Customs confiscations

Everyone should check out this thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/791686/

Beth -- thanks for adding this here.

I was pretty bummed, and have to say, i most likely will not trade with gals in CA now, just for the fact the seeds may not make it.

so glad you offered seeds for SASE [which i have not done yet].

Terese

What a shame. Sorry to hear that it happened to your trade, Terese. Major bummer. I also did a trade and have yet to receive anything. Perhaps it was confiscated and I will never know what happened to it. Not the fault of the trader. I sent seeds to Canada before and never had a problem either way. Maybe customs is doing spot checks or cracking down now and your envie just was one of the ones that was confiscated. Truly a bummer!!!

This is a bummer for sure. I'm worried about those seeds I sent you Becky - I sent them Nov 6th, and I would have thought they should have been there by now...

Amazingly, I did send seeds to Gourd (Antoinette) around the same time, and she received hers last week. And I've trade with Syrunami in San Antonio as well and not had any problems.

If I did trade with anyone else in the U.S. now, it would probably be a good idea if I sent mine first, and then have the trader in the U.S. wait to see if they get anything before they send their seeds to me. Otherwise, I probably just won't engage in trades; it's not fair to you guys...

Joanne :(

Hi Joanne - I would love to receive the seeds you sent me ... as you had some very nice ones that I wanted to grow out, but ... I personally am not upset with you if they happen to have gotten confiscated. Definitely not your fault. I have received other trades from Canada myself without any problems. And I may still get yours. Mail is quite slow here. :-)

In all honesty, I would be far more upset if you didn't get the seeds that I sent to you! I don't like wasting my "precious" seeds! lol And if the customs folks want the MGs for themselves, then they could just politely ask me for some instead of taking them! LOL! I am very glad that you did receive mine. :-) I'm one of those folks that like to give more than receive, so I am quite fine with the fact that I was able to share some of mine with you! :-)

And ya never know ... yours might just arrive in my mailbox on Monday! :-)

Becky -- hopefully they do not go thru customs in Chicago. seems they nap them BUT - you will at least get the envelope with the letter in it stating that they were destroyed.

also, from what was said in that other thread... the problem seems to be seeds coming into the US, not leaving the US.
But I've gotten seeds from Spain with no troubles [and odd thing was, there was NO postage on the envelope, so thinking back, I'm surprised it wasnt put under more scrutiny.]

hopefully you will get your seeds soon ... now with the holidays, mail can even be slower.

OH and I whole heartedly agree that it is no fault to the sender.... it's the gov't.

Terese

You guys, I sent a quilting pattern in march to Canada, and the lady didn't receive it till July 11.. so, it could be delayed for some reason too.. It makes me wonder what the heck they thought the papers in the envelope were..lol. secret instructions ...

Do you all remember that lady (it could be an old urban legend) that was reading her crochet instructions while crocheting on the plane during her trip and they accused her of being a spy.. lol. dc2, ch1, dc3, ch2... this reminds me of that. My secret quilting pattern.

Joanne - did we mark our envelopes as containing seeds? I don't remember . . . but how would they know to search the envelopes if we didn't? Even so, I wouldn't hesitate to trade seeds with you again!

Thanks Nichole! I have always put customs forms on my envelopes that I've sent to the U.S. I've either put "Morning Glory Seeds" or "Flower Seeds" on the form. Seems now like it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. LOL.

Joanne

Good news, Joanne! I received your bubble envelope today and ALL the seed packs were in it and the envelope had NOT been opened! I am now thinking that maybe customs does spot checks and if for some reason they think "seeds" aren't acceptable, they confiscate them. Lucky for me that I got your seeds! YAY!!! And you did put a customs form on it what stated the contents were "Flower seeds".

THANK YOU so much for the seeds and following up with me about this whole ordeal! Awesome how things worked out! I am really sorry that Terese's envie was not so lucky. (Major bummer!)

Becky -- so glad to hear you got your seeds.

yanno, i do not recall a "customs" form on my envie.... maybe they took that too.

Woo hoo! That's 3 out of 4 trades that made it okay from here to the U.S. That makes me feel a whole lot better, though still sad for Terese - bummer.

well, thanks to you and Beth -- I'll still get some.... but sorry your postage was wasted.

Dontcha just love happy endings!!! :-)