OT mostly - Shipping USA to England?

"Liz from Humbug" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Postal service if you can - it's the most reasonable and you will not have UPS or FedEx charging her money for 'clearing customs'

I'm also asking here on rctn

They may decide to open it

Is there a way to

You could lie, but it's not advisable. Frankly, if this is for Xmas, it's cutting it pretty fine now. I am sure you could buy those online in the UK and buy her twice as many. It really is for the birds mailing stuff these days.

One of my daughters has a boyfriend who has a dog (from an abused home) who is a compulsive rock chewer. She can really ruin a BBQ ! She has nearly worn her teeth down, I shouldn't laugh because it is a real problem.

Isn't there something you could send her that is light, fits in a padded envelope, far less grief lol

Unfortunately you have to complete a customs form (in either direction) and state what the contents are. Wrap it well with bubble wrap, particularly if it`s a glass jar.

I don`t THINK any of my packages have arrived broken, unless the recipients were too polite to tell me! I`ve certainly never had anything broken arrive in this direction!

Pat

Liz from Humbug wrote: > Is there a way to

You do have to put some information on the customs slip, but it's allowable to be vague. "Candy" and "handcrafts" will suffice instead of a detailed description.

The customs slips are rather small, so if there's something you really want to be a surprise, just list everything else first so you run out of room before you get there. A friend in East Germany had hinted that phonograph records of Teach Yourself English would be most welcome, so we buried them deep in the box under the chocolate and the crayons and the Christmas decorations, and, darn it, by the time I wrote "Christmas Candy, etc." in both English and German on the customs slip, there was no room to list a second item. I just don't know *how* I ran out of room before I got to "phonograph records". ;) The records weren't illegal, it just might have caused some suspicions among the authorities why this family thought they needed to learn English (i.e., were they planning an escape).

The records made it through no problem. Her kids learned English and are both now working in the tourist industry where it's beneficial to be multi-lingual.

Thanks to all for the extra help. I'm sure I could find something in England to send her, but that wouldn't be as fun as "Rogue River Rocks" (not to mention that it would require a credit card, which we are doing without right now). Even if the box is late for Christmas, there is always New Years. ;-) Now I can just zip down to the post office (15 miles away) and, since I'm that far towards town, I might as well stop at the LNS and then the farm store for chicken food & potassium chloride for the water softener. Liz from Humbug

I agree with Karen. Have sent things overseas for many years, and non-specificity is fine. I think they also look at the value stated, and is it really worth the hassle to check the package?? I have never had problems, but they can occur, as we discovered when we entered Canada last summer. Another horror story!!

Gillian, originally UK, now everywhere!!

Gill Murray ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

I had an ebay parcel that was opened on your side and ours last week. I hope they found it edifying, merely an Ulster Weavers tea towel with Singing Santas on it lol

when you go to the post office tell them this is a gift they then will cut the it so that they person receiving does not know what is in side. I ship all the time to the UK. Oh and you can wrap the gifts in side but use a plane box to ship it all in if you can also do not attach the custom form let them do this so they can adjust it. if you have any qustions please email me off list and I will try to help

snipped-for-privacy@visn.net

Dawn

You do have to fill out a customs form, but you can just label it candy if you don't want her to know what type of candy. And definitely go USPS, it's cheaper, trust me! You can play a bit fast and loose by labeling it as "household goods", though. I've done that when I didn't want my bud in London to know right away what was in the yearly box of goodies we ship each other. I actually had a postal agent suggest that route, so I'm guessing you can still get away with it. Tegan

I wonder what they made of that!

Cheryl

Cheryl Isaak ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

They didn't put a note in to say, in fact all they did was open it and stamp it. I suppose to acknowledge that it had been opened officially, rather than my mailman just being curious.