones he said that was a violation of trademark law and there was no way of getting them sent back or forwarded, due to that actually being an attempt at illegal importation (so a law was broken)

I gotta say that I really felt the agent was trying to help me get my shipment thru and avoid any future losses.

[DevilDog]

That's cool!! At least they are trying to be helpful. When you get the laws from customs, could you send a copy my way? I'd like to look at them.

[fofuz]

At least it's not as bad as we thought it was. Nice to know they're not out to get us like we thought they were, and he's right about the barrel paint. We do have to put safety/the law before looks, and (as you said) the paint on the end of the guns isn't very blazing (at least that was true on my Glock).

I'm glad everything's getting sorted out!

[DevilDog]

Very true!! Safety and the law SHOULD come before looks. If we want this sport to thrive, we need to follow these little guidelines!!!

[fofuz]

Exactly! Because of that, I'm almost happy that they stopped it. Think about it, when laws aren't enforced what do people do? Abuse them. So, by enforcing them now while the offense is minimal, we can get back on track without a huge punishment.

However, it does suck for all those shipments that were seized and are lost in airsoft never-never land.

[Andy]

My friend nate has been trying to buy a aeg from ebay, things didnt work out and he refunded his money. He is planing to buy a AEG from mike as soon this deal is over.

[DevilDog]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's experience with E-bay... But, that's a good thing for Mike at WTS!!

Fofuz.. You are right on the money. As long as we can get this problem nipped in the but now, we won't have to worry about this kind of stuff in the future. I hope as a community we have learned from this.

I feel really bad for those who lost their shipments when Customs siezed them. Since 11 Sept 01, things have become topsy turvy. This is just a little bump in the road. If the manufacturers can get on the same page with the Federal Government, then this sort of thing should not happen again.