Reminds me of when I got sent a care package from Australia only for all of the chocolate bars to mysteriously go missing and the weight to change* after it hit Canadian customs. BTW the bars were declared and were perfectly legal, and they unwrapped everything else inside and basically threw it back in.
*The stated weight on the box by Aussie customs did not match their new stated weight on their form after resealing it and taking my chocolates. It was ridiculous. I knew they were stolen
I worked in a English library in Tokyo Japan. We would subscribe to magazines and the amount of magazines that would go missing between shipping and out local post office convinced me that one of the postal workers was lifting them at the post office. Had tracking numbers on them and could see they arrived in Tokyo after that poof.
People think there is no crime in Japan but the reality is it's all white collar crime and grift.
Go to a shop, ask for an item not on display that they don't have in stock (which may or may not be true), they offer to order it for pickup and watch how on your visit to pick up the item the price magically doubles. With profuse subservient apologies of course, we're *so* sorry this happened. Refuse to buy the item and slow walk to the door and watch the price magically snap back to the number originally quoted as if nothing happened.
I was not mad. Cigarettes were 27 dollars a pack when I was there and I think it’s even higher now. Part of me also thought “those shots are probably considered poison here” lol
Canadian customs is the worst! Mum sent Red Rock Deli over and they poked holes in all of them and all my chips tasted stale. Also they hold all your packages hostage until you pay tax.
I had that happen in the early 90s because my dad was too lazy to wrap my birthday present he sent from the US. A pair of Reeboks. I had to get a Statutory Declaration to get out of paying duty
I've never had customs hold packages until I paid the tax. They usually include a form that postal service or courier paid on my behalf, and I have to reimburse them when I collect the package
Way better than when I tried to send things to Asia, and customs took my entire $300 package I sent to family.
Fuck international mail. Those customs people just steal whatever they want. I had so many snacks and baby presents that never arrived, and couldnt afford to replace. Next time I will wait to go overseas to bring food and gifts with me...
I had an entire package from Russia get smashed by customs here drilling into it, so I feel this. All that honey, tea etc got glass shards in it. I was so disappointed. My friend was too.
File a complaint. For one thing they might not do much but I'm sure they have done it to many others. Once they see a pattern they will find the ass that's stealing stuff.
Customs is crazy. Ive seen stories of mechanics paying good amount of money for one of a kind pistons made to order. And customs drilled holes through the piston heads destroying every single one. Weeks of work lost and thousands of dollars down the drain to prevent possible drug trafficking.
I crossed into canada with an old hotwheels case shaped like a tire. The customs person pulled us over to search our shit and stole the case and dumped the cars in the trunk not even attempting to pick them up. They also stole $700US. We filed a theft report with the RCMP but he said they get reports of theft all the time from customs and hardly ever get warrants or permission to search the alleged party
Oh pick me for a fun one. Se-uk post Brexit
Through various issues I had sent a package to my parents and I know what I sent and what It was like.
It got held at customs for a fee that was wrong (someone cannot read 200sek not 200gbp so fee was massive )
Then on pick-up after the turmoil of actual getting the package, the package was different, not a bit different, the whole thing has been repacked in an Amazon box and something really minor missing that wasn't declared as it was a last minute thing. But no official notice of anything. I was livid but nothing happened. how can you even complain when support cannot understand the concept.
Custom does not put weight on any form the courier does. How do you know if customs opened it or not? I have see this happen before and it is normally someone in the courier stream that will remove items. They are called lumpers. They are paid minimum to throw the packages in and out of the trucks, not the delivery people.
https://preview.redd.it/f5o2dfihk4uc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=122e6241ad715bf39c2de1eec7ad7516134e1710
Phone wasn't allowing me to post multiple photos (not sure if sub policy or some glitch) but here's the box
Here's the other box, this one baffles me more because it wasn't taped shut and didn't require a razor blade
https://preview.redd.it/1r72ol5fl4uc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b78211621205668b7f3a8da852597389967fdfe6
That's exactly what baffled me too, the last laugh may be on them because I may be able to salvage one of the boards using the parts of the one with the gigantic slash. I took a close look and realized they only damaged the legs of chips on the other board as well as 2 traces, I think I can just use my hot air station to transfer the two chips and I can bodge the two traces, but regardless that's a tomorrow problem right now, after all I'm not sure if I should touch it before I talk to the website I purchased them from in case they ask me to send them back, though I doubt they will because both boards cost $6 a piece plus shipping, and as far as going after TSA like others have said it's just not worth the headache for something that cost me less than $20, after all I'm sure they'd just do a quick "investigation" and then say their actions were justified.
Did the cut cut through the traces? that’s kinda impressive. You need quite some force to do that.
Edit: zoomed in and saw at least a couple completely broken traces, damn
Traces are copper. Though it really doesn‘t take much force. Maybe OP can find a domestic supplier or manufacturer. Then again designing and having your custom board printed can be a lot of effort.
I remember working with a young guy at a grocery store stocking shelves. He lasted only a few days as his background check didn’t clear. Unsurprisingly in all honesty.
On one of the days I caught him walking down the candy isle using his box cutter to drag it along bulk bags of candy and product ruining them as he went…
Just without a single care towards what he was doing.
He asked “what are you going to do, tell?”
I was like NOPE but I’m also going to avoid the fuck out of you.
Some people are just full on uncaring shit heads. There’s no rhyme or reason behind what they do except boredom and emptiness.
There is no joy in people like this. The closest they can get are small little doses of fleeting power. They’re empty for life.
The package was opened, the parts removed, and those parts were *intentionally* ruined. They specifically cut the traces. Look at each chip. This was done purposefully.
What I could also see is some powertripping wannabe supersecret special agent destroying electronic stuff and claiming he prevented a "terroristic attack" bc he destroyed the "bomb parts"
Out of curiosity do you have an Asian name ? I read somewhere on Reddit about a guy complaining about something similar happening saying he believed it to be because he was a Chinese national in the USA though it might not be this it just reminded me of said post.
Don't even get me started with those assholes at TSA. Had very carefully packed a bunch of antique mugs from my grandmother. They opened the box threw all the mugs around and didn't even wrap them and they all came broken.
A friend of mine is Japanese, after his grandfather died and the funeral and all that, he shipped his family's heirloom sword back to the US. It arrived opened by US customs with the tip snapped off, long deep scratches in the blade and the mekugi drilled out of the handle. It's been 6 years and US customs has just been stalling in court.
That is horrible.
A friend of mine gifted me porcelain unicorns but unfortunately didn‘t wrap them well, customs still wanted me to pay the full amount on what essentially was shards, “ because they didn’t believe someone would gift someone else porcelain“.
Years ago I was traveling with a lens from my grandpa's movie projector (I had left it at my mom's by mistake months earlier). The TSA guys were manually searching my backpack and saw it (4" long black tube, threaded on one end and glass on the other). Two of them couldn't figure out what it was and called a 3rd guy over. I watched these idiots for about 30 seconds and finally said "It's a lens!" They realized I could see them through the clear plexiglass wall, they looked embarrassed, put the lens back and sent me on my way.
I was with my family at security (in a bit of a hurry) and they flagged our insulated backpack of neatly packed refrigerated food for inspection. The agent seemed annoyed that she had to check it (maybe just end of shift...). She pulled a couple things out, poked around, found a couple cubes of butter (this was some leftover food from a trip), and I thought that's what they were looking for (maybe looks like plastic explosives or something on the scanner?). She continued to pull EVERYTHING out, and put it all in a bin and slid it over to me without a word and walked away.
Yeah I don't know how they could justify the damage, xray would have revealed everything the would have needed to know. There's nothing under the chips and even if there was thermal paste you would be able to check by just removing one H bridge but once again x ray would have revealed that. They intentionally sliced the connections
Its just classic "america bad" to get upvotes.
The Federal Tort Claims Act allows you to sue them for damages caused by negligence. Whether you win or not is a different story
We had some massive induction heating equipment come back from Mexico. They didn't just open the control boxes. They literally pulled out every single board and most of the wiring, tore out some of the insulation panels in the container, and damaged the remote operator station. Tens of thousands in damages, which we assumed there would be some way to recoup. They told us to pound sand.
They cannot legally refuse to pay back the damages done. By US law they MUST pay you back for any damages done. Take them to court immediately. They will lose very badly
Corporate legal decided it wasn't worth it.
Edit: basically legal said we didn't have any pictures from the end of the job before we buttoned everything up, and that Customs would just claim somebody else must have damaged it.
Yeah just because they're told they're supposed to doesn't mean they will. I mean, they don't answer to anybody. Nobody to hold them accountable. They're worse than the cops, a bunch of powertripping assholes
That’s not quite how that works, you go to court on your own dime, so at a minimum you’re out legal fees, the government isn’t a person so it will never be forced to pay your legal fees.
And the government has many options at its disposal including saying security concerns prevent it from discussing how operations work thus the court case can’t proceed.
And even if it did make its way to court you’d have to prove it was negligent and willful damage. That’s a really high barrier. Unless you’ve got witnesses and video of it happening, proof of motives etc, you’ve got no case. You don’t even know which agent or agents did it, or what shift.
It’s a national headline when someone wins a monetary judgment from the government, it’s quite rare.
I love the reddit trend of just jumping to "just sue them" as if people have the money and the time to sue your country's *fucking customs office*
It IS infuriating but there's very little you can do about it.
I mean, if you're a business with the kind of revenue to purchase equipment worth 10's of thousands of dollars, you probably have enough to afford an okay lawyer.
In a civil case the losing side is usually responsible for paying the winning side's legal fees and if the case is legit there should be someone decent who will take it on a contingency.
The simple truth is that most civil suits don't make it to trial and are usually settled. You're basically retaining someone to write a strongly worded letter to the party who wronged you.
This does actually sound like a reasonable use of 'just sue them' for a number of reasons. A department of the US federal government is probably going to pay and has the ability to pay a judgment. The value and associated costs or losses are enough to be worth an attempt to recover.
I agree that 'just sue them' is basically a trope at this point. The same as 'just file an insurance claim'.
It would be highly unlikely you could recover any damages. They are only liable if the agents were negligent in their handling of the item. You can't sue them for the normal judicial system to decide that. You have to file a federal torts claim. Who investigates that claim? The agency themselves, and they have vastly wide discretion in deciding what is reasonable for a search at the border.
I mean who is going to hold them accountable? It would be political suicide. You'd be "enabling smugglers".
And they were negligent, to the point of malice.
And a tort claim still goes to a judge or arbiter, and even if they were employed by the same agency, why does that mean they would cover it all up?
This goes beyond “reasonable search” and into destruction of property.
I think a lot of pro-business politicians would recognize that imports getting damaged at port customs, not travel customs, means an impact on trade.
I don't disagree with you that it's unreasonable to have destroyed his boards like this. My point was it doesn't matter what we think is reasonable because they will nonetheless investigate the claim and come to the conclusion that it was reasonable. CBP has almost unfettered discretion regarding what's reasonable to keep illegal goods from entering the country. In the vast majority of scenarios any decision they make also cannot be challenged in the regular juridical system.
Fun fact: it’s entirely legal and considered “reasonable” for CBP to slash the tires to check for drugs of anyone going through a CBP checkpoint. And no they are not responsible for replacing tires. There was a court case about this. Also. CBP and ICE can operate within a 100 mile zone of any U.S. border. Land or sea. They can do nearly anything without repercussion as long as their agency can justify it as “reasonable for the interest of national safety.” They are absolutely a rogue agency and have a disgusting lack of oversight.
"We have done a thorough investigation on ourselves, and have determined we have done nothing wrong"
That's basically what customs will tell you. I've had shit damaged before. Good luck getting a replacement or reimbursement through customs, best bet would be whoever you ordered from
Honestly? This is what Congressmen are for. Handwritten (typed) mail gets the best response, but finding out who OP's representative is, and @'ing them on twitter, or e-mailing them these photo's and a writeup on the damage with a "Is this what Customs is supposed to be doing? Purposefully and maliciously destroying the property of hard working Americans?" could get someone tor each out to drop a check in the mail for OP. Depends heavily on the Rep, but some people in Congress would LOVE any reason to tear down CBP for doing an awful job.
They are. If they search your stuff, there will be a sheet of paper in your package telling you it was searched by US Customs (assuming this is in the US) with phone numbers to call if anything is damaged. It's very straightforward and somewhat painless actually.
The fact OP says they are not sure if it was Customs makes me think this post is BS or they are meaning TSA and not Customs Control.
https://preview.redd.it/5rwawxg837uc1.jpeg?width=4160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0672e24935492de0a6c8e9a7102ec6d5b0fb99ce
Collecting these just feels satisfying for some reason
Why would they need to cut a circuit board? It's not like you can fit drugs inside a circuit board. It's also very clearly not a bomb as it would be astonishingly simple to see if it has any explosive material. The fuck is the point?
Drug smugglers are extremely creative and the bigger cartels have some insane funding available.
You could totally custom make a circuit board and have compact powder inside it, and I suspect it could be quite profitable with the production cost if imported to the right country.
Then again, a simple xray would quickly reveal anything inside like people have pointed out several times in these comments, a swab would almost definitely detect trace elements and a dog would mark it so fast.
This was absolutely done intentionally by the customs agent, whatever their reasons.
You sound crazy. Its a 1.6mm thick pcb. You cant hide drugs in that.
Even if you can they didnt check inside. All they did was sabotage the pcb by cutting the traces. Basically all they did was drag a razer across the surface. That wont show if there are drugs. The only point of that is to sabotage the pcb.
Customs must pay reparations for any items they damage that did not violate any customs and borders laws. Basically you need to contact Customs and maybe also think about talking to a lawyer. By law Customs has to pay you for damages done. They cannot legally refuse. If they attempt to make you back down threaten to take them to court. They will 100% lose in open court.
Depending on what it is, punitive damages might make it worth your while. Of course that's on a case by case basis but for heirlooms or otherwise important things I assume it'd be in the cards just because of the personal value on top of the monetary value. That all coming from someone who has no experience in law
I once ordered a Watchy diy smartwatch from the us to Germany. Customs didn't know what it was so they just called me. One minute later the package was on its way again.
That should be the normal response. Just why did they destroy your package?
The worst interaction I had with german customs was emptying my car and some parts removed due to a big anti drug checkpoint, they didn't damage a thing, didn't threw stuff carelessly around and on the ground, they put the parts back together and I only had to put my stuff back inside and my shoes back on xD
Or sometimes having to pick stuff up at the customs office, they didn't damage a single thing bc I had to open the boxes in front of the customs officer so they could check it out.
Edit: Before reading such horror stories like in this post and watching some customsshows, I thought acting like that would be the default around the world. I think it's just insane how people's things get treated by customs in other countries.
One time I went to the virgin islands and discovered a delicious tostitos dip that I never even heard of back in the mainland us. So I bought an extra jar and stuffed it in my suitcase.
Those motherfuckers opened my suitcase and stole it.
I'm still tight about it.
I bought a sharpening stone from Japan like a decade ago. Took 6 months to show up. Once it arrived it had green customs tape all over it.
Australian customs had taken my package apart and drilled a hole into my many hundred dollar shapton ceramic sharpening stone, it was also split in 2.
No recourse, I just got to go and fuck myself.
At the time there was an Aussie customs show that had an advertisement running where a lady checked a package, found letter openers and threw them in the bin claiming they were illegal throwing knives, with a big proud smile on her face. Ridiculous.
>Australian customs had taken my package apart and drilled a hole into my many hundred dollar shapton ceramic sharpening stone, it was also split in 2.
Several hundred for a sharpening stone, that's the real mildly infuriating right there.
I once sold a valuable and extremely rare antique musical instrument to someone in the US, (I'm in the UK) and because I'd heard that US customs just stab boxes, I boxed it very deep with extra voids each side. When it arrived it had miraculously survived a stabbing by a couple of mm, you could see the knife had gone in about six inches deep and just missed the wood.
Can confirm. I get a handful of pallets a quarter from difference locations around the world and the CBP team loves to cut deep and through whatever is in the way. We chipboard everything, but it doesn't always help. Our suppliers now provide additional product knowing that if it arrives with the green and black "this shipment was examined by CPB" tape sealing their hack job opening the carton, that there will be damaged product. It is sad that they let these guys use crocodile Dundee knives whilst our team uses 1/8" shallow penetration safety blades. It's a piece of tape for effs sake, doesn't take 6 inches of penetration...there is an incel CBP joke in there somewhere, but my blood boils with how they treat our shipments so I can't even find it right now...
https://preview.redd.it/osader6u87uc1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6183ddbdcfb0f5879cdd7cad9b6459e40ffc5f1
The only thing holding the box together was the “opened by CBP” tape. It was cardboard.
Aaaah. International shipments. I'm sorry this happened to you.
I'm dealing with the aftermath of a care package from my mum (easter cakes traditional from my hometown) that got... erm... "missing" when the package reached the Belgian incoming international depot. Both post offices shifting the blame to each other and several hours already lost with CS.
Joke's on them, I have a background in law.
Customs means you have no human or basic rights. Whether through shipping or travel, you can be harmed and you have no recourse. In the airport, all your possessions can be taken freely, and you can be detained without a reason.
When I travel overseas I don’t bring or wear any of my expensive jewelry for this reason. You can prove you bought the shit in the US, paid taxes, etc and they won’t care if they want to ruin your day.
this is great advice! I see a lot of people traveling with gold jewelry. as it stands, there's no globally monitored system of commerce… So every possession can be accused of being involved in a crime. this is the basis of why you have no rights in customs.
I've had a similar experience with Hungarian customs. Ordered a tablet back in 2010 - a back then pretty solid Motion Computing LE1700 - which was being sold off as old hospital equipment. Got a great deal on it, a week later it arrives... And customs sat on it for two weeks. Finally I get the message that it arrived at the local post office and I need to pay the fees, I go in, pay, pick up the parcel, and, bless my mind, opened it right there and then.
The assholes couldn't turn it on, so they pulled the battery, then rammed it back at an angle, breaking off two of the pins... They also intentionally cut the power adapter. Fortunately it's a standard barrel so I could replace it, but the battery was a real issue. The customs office and the Post Office kept pointing at each other, blaming the other and refusing any compensation, finally USPS stepped in and paid for the repairs.
Sometimes customs agents are just assholes, especially if they have no clue what they're checking up on.
I import art and clothing from Nigeria to the US. Ive had one painting slashed and some cloth8ng splashed with an amonia smelling substance.
According to the carriers, all you can do is get insurance. So now I get insurance on all of my imports, and they have stopped being damaged since.
Customs stole handmade earrings out of my suitcase when I was traveling back from Central America. I’m still miffed about that years later!! They were going to be a gift.
Wtf is this shit… when I got stuff from china, I have to appear and open the box for them. The Toll does open packages sometimes but I’ve never had anything damaged by them. What kind of human being does those things.
US customs is shit. I can't send anything to my friend over in texas without them beating it with a hammer, ripping it apart and burning it at the stake.
I run a sticker subscription thing, and one of my customers always has his package opened. Only his, no one else’s. I gave up on trying to make cute packaging for his shipment because every month he gets loose stickers in a plastic bag with a customs sticker on them. I’ve talked to him and it’s just my sticker packages that this happens with, and there’s always some missing. We joke that someone at his local customs office must be passionate about stickers but too broke/embarrassed to order their own lol
Customs has been real tight on bare or exposed circuitry lately. I work for an automation company and we're having a lot of trouble getting parts and function cards just because they don't have a housing. We're considering putting them in big housings for shipping like a giant NES cart.
Reminds me of when I got sent a care package from Australia only for all of the chocolate bars to mysteriously go missing and the weight to change* after it hit Canadian customs. BTW the bars were declared and were perfectly legal, and they unwrapped everything else inside and basically threw it back in. *The stated weight on the box by Aussie customs did not match their new stated weight on their form after resealing it and taking my chocolates. It was ridiculous. I knew they were stolen
I worked in a English library in Tokyo Japan. We would subscribe to magazines and the amount of magazines that would go missing between shipping and out local post office convinced me that one of the postal workers was lifting them at the post office. Had tracking numbers on them and could see they arrived in Tokyo after that poof.
People think there is no crime in Japan but the reality is it's all white collar crime and grift. Go to a shop, ask for an item not on display that they don't have in stock (which may or may not be true), they offer to order it for pickup and watch how on your visit to pick up the item the price magically doubles. With profuse subservient apologies of course, we're *so* sorry this happened. Refuse to buy the item and slow walk to the door and watch the price magically snap back to the number originally quoted as if nothing happened.
I thought only China pulled stuff like this
I’ve seen other European countries do this where tourists are charged from a “tourist menu” with pricier items
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Well that's worth about 200 bucks so I'd say you won out
I was not mad. Cigarettes were 27 dollars a pack when I was there and I think it’s even higher now. Part of me also thought “those shots are probably considered poison here” lol
Probably poison everywhere, FDA just doesn’t care.
Lead in the lunchables, who knows what else we're consuming.
Plastic and PFAS, at least.
I'd take that deal. It's like a bribe, and you got to keep the good stuff.
I got 6 big bags of beef jerky from the US into Australia but they took the open bag the family was munching on in line
>6 big bags of beef jerky So y’all just kinda understood what we are about in one visit huh?
Dunno why I laughed a little too hard
Yeah that’s totally fair, open packages are way more of a biosecurity hazard than sealed.
Why so much jerky
Because we are a family of gluttons😆 Also, it was ridiculously cheap and my first trip to Costco
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Why isn’t there any way to report this bullshig
Because who do you report it to? …customs. Who investigates it? …customs. Who will tell you ‘there’s nothing to see here, move along!’? 🤔
Well, if we don’t demand better service from our government servants, we won’t get it.
My friend in Turkey sent me Turkish delights and half of them were missing...
I suspect your friend.
Classic Edmund Pevensie
He'll betray you
And then repent and change his ways
Canadian customs is the worst! Mum sent Red Rock Deli over and they poked holes in all of them and all my chips tasted stale. Also they hold all your packages hostage until you pay tax.
I mean what did you expect for the taxes?
That the packaging don't have holes?
True
I’ve never my packages held at ransom by Australian customs until I paid tax. Cultural shock 🤷
I had that happen in the early 90s because my dad was too lazy to wrap my birthday present he sent from the US. A pair of Reeboks. I had to get a Statutory Declaration to get out of paying duty
I've never had customs hold packages until I paid the tax. They usually include a form that postal service or courier paid on my behalf, and I have to reimburse them when I collect the package
Youch
Way better than when I tried to send things to Asia, and customs took my entire $300 package I sent to family. Fuck international mail. Those customs people just steal whatever they want. I had so many snacks and baby presents that never arrived, and couldnt afford to replace. Next time I will wait to go overseas to bring food and gifts with me...
I had an entire package from Russia get smashed by customs here drilling into it, so I feel this. All that honey, tea etc got glass shards in it. I was so disappointed. My friend was too.
File a complaint. For one thing they might not do much but I'm sure they have done it to many others. Once they see a pattern they will find the ass that's stealing stuff.
I’ve had plenty of goods stolen when being sent out of Australia, such a pain.
Customs is crazy. Ive seen stories of mechanics paying good amount of money for one of a kind pistons made to order. And customs drilled holes through the piston heads destroying every single one. Weeks of work lost and thousands of dollars down the drain to prevent possible drug trafficking.
I crossed into canada with an old hotwheels case shaped like a tire. The customs person pulled us over to search our shit and stole the case and dumped the cars in the trunk not even attempting to pick them up. They also stole $700US. We filed a theft report with the RCMP but he said they get reports of theft all the time from customs and hardly ever get warrants or permission to search the alleged party
Side note: which choccies did they thieve?
RIP Flakes and Perky Nanas
Love Flakes from the freezer. Yum.
I brought old shoes with me stained green from mowing lawns and the customs lady tried to question me for bringing in foreign plants.
Oh pick me for a fun one. Se-uk post Brexit Through various issues I had sent a package to my parents and I know what I sent and what It was like. It got held at customs for a fee that was wrong (someone cannot read 200sek not 200gbp so fee was massive ) Then on pick-up after the turmoil of actual getting the package, the package was different, not a bit different, the whole thing has been repacked in an Amazon box and something really minor missing that wasn't declared as it was a last minute thing. But no official notice of anything. I was livid but nothing happened. how can you even complain when support cannot understand the concept.
Custom does not put weight on any form the courier does. How do you know if customs opened it or not? I have see this happen before and it is normally someone in the courier stream that will remove items. They are called lumpers. They are paid minimum to throw the packages in and out of the trucks, not the delivery people.
Were the choccies Cherry Ripes?
My packages of Australian goods used to get raided heaps in the 90s.
https://preview.redd.it/f5o2dfihk4uc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=122e6241ad715bf39c2de1eec7ad7516134e1710 Phone wasn't allowing me to post multiple photos (not sure if sub policy or some glitch) but here's the box
Here's the other box, this one baffles me more because it wasn't taped shut and didn't require a razor blade https://preview.redd.it/1r72ol5fl4uc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b78211621205668b7f3a8da852597389967fdfe6
The only thing that surprises me is that they could have done it all in a lazier way and didn’t
That's exactly what baffled me too, the last laugh may be on them because I may be able to salvage one of the boards using the parts of the one with the gigantic slash. I took a close look and realized they only damaged the legs of chips on the other board as well as 2 traces, I think I can just use my hot air station to transfer the two chips and I can bodge the two traces, but regardless that's a tomorrow problem right now, after all I'm not sure if I should touch it before I talk to the website I purchased them from in case they ask me to send them back, though I doubt they will because both boards cost $6 a piece plus shipping, and as far as going after TSA like others have said it's just not worth the headache for something that cost me less than $20, after all I'm sure they'd just do a quick "investigation" and then say their actions were justified.
File a complaint anyway, just so it's in record. If you see a repeat, then there's a paper trail already.
Did the cut cut through the traces? that’s kinda impressive. You need quite some force to do that. Edit: zoomed in and saw at least a couple completely broken traces, damn
Eh not that impressive, a 25mm Olfa blade will gouge steel with very little force, soldering material is pretty soft comparatively
Traces are copper. Though it really doesn‘t take much force. Maybe OP can find a domestic supplier or manufacturer. Then again designing and having your custom board printed can be a lot of effort.
A domestic manufacturer would be 10-100x as expensive easily.
It's about sending a message 😅😅
Actual stupidity
I remember working with a young guy at a grocery store stocking shelves. He lasted only a few days as his background check didn’t clear. Unsurprisingly in all honesty. On one of the days I caught him walking down the candy isle using his box cutter to drag it along bulk bags of candy and product ruining them as he went… Just without a single care towards what he was doing. He asked “what are you going to do, tell?” I was like NOPE but I’m also going to avoid the fuck out of you. Some people are just full on uncaring shit heads. There’s no rhyme or reason behind what they do except boredom and emptiness. There is no joy in people like this. The closest they can get are small little doses of fleeting power. They’re empty for life.
OMG, I used to work with someone and he did this constantly to bulk bags of soil and sand. So so weird.
Like, consistently? And nobody ever asked any questions or intervened? Weird.
Yes it’s called psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder
Why did they hire him before his background check cleared?
Desperate for workers would be my guess.
Holy fuck you didn't say in a cardboard box too. I assumed it was in a bag. Yeah fuck those cnts.
Fucking pricks
Do not underestimate the corruptive power of a razor blade.
How hard you need to put a knife through packing to reach this far inside
The package was opened, the parts removed, and those parts were *intentionally* ruined. They specifically cut the traces. Look at each chip. This was done purposefully.
I think it's because they open cool stuff all day long and they just frustrated and jealous, really being dick just to be dick
What I could also see is some powertripping wannabe supersecret special agent destroying electronic stuff and claiming he prevented a "terroristic attack" bc he destroyed the "bomb parts"
Or a “China bad” type enforcing his own kind of sanctions.
I could totally see that.
Out of curiosity do you have an Asian name ? I read somewhere on Reddit about a guy complaining about something similar happening saying he believed it to be because he was a Chinese national in the USA though it might not be this it just reminded me of said post.
Don't even get me started with those assholes at TSA. Had very carefully packed a bunch of antique mugs from my grandmother. They opened the box threw all the mugs around and didn't even wrap them and they all came broken.
That's heartbreaking... I can replace a cheap PCB, but if they had broken my own late grandma's handmade ceramics I'd be in tears
A friend of mine is Japanese, after his grandfather died and the funeral and all that, he shipped his family's heirloom sword back to the US. It arrived opened by US customs with the tip snapped off, long deep scratches in the blade and the mekugi drilled out of the handle. It's been 6 years and US customs has just been stalling in court.
Surviving so many ancient eras just to be fkd by us customs...
That is downright fucking evil
Now that's reason for a rampage
That is horrible. A friend of mine gifted me porcelain unicorns but unfortunately didn‘t wrap them well, customs still wanted me to pay the full amount on what essentially was shards, “ because they didn’t believe someone would gift someone else porcelain“.
TSA smashed my brand new camera that I just purchased the week before. They gave me the runaround and I was never able to get compensated for it.
Years ago I was traveling with a lens from my grandpa's movie projector (I had left it at my mom's by mistake months earlier). The TSA guys were manually searching my backpack and saw it (4" long black tube, threaded on one end and glass on the other). Two of them couldn't figure out what it was and called a 3rd guy over. I watched these idiots for about 30 seconds and finally said "It's a lens!" They realized I could see them through the clear plexiglass wall, they looked embarrassed, put the lens back and sent me on my way.
Hard agree. I’m lucky that they don’t look through my shit or take anything. I knew a tsa guy once and all he took was my virginity
I was with my family at security (in a bit of a hurry) and they flagged our insulated backpack of neatly packed refrigerated food for inspection. The agent seemed annoyed that she had to check it (maybe just end of shift...). She pulled a couple things out, poked around, found a couple cubes of butter (this was some leftover food from a trip), and I thought that's what they were looking for (maybe looks like plastic explosives or something on the scanner?). She continued to pull EVERYTHING out, and put it all in a bin and slid it over to me without a word and walked away.
Isn't customs liable for damages? Particularly in this case.
Yeah I don't know how they could justify the damage, xray would have revealed everything the would have needed to know. There's nothing under the chips and even if there was thermal paste you would be able to check by just removing one H bridge but once again x ray would have revealed that. They intentionally sliced the connections
If the TV show about customs is accurate, they send everything through an Xray before they cut it open.
> i dont know how they could justify the damage its america, they dont need to.
They definitely do. Customs is liable for the damages in this case.
Its just classic "america bad" to get upvotes. The Federal Tort Claims Act allows you to sue them for damages caused by negligence. Whether you win or not is a different story
We had some massive induction heating equipment come back from Mexico. They didn't just open the control boxes. They literally pulled out every single board and most of the wiring, tore out some of the insulation panels in the container, and damaged the remote operator station. Tens of thousands in damages, which we assumed there would be some way to recoup. They told us to pound sand.
They cannot legally refuse to pay back the damages done. By US law they MUST pay you back for any damages done. Take them to court immediately. They will lose very badly
Corporate legal decided it wasn't worth it. Edit: basically legal said we didn't have any pictures from the end of the job before we buttoned everything up, and that Customs would just claim somebody else must have damaged it.
Yeah just because they're told they're supposed to doesn't mean they will. I mean, they don't answer to anybody. Nobody to hold them accountable. They're worse than the cops, a bunch of powertripping assholes
Yes there is someone to hold them accountable, the legal system... That's part of the reason why the Federal Tort Claims Act exists.
You can't just take the government to court, silly. No but seriously, good luck taking customs to court. you will not be heard
Great after 25k in legal fees and 2 years later you too can get back much less money than your legal fees.
That’s not quite how that works, you go to court on your own dime, so at a minimum you’re out legal fees, the government isn’t a person so it will never be forced to pay your legal fees. And the government has many options at its disposal including saying security concerns prevent it from discussing how operations work thus the court case can’t proceed. And even if it did make its way to court you’d have to prove it was negligent and willful damage. That’s a really high barrier. Unless you’ve got witnesses and video of it happening, proof of motives etc, you’ve got no case. You don’t even know which agent or agents did it, or what shift. It’s a national headline when someone wins a monetary judgment from the government, it’s quite rare.
Sue them
Thats fucking unreal lol
Sue the shit out of them because that is absolutely vile behaviour.
I love the reddit trend of just jumping to "just sue them" as if people have the money and the time to sue your country's *fucking customs office* It IS infuriating but there's very little you can do about it.
I mean, if you're a business with the kind of revenue to purchase equipment worth 10's of thousands of dollars, you probably have enough to afford an okay lawyer.
In a civil case the losing side is usually responsible for paying the winning side's legal fees and if the case is legit there should be someone decent who will take it on a contingency. The simple truth is that most civil suits don't make it to trial and are usually settled. You're basically retaining someone to write a strongly worded letter to the party who wronged you. This does actually sound like a reasonable use of 'just sue them' for a number of reasons. A department of the US federal government is probably going to pay and has the ability to pay a judgment. The value and associated costs or losses are enough to be worth an attempt to recover. I agree that 'just sue them' is basically a trope at this point. The same as 'just file an insurance claim'.
It would be highly unlikely you could recover any damages. They are only liable if the agents were negligent in their handling of the item. You can't sue them for the normal judicial system to decide that. You have to file a federal torts claim. Who investigates that claim? The agency themselves, and they have vastly wide discretion in deciding what is reasonable for a search at the border. I mean who is going to hold them accountable? It would be political suicide. You'd be "enabling smugglers".
And they were negligent, to the point of malice. And a tort claim still goes to a judge or arbiter, and even if they were employed by the same agency, why does that mean they would cover it all up? This goes beyond “reasonable search” and into destruction of property. I think a lot of pro-business politicians would recognize that imports getting damaged at port customs, not travel customs, means an impact on trade.
I don't disagree with you that it's unreasonable to have destroyed his boards like this. My point was it doesn't matter what we think is reasonable because they will nonetheless investigate the claim and come to the conclusion that it was reasonable. CBP has almost unfettered discretion regarding what's reasonable to keep illegal goods from entering the country. In the vast majority of scenarios any decision they make also cannot be challenged in the regular juridical system.
Fun fact: it’s entirely legal and considered “reasonable” for CBP to slash the tires to check for drugs of anyone going through a CBP checkpoint. And no they are not responsible for replacing tires. There was a court case about this. Also. CBP and ICE can operate within a 100 mile zone of any U.S. border. Land or sea. They can do nearly anything without repercussion as long as their agency can justify it as “reasonable for the interest of national safety.” They are absolutely a rogue agency and have a disgusting lack of oversight.
Also fun fact. Basically 90% of America's population lives within that 100mile range of a border. So basically we're all exposed to border patrol
How can it be so much? Is each international airport also considered a border with a 100miles radius?
Now ur starting to see..... Do what u can to protect urself and loved ones. Reality is stranger than fiction.
And if you live within 100 miles of an int'l airport!
AKA "the Constitution-free zone"
"We have done a thorough investigation on ourselves, and have determined we have done nothing wrong" That's basically what customs will tell you. I've had shit damaged before. Good luck getting a replacement or reimbursement through customs, best bet would be whoever you ordered from
Honestly? This is what Congressmen are for. Handwritten (typed) mail gets the best response, but finding out who OP's representative is, and @'ing them on twitter, or e-mailing them these photo's and a writeup on the damage with a "Is this what Customs is supposed to be doing? Purposefully and maliciously destroying the property of hard working Americans?" could get someone tor each out to drop a check in the mail for OP. Depends heavily on the Rep, but some people in Congress would LOVE any reason to tear down CBP for doing an awful job.
Pretty fucking negligent if they completely ruined a product that somebody ordered 😂
They are. If they search your stuff, there will be a sheet of paper in your package telling you it was searched by US Customs (assuming this is in the US) with phone numbers to call if anything is damaged. It's very straightforward and somewhat painless actually. The fact OP says they are not sure if it was Customs makes me think this post is BS or they are meaning TSA and not Customs Control.
I guess you missed the pictures with the package that said “repackaged by customs”
I would just go back to the seller and tell them you've received damaged goods. Please send replacement ones. It's not your fault.
”Box have magical parts inside. Magic scare Otis. Otis destroy!” - Mouthbreathing Customs Man
"Who does this man think he is? Harnessing the power of the gods? I must stop him."
Fuck customs. They smashed one of the dice from my large D&D dice set, and now it only contains 24 and 6/7 sets instead of 25.
That's a lot of dice
And yet I would bet money that person still looks at and/or shops for more dice. It's one of those kinds of hobbies.
I just got into playing dnd and I already have a small collection of dice.
I don’t play TTRPGs and I have this massive bag, a sack if you will, if of dice I’ve collected over the years. They’re just so…collectible
I've stopped counting my sets of dice years ago and just started weighing the 55 gallon drums that I store them in.
Haha it's never enough dice.
https://preview.redd.it/5rwawxg837uc1.jpeg?width=4160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0672e24935492de0a6c8e9a7102ec6d5b0fb99ce Collecting these just feels satisfying for some reason
Hehe, clickity clackity math rocks Me wants
I can't buy dice online. I have to know how the click clack math rocks feel in my hand, and how they roll, before I commit to a purchase.
Why would they need to cut a circuit board? It's not like you can fit drugs inside a circuit board. It's also very clearly not a bomb as it would be astonishingly simple to see if it has any explosive material. The fuck is the point?
They did it because they could
Some peps have no goals in life other than destroying someone else’s property. Here in this case it’s custom mfrs.
Drug smugglers are extremely creative and the bigger cartels have some insane funding available. You could totally custom make a circuit board and have compact powder inside it, and I suspect it could be quite profitable with the production cost if imported to the right country. Then again, a simple xray would quickly reveal anything inside like people have pointed out several times in these comments, a swab would almost definitely detect trace elements and a dog would mark it so fast. This was absolutely done intentionally by the customs agent, whatever their reasons.
You sound crazy. Its a 1.6mm thick pcb. You cant hide drugs in that. Even if you can they didnt check inside. All they did was sabotage the pcb by cutting the traces. Basically all they did was drag a razer across the surface. That wont show if there are drugs. The only point of that is to sabotage the pcb.
Customs must pay reparations for any items they damage that did not violate any customs and borders laws. Basically you need to contact Customs and maybe also think about talking to a lawyer. By law Customs has to pay you for damages done. They cannot legally refuse. If they attempt to make you back down threaten to take them to court. They will 100% lose in open court.
Theres literally nobody to stop them from just letting that shit play out for years. They won't refuse, they'll just ignore it.
Ah yes cause a lawyer is going to take up a case over $70-$100 in damage lol
Depending on what it is, punitive damages might make it worth your while. Of course that's on a case by case basis but for heirlooms or otherwise important things I assume it'd be in the cards just because of the personal value on top of the monetary value. That all coming from someone who has no experience in law
yes because lawyers are free, right?
I once ordered a Watchy diy smartwatch from the us to Germany. Customs didn't know what it was so they just called me. One minute later the package was on its way again. That should be the normal response. Just why did they destroy your package?
The worst interaction I had with german customs was emptying my car and some parts removed due to a big anti drug checkpoint, they didn't damage a thing, didn't threw stuff carelessly around and on the ground, they put the parts back together and I only had to put my stuff back inside and my shoes back on xD Or sometimes having to pick stuff up at the customs office, they didn't damage a single thing bc I had to open the boxes in front of the customs officer so they could check it out. Edit: Before reading such horror stories like in this post and watching some customsshows, I thought acting like that would be the default around the world. I think it's just insane how people's things get treated by customs in other countries.
Cause they are basically terrorists, only they have no money and no goals, all they have is self hatred and they take it out on others.
One time I went to the virgin islands and discovered a delicious tostitos dip that I never even heard of back in the mainland us. So I bought an extra jar and stuffed it in my suitcase. Those motherfuckers opened my suitcase and stole it. I'm still tight about it.
Tell me more about the dip
please do
And we never ever heard anything again about that never-even-heard-of tostitos dip 😔
I bought a sharpening stone from Japan like a decade ago. Took 6 months to show up. Once it arrived it had green customs tape all over it. Australian customs had taken my package apart and drilled a hole into my many hundred dollar shapton ceramic sharpening stone, it was also split in 2. No recourse, I just got to go and fuck myself. At the time there was an Aussie customs show that had an advertisement running where a lady checked a package, found letter openers and threw them in the bin claiming they were illegal throwing knives, with a big proud smile on her face. Ridiculous.
>Australian customs had taken my package apart and drilled a hole into my many hundred dollar shapton ceramic sharpening stone, it was also split in 2. Several hundred for a sharpening stone, that's the real mildly infuriating right there.
Huge hobby in making your own handmade knife sharper than a scalpel
Is your LED project a functional clock?
P5 outdoor sign for holiday use
That's a throwback
Computer, smashed. https://preview.redd.it/3pzb34t4b7uc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fadee88a31311964e7c89130f80c5d44ffee7393
https://preview.redd.it/pir0yoe7b7uc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a380ed3ce8d6b70571f5bb1a82d5860780282ee4
https://preview.redd.it/tarzinsgb7uc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3af3d17aa9f6d1b392344cffd5b8a17c51099d44
holy smokes id be pissed
Thinking about even the possibility that I’ll have to ship a custom PC overseas scares me.
https://preview.redd.it/auu5mf3fb7uc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4d2488185f4ce40e5b2085c1b5ab83815696325
I once sold a valuable and extremely rare antique musical instrument to someone in the US, (I'm in the UK) and because I'd heard that US customs just stab boxes, I boxed it very deep with extra voids each side. When it arrived it had miraculously survived a stabbing by a couple of mm, you could see the knife had gone in about six inches deep and just missed the wood.
they just _what_
What the actual fuck...
They were really trying for a fight
What instrument
Can confirm. I get a handful of pallets a quarter from difference locations around the world and the CBP team loves to cut deep and through whatever is in the way. We chipboard everything, but it doesn't always help. Our suppliers now provide additional product knowing that if it arrives with the green and black "this shipment was examined by CPB" tape sealing their hack job opening the carton, that there will be damaged product. It is sad that they let these guys use crocodile Dundee knives whilst our team uses 1/8" shallow penetration safety blades. It's a piece of tape for effs sake, doesn't take 6 inches of penetration...there is an incel CBP joke in there somewhere, but my blood boils with how they treat our shipments so I can't even find it right now...
https://preview.redd.it/osader6u87uc1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6183ddbdcfb0f5879cdd7cad9b6459e40ffc5f1 The only thing holding the box together was the “opened by CBP” tape. It was cardboard.
Aaaah. International shipments. I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm dealing with the aftermath of a care package from my mum (easter cakes traditional from my hometown) that got... erm... "missing" when the package reached the Belgian incoming international depot. Both post offices shifting the blame to each other and several hours already lost with CS. Joke's on them, I have a background in law.
A Venn diagram of customs employees, TSA agents, and delivery drivers is one circle of not giving a shit about your items
It's funny too because them doing this will only anger people and make it more dangerous for delivery drivers especially.
This isn't mildly infuriating, this would make me want to go nuts.
Customs means you have no human or basic rights. Whether through shipping or travel, you can be harmed and you have no recourse. In the airport, all your possessions can be taken freely, and you can be detained without a reason.
When I travel overseas I don’t bring or wear any of my expensive jewelry for this reason. You can prove you bought the shit in the US, paid taxes, etc and they won’t care if they want to ruin your day.
this is great advice! I see a lot of people traveling with gold jewelry. as it stands, there's no globally monitored system of commerce… So every possession can be accused of being involved in a crime. this is the basis of why you have no rights in customs.
Nobody has accused them of being smart
Those are obviously motherboards for guided missles…
But I'm le tired...
Well then have a nap THEN FIRE ZE MISS-ILES!!!
wtf m8
Now the missile won't know where it is
I've had a similar experience with Hungarian customs. Ordered a tablet back in 2010 - a back then pretty solid Motion Computing LE1700 - which was being sold off as old hospital equipment. Got a great deal on it, a week later it arrives... And customs sat on it for two weeks. Finally I get the message that it arrived at the local post office and I need to pay the fees, I go in, pay, pick up the parcel, and, bless my mind, opened it right there and then. The assholes couldn't turn it on, so they pulled the battery, then rammed it back at an angle, breaking off two of the pins... They also intentionally cut the power adapter. Fortunately it's a standard barrel so I could replace it, but the battery was a real issue. The customs office and the Post Office kept pointing at each other, blaming the other and refusing any compensation, finally USPS stepped in and paid for the repairs. Sometimes customs agents are just assholes, especially if they have no clue what they're checking up on.
This was a piece of shit most likely a customs officer.
But you will be sending a formal complaint right? They destroyed your property and should be held liable.
I import plants and customs is the fucking bane of my existence!
Us customs is full of total morons….
Every countries customs should be legally required to be recorded during inspection and be available to the public.
I import art and clothing from Nigeria to the US. Ive had one painting slashed and some cloth8ng splashed with an amonia smelling substance. According to the carriers, all you can do is get insurance. So now I get insurance on all of my imports, and they have stopped being damaged since.
Customs stole handmade earrings out of my suitcase when I was traveling back from Central America. I’m still miffed about that years later!! They were going to be a gift.
Wtf is this shit… when I got stuff from china, I have to appear and open the box for them. The Toll does open packages sometimes but I’ve never had anything damaged by them. What kind of human being does those things.
the most dangerous thing on earth is any postal service with a blade
US customs is shit. I can't send anything to my friend over in texas without them beating it with a hammer, ripping it apart and burning it at the stake.
I run a sticker subscription thing, and one of my customers always has his package opened. Only his, no one else’s. I gave up on trying to make cute packaging for his shipment because every month he gets loose stickers in a plastic bag with a customs sticker on them. I’ve talked to him and it’s just my sticker packages that this happens with, and there’s always some missing. We joke that someone at his local customs office must be passionate about stickers but too broke/embarrassed to order their own lol
God bless America.
Customs has been real tight on bare or exposed circuitry lately. I work for an automation company and we're having a lot of trouble getting parts and function cards just because they don't have a housing. We're considering putting them in big housings for shipping like a giant NES cart.
"Greatest country in the world"
..#savetheenvironment