This might come as no surprise to people who live
outside of Canada and regularly have trouble with parcels being delayed in
customs, but for me it has been a nightmare that is causing a ridiculous amount
of stress. Forgive the rantiness of this
blog but I am quite upset right now.
My lovely mother decided that she was going to do
something really nice for me since it is almost Halloween – does it need to be
said that this is the best part of my year?-
and unfortunately in Spain Halloween is not celebrated like it is back
home. Oh there is the odd decoration in
a store window and a tiny display of shitty Halloween marshmallow candies at a
couple grocery shops but overall it just isn’t a thing here. So my mom knowing how much I miss being in Canada
for this holiday sent me two parcels full of Halloween goodies!
I know it seems like such a sweet gesture, and it
is, but unfortunately Spanish customs does not give a shit about my happiness
or the delay of my parcel, which was insanely expensive as it was sent
express. So let me tell you the tale of
why I hate customs.
My mom goes into the Canadian post office and
mails me the two parcels of Halloween candies, cookies, a magazine, a card and
some fun bat decorations. This was worth
less than 30 dollars. Just some fun
things to brighten up my dreary days here. She decided to send it express so
that I would have it within a week. This
cost an unreasonable amount of money that I will not say but it’s likely a lot
more than you are imagining.
On Thursday, eight days after she put it in the
mail, I get a letter in my mailbox from the Customs agency saying they have my
parcel in Madrid and I need to go online to fill out their forms before they
will decide what to do with it. Now keep
in mind everything must be done in Spanish, which no I still do not speak
fluently, and as great as online translators are they just do not always get it
right.
I go on the website and they need a copy of a
signed form with the following information:
My name, My address, who the package is from, and
what is inside it – All information they already have since parcels coming
from Canada are required to post it on the box.
They also need a proof of purchase form stating
how much I paid for the items and what they are, my receipts for whatever I
purchased and of course copies of my ID.
So I filled out all the information stating what was in the packages (at
the time not realizing they only had one of them not both). I explained in a letter that these were gifts
from my mother and I did not have a proof of purchase or receipts and I waited.
Tuesday I got a new letter from them in the mail
saying they had a parcel for me in customs. I then realized they only had the
first one to begin with so I had to go back online and fill out all the forms
again, along with a letter explaining why I said there was so much in one of
the parcels when it was actually split into two parcels.
On Wednesday I received an email asking me to
fill out a new form for each parcel again describing what was in the boxes and
how much it was all worth. Along with all
my personal information as well as my mothers.
(Haven’t I already done this - twice?)
On Friday I finally received two emails telling
me how much I would have to pay for each box to be released from customs. Now like I said these parcels contain
basically just candy worth less than 30 dollars total. Customs has decided I will have to pay 94.26
euros to get my packages! That is 139.03
Canadian dollars for my package of candy which is worth less than 30
dollars! That has already been paid for
in Canada. Seething rage right now.
I go to the post office on Saturday, which the
form says I can do, to make my payment.
The lady there says no you do not need to pay it they will just bring
you your parcels to your house and you can pay then. I said I didn’t think that was what the form
said and she just shrugged it off. I
knew that she clearly had no idea what she was talking about. I had a friend read the emails and she said
that it would not be released until I paid the money, but I should do it at the
bank since the post office didn’t seem to know what to do. Isn’t this their job?!
I am not surprised she treated me in this manor
because it seems whenever I have encountered someone in Spain who does not
understand something I am asking for they just send me away and say no with no
explanation or attempt to figure out the problem – Just No. Honestly I feel it is because I am a foreigner
and they do not want to deal with me because I do not speak Spanish. This happens all too often here. I have never felt so much like an outsider as
I have in Spain.
( Just to be clear I am not saying every person
in Spain treats me like I do not matter but it happens more often than not )
I had to wait until Monday to go to the bank
because they are not open on Saturdays here.
So Monday I go into the bank and explain I need to pay this bill. They tell me they cannot accept the money and
I have to pay it through the bank machine (Seriously?!). I am really frustrated at this point and feel
defeated - as I usually do when I need to accomplish anything in this
country. I make the payments get the
receipts and think I am well on my way to having my stuff released from
customs.
When I got home I emailed the receipts to the
address I was provided with to do so and I wait. About an hour later I get a response saying I
cannot send the receipts through email (GRRRRRR but the letter said….) and that
I must upload them to the website in the space provided. Well guess what - no space is provided to do
so! I have spent hours on this site
searching for anything I might have missed and it does not exist.
I have now emailed the address I was given three
times with no response, there is no place on the actual site to contact them, I
even emailed the technical issues to ask what to do, since technically the place
they are telling me to upload the receipts is not available, and now I sit here
almost two weeks later no closer to actually having the parcels, nobody
responding to my messages, and the website saying we need you to pay the money
so we can release the parcels.
There is no reason this should have
happened. There is nothing suspicious
about the parcels and they are worth monetarily nothing. The fact that they stopped both parcels, not
even on the same day, tells me it is nothing more than a way for them to steal
my money. They know I will pay for the mail so they are making me.
I have never had to deal with anything like this
in Canada. Yes we have customs,
obviously, but they do not stop parcels without a good reason to do so, here
it is just a cash grab. I have had tons
of parcels sent to me in Canada, done a bunch of online shopping etc. and have
never encountered an issue. Also to put the icing on the cake I mailed my mom something two days after she mailed my stuff to me and she received her parcel before I even received my first letter telling me my stuff was in customs. And her parcel didnt even say what was in it on the box because they dont make you do that here because they do not actually care what is in the box! Spain has already made all the money they are going to off me when I mail it so they just leave it alone and Canada does not just stop random parcels without good reason because they do not need to steal my money.
I am actually going to sit and eat every single candy and cookie in these parcels as soon as they arrive because they are the most expensive candies of life! That is if I ever do receive them....
So anyway to conclude this rant just do not ever mail anything to Spain, It isn’t worth the hassle.
