Why do customs make declaring such a nightmare???

[bb721]

Both a rant and tangentially related to shopping. Every time I buy luxe goods (mostly in Europe) I always declare. Even before they purportedly shared shopping information with US border patrol. I also always fully declare, no funny math or rounding thousands down

That being said, the second I walk over to the area they inspect you you're some convict hiding something. Lots of rude questioning (debating whether your older items had just been bought), off handed comments about if you were lying about something, my bags totally ripped apart and never put back together, every single piece of clothing taken out. Any medications I have inspected etc. They dont even have someone waiting to take your payments when you're ready to pay and always need to be called over.

Declaring is the legal thing to do, but when youre readily about to pay 1-2K+ in taxes I guess I'm just shocked they can't even treat you nicely? Why do you get treated like a criminal? Is this all in my head? It just puts me in a terrible mood!

 

[Mrs.Z]

Sorry to hear this. I wasn’t treated like a criminal but I did spend an hour there after a very long flight with someone who was pretty incompetent, going over what everything is made of blah blah blah. They need to streamline the process, I vowed I would never shop overseas again after that!

 

[bb721]

Ugh it really is insane. Every time it takes me 30 mins - 1 hr too. He kept asking me if I was hiding anything, did I have any contraband, did I legally want to change my response to anything.

Same with asking about what everything is made of. Its just a woefully terrible experience when youre trying to do the right thing

 

[880]

I’m so sorry this happens to you. It also happens to a close relative, but she travels with a lot of luggage and cash (which she declares). Once she forgot she had an extra 300 USD over the permissible amount, so now they always stop her; make her open everything up; and ask if she has any ‘change’ she forgot to declare. It’s really annoying for her too. I declare on the global entry form. But, I really hate shopping abroad bc of customs hassle, and so I tend only to buy a few things at Paris FSH that I cannot get at home. If I do buy anything else, I would rather the retailer ship it. I’m usually waved through when I get to the declaration point.

I think it’s bc DH and I don’t check luggage, even for a month long trip. At most, we each carry on a rimowa roller and coordinating same size weekender, permissible in our travel category. When I disembark at my final destination, I do pull out a flattened Goyard St. Louis (mainly used for travel) out of my weekender and pop the declarable items into it. Even with the stuff in the open St. Louis stacked on top of the two carryons, I think customs and passport control literally assume we don’t have room for much in the way of shopping. I habitually don’t accept any boxes or packaging from the boutique either at home or abroad.

I do travel with premier designer RTW bc that’s what I wear normally, but i chose items that easily roll into my packing cubes. I do vaguely recall one incident when security asked me to open my roller. I had stashed away a tin of Turkish delight that a guide had given to us (It just read as an unknown metal object) When they saw the candy and the packing cubes, they just motioned me to close up the case. Another time, detax at CDG asked me to produce a skirt I bought in Vienna which was under two H bags. But after I lifted up the H bags, they lost interest in seeing the skirt lol.

It might help that I also tend not to wear logo intensive items; I live in my birkenstock sneakers; and I wear the same jewelry every day. With my (albeit self imposed) limited space, I also don’t generally travel with rigid or heavy bags like BKC or chanel, and I don’t pack or wear any chanel boucle (too bulky lol). I think all of these things help to get me through, but of course IDK for certain. I wish you better luck for your future trips!

 

[CoastalCouture]

I come and go through San Francisco and also have complaints about the customs experience there. Your case is much more extreme than mine. I also have declared overseas purchases only to be lectured that I was over the limit, that there were duties to pay, that I could have bought these same items in the United States, blahblahblah. After all that, the cashier's office was closed and I was free to go. You'd think they would have found someone to open it and take my money. I almost would rather have had that than the lecture.

 

[880]

that there were duties to pay

I do get the impression that no one in customs wants to calculate duty

I could have bought these same items in the United States, blahblahblah

What!!!!!!

 

[MandyJ22]

I went through it with a handbag on me,asked me if there was drugs in it and told them no being honest.Went through it tearing apart the inside finding no drugs in it.I did lawyer up on this when I got home.Lawyer saw my rights were being violated and they paid for a new handbag just like it.Plus the two agents were fired that did this

 

[bb721]

I come and go through San Francisco and also have complaints about the customs experience there. Your case is much more extreme than mine. I also have declared overseas purchases only to be lectured that I was over the limit, that there were duties to pay, that I could have bought these same items in the United States, blahblahblah. After all that, the cashier's office was closed and I was free to go. You'd think they would have found someone to open it and take my money. I almost would rather have had that than the lecture.

Lol that cashiers office is never staffed. I also go through SFO, they always have to hail someone over and I have to wait another 10+ minutes until some person can come and swipe my card. Looking at the historical payments, it looks like most people they force to pay paid a minimum of 1K+, a few unlucky outliers who were in the ~600 range.

I can't imagine that person is making 600-1000 dollars in a shift. You'd think they'd bother to keep it fully staffed all the time

Also wow can not believe the lecture! And actually stock in the US these days is pretty awful. And whats a euro vacation with no shopping

 

[brnicutie]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear this. I never have issues when coming home from abroad. I fly into HNL (Honolulu) and they never go through my things. From what I have noticed not too many declare. For those that don't declare they wait in a long line and all their things get searched. For the few of us that do, they put us in a different line. They ask for the declaration form that you fill out on the plane and the receipts. Then, they just let me through without even opening any of my things. I'm out within 10 minutes. I guess I should be grateful.

 

[880]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear this. I never have issues when coming home from abroad. I fly into HNL (Honolulu) and they never go through my things. From what I have noticed not too many declare. For those that don't declare they wait in a long line and all their things get searched. For the few of us that do, they put us in a different line. They ask for the declaration form that you fill out on the plane and the receipts. Then, they just let me through without even opening any of my things. I'm out within 10 minutes. I guess I should be grateful.

Whoa, I miss that declaration form. I’m old school that way. I haven’t seen one in years. . . You are lucky!

 

[bb721]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear this. I never have issues when coming home from abroad. I fly into HNL (Honolulu) and they never go through my things. From what I have noticed not too many declare. For those that don't declare they wait in a long line and all their things get searched. For the few of us that do, they put us in a different line. They ask for the declaration form that you fill out on the plane and the receipts. Then, they just let me through without even opening any of my things. I'm out within 10 minutes. I guess I should be grateful.

I think youre right many don't - I do know people who don't declare, and some that scoot by and others who have been stopped at MIA and LAX (sometimes days after the fact) after not declaring and getting their precheck/global entry stripped and getting slapped with huge fines.

And ah I LOVE Honolulu So jealous of the shopping and great vibes there! Its so nice to be able to whip out the nice things on the streets of waikiki and not worry about getting socked in the face (happened to me last week in SF lol)

 

[brnicutie]

I think youre right many don't - I do know people who don't declare, and some that scoot by and others who have been stopped at MIA and LAX (sometimes days after the fact) after not declaring and getting their precheck/global entry stripped and getting slapped with huge fines.

And ah I LOVE Honolulu So jealous of the shopping and great vibes there! Its so nice to be able to whip out the nice things on the streets of waikiki and not worry about getting socked in the face (happened to me last week in SF lol)

Omg, sorry you got hit in the face! Yikes! I'm so happy that you love it here. Yes, the vibe here is really mellow.

 

[Kevinaxx]

I think youre right many don't - I do know people who don't declare, and some that scoot by and others who have been stopped at MIA and LAX (sometimes days after the fact) after not declaring and getting their precheck/global entry stripped and getting slapped with huge fines.

And ah I LOVE Honolulu So jealous of the shopping and great vibes there! Its so nice to be able to whip out the nice things on the streets of waikiki and not worry about getting socked in the face (happened to me last week in SF lol)

I’m sorry that happened to you! I’ve never gotten physically attacked in sf but believe that can happen (did have a crazy grab my boob but that is another story).

I have had crazies attack me in the peninsula though…

Like @880, I don’t check bags in. It’s just the rimowa carry-on and a tote (usually longchamp now because it’s nylon and light). I’ve never been stopped except for a small airport in Japan but once they saw my bra on top of the carryon they just shut it and waived me on.

 

[lalame]

I'm surprised to hear the comments about SFO.. I've never had to pay, in all my years traveling (and I always buy designer goods during travel)! Maybe they only make you pay if it's "worth it" aka a lot of fees to be paid. The usually just wave me right through.

 

[rutabaga]

I’m surprised to hear this bc I didn’t get a form flying back to SFO this trip and all they asked was if I had candy or coffee in my bag and waved me through. It was strangely lenient. I did upload my passport into the airline’s app though. I’ve had my bag rifled through in the past because small items (safety and bobby pins - was in a wedding) went missing.