Canada does not know what a friendship bracelet is

[bobtheenchantedone]

So I have a problem. I sent a 500 bracelet order to Canada, only to have it sent back to me because at the boarder it had been marked as containing precious metal jewelry which meant a $71 sales tax charge. I looked over the forms I filled out and sent, and all I said was that the products were "friendship bracelets," which they are. Unfortunately they took that to mean they had precious metals on them. (I don't know how they thought a package containing 500 precious metal bracelets would weigh only 12 ounces.)

I need to send the package back, and in such a way that they don't charge a ton. I could just mark "gift" and avoid sales tax entirely (the suggestion the customer made) except that's, you know, lying. But the customs form wants a "detailed" description of contents, and I can't figure out how to do that without them again assuming there's precious metals in there that they can tax to high heaven. So do any of you know what I can do?

[Unit of Energy]

Mark it as being yarn maybe? Hand knotted bracelets?

[Katya]

I think UofE's got the right idea. "Handmade knotted string bracelets"? "Hand knotted bracelets made of yarn"?

[Fredjikrang]

Woven bracelets?

[NerdGirl]

WTH? You've sent bracelets to me and they got through customs! This is not a good development because I plan to buy more bracelets from you some day. Woven bracelets or yarn bracelets might work. But I'm not actually sure that you'll avoid the sales tax charge that way, because it my experience it's actually pretty arbitrary whether or not customs decides to charge you tax and it's entirely based on the declared price of the package. And even marking it as a gift won't necessarily stop them from charging tax on it because you still have to list the contents and the value even if you mark it as a gift. They're also more likely to actually charge taxes on stuff ordered from the US. Generally the only absolutely guaranteed way to avoid being charged taxes is if the declared value on the customs form is less than about $60. So in addition to calling them yarn bracelets or something like that, you could put $50 for the value or something like that. I know people that do that and don't feel like they're lying because even though the cost of the finished product is more than that, that's the cost of the materials that went into the finished product. Or you could send it in multiple packages where the total value of the bracelet in each package is only about $50. And I'm not sure how you're sending them, but the customs people seem way more likely to charge taxes on something sent through UPS or Fed-Ex than something sent through the mail.

Oh, and I had another idea about what you could call them - wrist bands, maybe?

[bobtheenchantedone]

You should be fine, NG; I'm guessing you're not going to be ordering $700 worth any time soon. : )

On a related note, it would cost me a lot to send them in packages of $50. Even if I don't ship expedited this time, that's 14 packages to get them to $50 each. And I am already shipping through USPS.

However, my best idea on how to get them through was to simply say the contents were "thread" so it might make sense to mark the value as (does quick math) shoot that's still $91?!

[TheAnswerIs42]

Ahh, this brings back memories. I don't have experience with shipping customs, but when I was growing up our assigned temple was in Toronto, so I went through the Canada border a few times. And "arbitrary" is the best word for that, because they never asked the same questions twice. Some just asked how long we were going to be staying, some only cared about what goods we had with us. One made each one of us say "I am an American citizen" before waving us in. And one group got turned back because they didn't all have their birth certificates with them, so that was an 8 hour round trip for nothing.

Sounds like you got the mean/ignorant guy this time. I think the "knotted string" idea sounds good, but most likely all you need is a different person to look at it and you'll be fine

[Yarjka]

I agree with 42, that it's very arbitrary. You were just unlucky this time.

I'd go with lying about the value--say they're under $50, no matter the price. You made them, you can set the price of them. The person you're selling them to will be buying them for $50, with a very generous handling fee (after all, you certainly handled that yarn a lot to make all those bracelets).

[Zedability]

That's weird. Everyone I know in Canada knows what a friendship bracelet is. Although, come to think of it, a set of two charm bracelets that each have one half of a charm are also pretty common and called "friendship bracelets", so maybe that's what they thought?

[Portia]

Simple. Canada doesn't know what FRIENDSHIP is.

[S.A.M.]

Call them friendship wrist bands.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Well, I sent them. I meant to call the contents "thread" but forgot and wrote "friendship bracelets" again. However, I did set the value at $50. Hopefully that will work.

It better work, because the customer yelled at me today for not marking them "crafts."

[Craig Jessop]

Okay, so it says how long it's been since I posted here, but this topic was red. I have a similar Canadian customs story.

We went on an Alaskan cruise last week (1%! 1%! 1%!!!!!! DEATH TO THEM ALL), and in Skagway I had to cross the border for about twenty minutes. That's it. Twenty minutes where we got off a bus and got onto a train, all within view of the Canadian border control guys, who got onto our bus to check our passports individually. They didn't stamp my passport, but they stamped my sister's who pretty much was in Canada for the same amount of time and for the same reasons (different tour, but similar border crossing).

A few days later, our ship docked in Victoria, BC, where it is much easier to give the Canadians the slip and disappear into the Great White North forever than in a border outpost in the Yukon Territory. As we got off the ship, there was a single woman standing in the customs building, shouting "I don't need to see your passports! Keep them in your pocket! No passports necessary!"

So tell me, why was I required to show my documents at a small border station with nothing around and nowhere to go but back, but not while entering a major city with unlimited access to the rest of the country? Jeez.

(I'm still bitter about not getting the stamp, by the way.)

[Zedability]

My guess is because the Border Control people at the small outpost are bored and have nothing to do. Seriously. When I cross the Canadian/USA border between Alberta and Montana on the Interstate, they don't give me a hard time at all. When I went to a mission farewell in Idaho, I crossed at a smaller crossing, and they wanted to know who the car belonged to (my dad), why I was going (to visit friends), how I met these people (um...college? why does it matter?), why I was driving so late (I had to finish work), and a plethora of other questions. Then they opened up all the doors in my car and searched everything. It was ridiculously thorough. It took an hour to get through the border despite the fact that there was absolutely no line. I was so ticked off.

[Zedability]

Also, funny story, the border control between Ireland and England on a ferry consists of driving through an unmanned booth that says "Customs/Douanes". That's it. I was disappointed about no stamp in my passport that time, too.

[TheAnswerIs42]

We went on an Alaskan cruise last week (1%! 1%! 1%!!!!!! DEATH TO THEM ALL), and in Skagway I had to cross the border for about twenty minutes. That's it. Twenty minutes where we got off a bus and got onto a train, all within view of the Canadian border control guys, who got onto our bus to check our passports individually. They didn't stamp my passport, but they stamped my sister's who pretty much was in Canada for the same amount of time and for the same reasons (different tour, but similar border crossing).

A few days later, our ship docked in Victoria, BC, where it is much easier to give the Canadians the slip and disappear into the Great White North forever than in a border outpost in the Yukon Territory. As we got off the ship, there was a single woman standing in the customs building, shouting "I don't need to see your passports! Keep them in your pocket! No passports necessary!"

So tell me, why was I required to show my documents at a small border station with nothing around and nowhere to go but back, but not while entering a major city with unlimited access to the rest of the country? Jeez.

(I'm still bitter about not getting the stamp, by the way.)

When you book a cruise, they asked for your passport information. Every cruise ship has to dock one night in a foreign country to avoid heavy american taxes, so they are all used to this. So when you ALL got off in Victoria, the ship passed all of your passport information along and prevented amazingly long lines. But I'm assuming that since you were on a bus at Skagway you were on an excursion or just wandering on your own, in which case the cruise ship did not pass along your information.

Sorry about the stamp though. That part really is about the border people being random.

[NerdGirl]

I have become convinced that at least half of border guards are legitimately crazy. The two weirdest kids I knew in elementary school now work as border guards, including the kid who used to keep secret files on people and go around putting people under "citizen's arrest" when he was like 6. At one point he got his hands on some ether (no idea how that happened) and was going around anesthetizing spiders with it.

[Eirene]

I have become convinced that at least half of border guards are legitimately crazy. The two weirdest kids I knew in elementary school now work as border guards, including the kid who used to keep secret files on people and go around putting people under "citizen's arrest" when he was like 6. At one point he got his hands on some ether (no idea how that happened) and was going around anesthetizing spiders with it.

I have nothing to contribute except to say that that is awesome. Reminds me of the crazy Home Guard guy in Land Girls (it's on Hulu and it's really good!).