Customs in Germany throws a $1200 camera into the garbage...
I'm totally upset today, excuse me. I recently sold a used FujiFilm FinePix IS Pro camera ($2400 new retail price) to a buyer in Germany. It was brand new in top condition, used maybe for 100-200 photos, that's all. I didn't have the manuals or original box anymore, just the charger and cables. So I sold it for $1200 with shipping on eBay. I have another one and this one was my wife's, but she got a new camera and never uses it. Anyways, I ship the package with Express Courier and it arrives within 2 days in Germany. The latest known status was "Accepted into customs". Great, I wait 2 weeks. The customer also waits 2 weeks and finally he writes me back that he never received it. Up until then I always thought that the status just didn't update. So I contact Deutsche Post (German post office) and they tell me they never received it from customs.
So I place a complaint with German Customs in Frankfurt (where the package was last tracked) and 2 days later (today) I get a response from them that the package had been "destroyed" because it was a counterfeit camera. Are you kidding me? I bought this camera myself here in Tokyo in one of the biggest Fuji stores. I wrote them back all these facts and told them to please send me the camera back. They said that it had already been destroyed. Of course, they didn't apologize. The lady that answered even told me that they did this because "most of the world's counterfeits come from Japan". Riiiiiiiiiiight. She has no idea that China and Japan are 2 different countries. Great. Japan a counterfeit capital? Give me a break. You can't even enter with a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ LV bag at the airport without them taking it away from you.
Great, I'm now expecting a PayPal dispute for $1200 AND on top I lose the camera. There's no way that camera was a counterfeit. If I checked with my accountant he could probably even find the original receipt for it but I doubt Customs in Germany will ever pay back a cent. :(
Last edited by Modee; 06-30-2008 at 06:58 PM.
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