A friend of mine who owns a sporting goods shop is importing a new brand of sneakers to Kuwait. So I was over at his place a couple of days back and asked him if the sneakers had arrived yet since I was looking to pick up a pair for myself. My friend told me that they had arrived to Kuwait but they’ve been held in customs for a month now. I was like why? He told me you’re going to laugh at this but basically the sneakers are made in China, and the certificate of origin says they’re made in China. But, the customs officer is refusing to clear the shipment because inside the sneaker tongue it says Made in China but it also says US, UK and EUR. He says it’s misleading and so is holding the shipment at the port.
At first I thought he was kidding but he was actually serious. Obviously the customs officer is looking for a bribe to release the shipments but he could have at least come up with a better excuse for not releasing them.
20 replies on “True Story with a Customs Officer”
hilarious!!
Hahaha that way no more shopping online for Nike, Adidas or Reeboks! In fact most shoes have a label with those exact words…
loll..that’s funny
Being an “Ass” would be normal, but for a bribe! i doubt it Mark
You will be surprised …
O_O
*facepalm* you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
well its a classic case of power tripping… maybe the guy who is claiming the items came a little bit strong for the customs officer and hurting his ego. so just to give him a hard time he just made up a pretty lame excuse to give grief…hehehe. in any country i go to… its all the same…may it go to customs, police or even goverment medical service staff… they want you to kiss @$$. 😮
Can’t let that customs officer get away with it, aren’t there any agencies where victims could report these officials?
These agencies you speak of are just as bad as the officials they’re supposed to regulate.
I am surprised that the Customs Office also did not demand that the label be in Arabic.. Or maybe that’s the next stage of torture…. LOOOL
Welcome to Kuwait.
That’s normal worked in a shipping company myself
Go in again with a hidden camera and record the conversation.
-Release on YouTube.
By the way, these are just the shoe size indicated for different regions. ..
US 11
UK 10
EUR 45
This should be understandable to everyone. .. including the honorable custom official. 😃
What about the agency thats been hired to clear the shipment, haven’t they tried to reason with the customs officer, either was its a load of b.s
Is there a minimum education requirement to work there?
Mark… does anyone stock Nike Internationalist sneakers in Kuwait? I can’t be bothered to troll the malls!
dont think so, a friend of mine ordered a pair online
although this could be a funny story, it is sad as well,… it is so sad that I thought WHY, WHY there is no good education for such people who work at such places, no one looks after what they do or is it an individual fault?!
By the way, Does anyone know whether there is any customs duty if my friend sends me a monitor from USA which is repaired (because it had US warranty so I had to send it there).