WelshSarah

Hi all...

Just thought I would warn you of the expense of bringing Christmas decorations over in your container!!

I had a telephone call yesterday as my container went into quarantine last Thursday ( after sitting in Brizzie for the last 6 weeks but thats another story!) Anyway they said I had 2 options with my trimmings that were in a very small box ( i havent brought a tree, just a few bits). Options were
1. Fumigate them or 2. Destroy them. I have a few I collected over the years during my travels so said "how much to fumigate?" to which the reply came "

$330!!!!!!!"

Ok I wasnt THAT attached to them so I said " no problem, just chuck them out then," to which the reply came

" ok thats $110 dollars!!"

So BEWARE.... If you have some wooden or pine things in your christmas box they could end up costing a lot more than they did in the ASDA sale when you picked them up!!!

So this year will be a "Baa Humbug" season for the Evans'!!!

bridie

Must admit thought that was common knowledge....

Will send some K for your decs

chris and farideh

We brought all our Xmas decoration & had no problems with the custom, as our shipper gave us the list of what to bring & what not, so we did get rid all the things we shouldnt have.

Red_V_Roger

Yeah we dumped our Christmas stuff - but the packers still packed dishes with Pot Pori in them - but customs never found them

Nu-Shooz

Yes we all get warned about the Xmas dec's etc....just that mine all got through fine, even the cones that we forgot to take out of the box

Cutoms...bloody useless

WelshSarah

[QUOTE=bridie;6121225]Must admit thought that was common knowledge....

Well I didnt know!!!

Its my own fault for letting the hubby be in charge of the packing & moving details I suppose - Typical man!!!

And they charged me $55 for steam cleaning my mower that was steam cleaned twice before packing.

I wish I had been more of an expatter before moving i can tell you!!

Phoenix

Bought all mine and our tree with no problems whatsoever. I did ensure that there were no pine cones however but other than that all arrived safely and without incurring expense.

Pollyana

Its the pine cones which are generally the problem. Even if they are sprayed they still contain seeds.

jensteve

I got some Avon bits not so long back, some xmas decs and guess what made in Asia somewhere and had pine cones on them, checked and they where real so don't know how they managed to get over into Au. I guess customs and quarantine just don't check the majority of shipments coming in.
Our container was a nightmare from hell when we opened it here. Gas containers, pine cones, gun cartridges. I nearly had a fit when I saw what they had packed.
Jenny

lisaroo

yes, they did the same with our mower that was brand new, never used in the box!!!!!$95....but no probs with xmas decs or any of our wicker lamps and baskets etc

I_Will_Freckle

We had plastic pines cones - which were removed! Plastic, I tell you!

Nerine

blimey! did you not tip them enough?

jensteve

bought them fish and chips, I guess they just chucked stuff in boxes and never bothered looking. They did leave a lot of drawers in units full of bits though hence why we had some un-desirable items arriving.
Jenny

Kooky.

I've just given away a lovely, huge wreath I bought just this Christmas. It only had 2 pine cones on but I thought it was a shame to try to remove them.

My main issue is, I have a lovely teak wall mirror I had made and shipped from Indonesia. It's called a Paddy Mirror because the surround is decorated with rice seeds and stalks; it's really unusual.

My dilemma - do I sell it and make a huge loss, which will hurt all the more because I love it, or do I remove all the rice and hope I can re-create it myself when I get to Sydney? (And where TF do I get the materials?)

RenShen

I would take the risk and ship it. Worst case is they find it and charge you £50 to bin it.