Zoll- Customs Office

The customs office experience is new. I say that because I’ve never dealt with customs office in America. The husband informed me every country has stringent rules for international packages. Surprisingly, I’ve never dealt with any of this in America. And I’d already decided I wanted to share this story.

I ordered a warm sweater from Etsy. (Did I mention it’s brutally cold here?) Etsy is a host website for individual/private parties to sell homemade and/or vintage materials without outrageous fees. It allows people to start an online business with free promotion. Etsy sellers sell everything under the sun including clothes, shoes, jewelry, paintings, and household goods.

After ordering and paying, the seller (in US) mailed me the sweater by post. Few weeks later I received a letter from Zoll (customs) asking me to pick up my package.

Unfortunately for us living in old city customs office is in the middle of nowhere. It’s an ubahn to the last stop and two bus transfers away. If that wasn’t enough, there is a 6 minute walk from the bus stop to the office.

Once there, I took a number to be called by one of the workers. Everyone has to wait until their number is called. When my number was called, I went through a closed door and asked for my package. The lady behind the counter asked for my passport and afterward fetched my package. With the box in hand, she asked me for an invoice. Invoice? I gave her a puzzled look. She explained all packages require invoices; if the package does not contain an invoice to scan, the recipient has to pick it up, with an invoice.

I didn’t get that memo.

So I called the husband for plan B since the office is so far away from our apartment. The clever man that he is suggested he fax the invoice while I wait. The kind lady agreed and gave me the fax number. After 15 minutes, she retrieved the package and called me to the back room. She wrote my information on a form and signed off on the package. She explained that items valued at less than 22 Euros are tax free and I was free to go, however in future if I had an international item worth more than 22 Euros, I would be called into the Zoll to pay the appropriate tax for the item.

An American friend in Nürnberg told me her mother sent her a kindle as a gift. She had to deal with customs and paid tax on the kindle, a steep sum, she said.

I ordered two pairs of sandals from a vendor in Greece and asked him to include the invoice in the package. He knew the process so he agreed to reduce the price of the sandals on the invoice even though I paid him the full amount. There are always ways to find loopholes in the system, leave it to us to find them.

Although I haven’t worn the sweater and the sandals at the same time, I’ve enjoyed both in their appropriate season.