Sending parcel abroad

lucy345_2

Hi all,
I would like your advice on the following matter:
We had to send parcels abroad to the work address of the receiver.
The parcels contain gifts and were declared clearly as peronal items outside the boxes.
When the parcels arrived at the destination country the Customs changed the status of parcels as commercial (because of the work-company adress chosen as delivery address) and the receiver was not contacted.
Now we are blamed that's because we chose the work address of the receiver as delivery address, we should know this would happen.
When we did the contact on the parcel company's website (which wasnt very suitable at all) we were not warned this would happen if we choose a work address. And at subsequent chat with that company they couldnt advice us why that happened.
Who is to blame here?
Also, there was no info about this on the T&C.
Advices would be gratefully appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Lucy

KatrinaWaves

Are you sending these items as a person or as a company? Who is blaming you? Why are you being blamed because gifts didn’t arrive? I’d say ‘oh never mind!’ 

Your contract with the courier has nothing to do with the other countries customs. They are not there to warn you about addresses (and it doesn’t make a difference here where it is being sent, so why would they be expected to know the laws of every country. 

davidmcn

This sounds more like it's down to the customs policies of the recipient's country than anything you or the courier could have avoided.

sheramber

the customs charges for another country are not the  concern of the parcel company. 
 if you  " had to send parcels abroad to the work address of the receiver." then it is  the receiver's responsibility to ascertain what import charges would be applied in their country.  if they didn't know why would a company  in another country know. 

lucy345_2

Thank you all.
I couldnt find any info about this anywhere so I appreciate you all taking time and reply me.
No, we sent them personally not as a company.
I know what would happen if I sent them as commecial parcels but I didnt know the consequence of chosing a work-company address as delivery address (the receiver was moving home).

LadyDee

So you are a company?  If you are seeing parcels marked as gifts to another company then you are probably breaking their customs' regulations (or the recipient is for asking you to lie about the contents).

mikb

LadyDee said:

So you are a company?

No, we sent them personally not as a company.

I thought that was pretty clear -- private person sending gifts (personal items to a private person). The complication seems to be the destination address is clearly a business premises, as the recipient was between addresses at the time.

Customs have jumped to conclusions.

George_Michael

mikb said:

Customs have jumped to conclusions.

Maybe not.
Without knowing the country concerned and their import regulations, it might well be normal practice for all international deliveries to businesses to attract import charges.

lucy345_2

The thing is the local delivery agency there does nothing. 
The contents of the parcels are obvious, we presented the receipts of the items to the parcel company, they are in no way business items.
Also, Customs always has the chance to open and check the parcels.
I dont understand whose responsibility is it to recover the items from the Customs. Should we know we shouldnt send to a business address then such things can happen?

davidmcn

lucy345_2 said:

The thing is the local delivery agency there does nothing. 
The contents of the parcels are obvious, we presented the receipts of the items to the parcel company, they are in no way business items.
Also, Customs always has the chance to open and check the parcels.
I dont understand whose responsibility is it to recover the items from the Customs. Should we know we shouldnt send to a business address then such things can happen?

Your recipient ought to know the rules of the country they live in, so I'm not sure why they're blaming you.

lucy345_2

Shouldn't the local parcel delivery agency claim the parcels from the Customs stating that the parcels are not commercial delivery and deliver them to the receiver? My contract with them was to deliver the parcels to the receiver's address.
I feel like they haven't done their job properly.