QKO

Makes me happy that all our packages going overseas are labeled "Fabric" or "Sewing Supplies."

Favorite Fabrics

Likewise for us, too! Since all we sell is fabric, that's what the contents are listed as on the Customs forms when we do the shipping.

But I'm very glad that this issue was brought up here on the forum. There are probably lots of members who ship this-or-that internationally, and it's helpful to know that if shipping to Australia, you won't want to label a package "arts and crafts supplies"!

Favorite Fabrics

Ummm... I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this - and I hope you won't be upset with me, BellaBoo! - but it isn't quite that simple.

You could be diligent and do your research, and come up with "the facts" as they are in October 2011, but that doesn't mean that the rules won't change at some point in the future. And how would you even know that the rules had changed? You would have to keep checking, every so often. How often? Monthly? Yearly? Then multiply that by the number of countries that you are shipping to.

At least with Australia, their Customs website (or whatever it is properly called) would be written in English. But... in our case, we have shipped to Norway, and Thailand, and Italy (and dozens of other countries)... and I don't speak any of those languages. I know there are online website translators but I would not assume that they would do such a good job that I could rely on the translation to be perfectly accurate, or even good enough for me to base my business procedures around their results.

I think it's probably expecting too much of a merchant, to expect the merchant to be fully informed of the intricacies of Customs/Duty laws in all countries.

Perhaps what is best, is to say that in the course of doing business, anytime something "goes wrong", it means that you have just encountered a LEARNING EXPERIENCE. When that happens, you have a chance to educate yourself (as a merchant or a shopper). And then you can change your procedures: fill out the Customs forms differently (merchant) or add instructions/comments to your order (shopper).

Now that I think about it... the concept of "Learning Experience" applies to pretty much all of life, not just business transactions.

It keeps us all growing, stretching, listening, refining... and getting better all the time! :)

I'm very glad that Carol B shared her experience with us, so that all of us who read about it could learn from it.