We arrived last week finally and are slowly settling in despite living on a building site. Our contents are in a shared container which shipped into California over 10 days ago but customs have decided to do an internal exam on the container which apparently means they can hold it for as long as they see fit. Plus we have the honour of having to pay them for the privilege. I understand these things happen but surely it they find contraband in there it should be the owners of those goods that pay the fees, not us.....not a good start

Living in "The Land of the Free" is often more expensive than expected.

Welcome to America.

Thanks Pulaski....Christ knows what they will charge us apparently it's divided amongst each person that has goods

It's common enough, but you might want to ask the shipper for proof of inspection as some shippers have been known to charge recipients for non-existent inspections.

I think we ended up paying about $60 but it really depends on the level of inspection. I guess we were relatively lucky.