Bunch of numpties
I thought I would take advantage of having a day off work today and see about taking a parcel to the post office as it's been hanging around my bedroom for weeks and refuses to pay rent. It was going off to a certain boy in America and as it contained some food, I had to go and fill out the usual FDA form. This thing drives me crackers. It wants so much detail: an exact description of the food, what it's packaged in, how it was packaged/if it's sterile or not, the weight, and name and address of the manufacturer. It's also set up so that you can't just be a regular person using the system, you have to be a company. Obviously, it's only companies who send food into the US. Or maybe they're damn dirty foreigners trying to take over the supermarkets with PG Tips and Walkers Crisps or something like that.
But I digress. I ended up having trouble with the FDA site as I forgot my password because I use it so infrequently and after I'd attempted it three times, I got locked out for an hour. Finally I got in to my account and spent an age trying to find an adequate description of the stuff I was sending. It's not easy trying to find descriptions of products that the US doesn't have! Jelly Babies ended up as 'jellied candy, soft (jelly beans, gum drops, etc.), without nuts and fruit (without chocolate), plastic, synth, packaged food (not commercially sterile')! It took me a good 45 minutes just to fill out the form for 3 things!
After that I went off to the post office to send the damn thing. It's only a small village post office and when I arrived, they were queueing out the door. I was about the 8th person in the queue and ended up standing in the doorway, balancing my parcel on one of those old RSPCA collecting things that was holding the door open. When it was my turn, I got the box weighed and was told that it was just 69g too heavy to go regular post so it would have to go parcel post. To the cost of £45. Or if I didn't need it there quite so quickly, there was a cheaper option that would take two weeks but will still cost over £30. I was not impressed. The woman suggested that I open it up to try and remove at least 69g so that it could go in the regular post which would only cost £20. She asked me what was in the parcel and when I said books and sweets, she said I could just remove a bag of sweets and that would sort it. I said I couldn't because I'd already filled out the FDA form that listed what was in the parcel and I would have to cancel it and fill it out again. She looked at me like I was an idiot and asked what form this was and why was I filling it out. I explained that in order to send food into the US, you had to fill out an FDA form with details of what you were sending. She looked blankly at me and she said she'd never heard of that before and that loads of people sent food to the US without any problems. She asked the other woman there if she'd ever heard of having to declare what food you were sending into the US and she said something about how it was only for unusual stuff, and that sending sweets and things was fine. I pointed out that it was someone at that very post office a few years ago who had told me about this but that still got a blank look.
Anyway, that didn't solve the problem of my parcel being too heavy. I asked if they had any parcel tape in order to open up the box and reseal it which they did. They even had scissors. So there I was kneeling on the floor in the tiny post office trying to look inconspicuous which wasn't easy when there was a queue of 8 or so people watching me. Even when I'd got the box open, I was at a loss to know how much 69g was - I don't work in grammes so much, I'm a pound and ounces kind of boy! - and what was in there that weighed that much. I took a couple of things out and then got the box reweighed to see if that had made enough of a difference before I sealed it up. Luckily, it had so I could tape it up and queue up again. And of course by now there was another long queue. Mind you, the post office is so small that a queue of more than four people is heading towards the door. Finally I got to the front and had the parcel weighed again. It was 1.94kg and cost me £20.47. The entire thing had taken an hour. I was really annoyed, especially with the whole thing about the FDA form as it had taken me so long to fill out the sodding thing in the first place. I didn't know what to think or where to even check about it. I've just remembered that there was something about it on the Royal Mail website so I've just checked and it's still there which I presume would mean it's still relevant. Perhaps I should print it out and take it to the post office to show them that I'm not the numpty.
Edit: The Royal Mail site actually has it wrong. It says, "This [...] does not apply to homemade or manufactured foods being sent as a personal gift to individual people in the USA but you should clearly indicate this on the Customs form that this the case." The FDA site says it "applies to all food for humans and other animals that is imported or offered for import into the United States. This covers food for use, storage, or distribution in the United States, and includes food for gifts [...] It excludes food for an individual's personal use when it is carried by or otherwise accompanies the individual when arriving in the United States (i.e., for consumption by themselves, family and friends, not for sale or other distribution); food that was made by an individual in his/her personal residence and sent by that individual as a personal gift (i.e., for nonbusiness reasons) to an individual in the United States". So it's just homemade food that's excluded and anything else that's being sent into the US, even if it's for a gift still requires the filling out of the Prior Notice form. Still not the numpty.
But I digress. I ended up having trouble with the FDA site as I forgot my password because I use it so infrequently and after I'd attempted it three times, I got locked out for an hour. Finally I got in to my account and spent an age trying to find an adequate description of the stuff I was sending. It's not easy trying to find descriptions of products that the US doesn't have! Jelly Babies ended up as 'jellied candy, soft (jelly beans, gum drops, etc.), without nuts and fruit (without chocolate), plastic, synth, packaged food (not commercially sterile')! It took me a good 45 minutes just to fill out the form for 3 things!
After that I went off to the post office to send the damn thing. It's only a small village post office and when I arrived, they were queueing out the door. I was about the 8th person in the queue and ended up standing in the doorway, balancing my parcel on one of those old RSPCA collecting things that was holding the door open. When it was my turn, I got the box weighed and was told that it was just 69g too heavy to go regular post so it would have to go parcel post. To the cost of £45. Or if I didn't need it there quite so quickly, there was a cheaper option that would take two weeks but will still cost over £30. I was not impressed. The woman suggested that I open it up to try and remove at least 69g so that it could go in the regular post which would only cost £20. She asked me what was in the parcel and when I said books and sweets, she said I could just remove a bag of sweets and that would sort it. I said I couldn't because I'd already filled out the FDA form that listed what was in the parcel and I would have to cancel it and fill it out again. She looked at me like I was an idiot and asked what form this was and why was I filling it out. I explained that in order to send food into the US, you had to fill out an FDA form with details of what you were sending. She looked blankly at me and she said she'd never heard of that before and that loads of people sent food to the US without any problems. She asked the other woman there if she'd ever heard of having to declare what food you were sending into the US and she said something about how it was only for unusual stuff, and that sending sweets and things was fine. I pointed out that it was someone at that very post office a few years ago who had told me about this but that still got a blank look.
Anyway, that didn't solve the problem of my parcel being too heavy. I asked if they had any parcel tape in order to open up the box and reseal it which they did. They even had scissors. So there I was kneeling on the floor in the tiny post office trying to look inconspicuous which wasn't easy when there was a queue of 8 or so people watching me. Even when I'd got the box open, I was at a loss to know how much 69g was - I don't work in grammes so much, I'm a pound and ounces kind of boy! - and what was in there that weighed that much. I took a couple of things out and then got the box reweighed to see if that had made enough of a difference before I sealed it up. Luckily, it had so I could tape it up and queue up again. And of course by now there was another long queue. Mind you, the post office is so small that a queue of more than four people is heading towards the door. Finally I got to the front and had the parcel weighed again. It was 1.94kg and cost me £20.47. The entire thing had taken an hour. I was really annoyed, especially with the whole thing about the FDA form as it had taken me so long to fill out the sodding thing in the first place. I didn't know what to think or where to even check about it. I've just remembered that there was something about it on the Royal Mail website so I've just checked and it's still there which I presume would mean it's still relevant. Perhaps I should print it out and take it to the post office to show them that I'm not the numpty.
Edit: The Royal Mail site actually has it wrong. It says, "This [...] does not apply to homemade or manufactured foods being sent as a personal gift to individual people in the USA but you should clearly indicate this on the Customs form that this the case." The FDA site says it "applies to all food for humans and other animals that is imported or offered for import into the United States. This covers food for use, storage, or distribution in the United States, and includes food for gifts [...] It excludes food for an individual's personal use when it is carried by or otherwise accompanies the individual when arriving in the United States (i.e., for consumption by themselves, family and friends, not for sale or other distribution); food that was made by an individual in his/her personal residence and sent by that individual as a personal gift (i.e., for nonbusiness reasons) to an individual in the United States". So it's just homemade food that's excluded and anything else that's being sent into the US, even if it's for a gift still requires the filling out of the Prior Notice form. Still not the numpty.