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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Customs Laser Confiscations

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Nov 22, 2008
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Yes, but only if the paperwork to go with it is in order, and the lasers perform as reported.

EDIT: Yobresal beat me to it.
 





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DHL just called. Said I should expect the package by Friday. Glorious day!!!!!
 
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Well those bastards stole 50 green lasers from me. DHL delivered the violets and the reds but the third package with all the green lasers in it never arrived. DHL searched around for it and they cannot find it. My guess is those FU%& heads at customs stole it. I hate customs. I wish terrible things upon those a$$holeS.
 
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Just wondering.... but :wtf: does customs want with 50 5mW green laser pointers? Did they just take them for themselves?
 

LSRFAQ

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Well those bastards stole 50 green lasers from me. DHL delivered the violets and the reds but the third package with all the green lasers in it never arrived. DHL searched around for it and they cannot find it. My guess is those FU%& heads at customs stole it. I hate customs. I wish terrible things upon those a$$holeS.

You just hit a Nerve... DANGER! RANT MODE...

Do you have any idea what the penalties for a government employee stealing from a bonded customs facility are??? Its a Federal Felony. You get tossed in the same cage with the drug dealers and human traffickers. Or worse, your put in solitary because you WERE a government employee. They did NOT steal your lasers..

I'm a former state employee. I can tell you that as a government worker you face much more jail time and career damage then a normal citizen. And you get looked at EVERY time you spend money, yours, or the tax dollars.

You get held to a double standard, and do something chicken$hit like loose a 5$ receipt for a part, you get a instant audit. We had rooms full of dead parts.., Why? To prove to a auditor we didn't dispose of a 35 cent dead transistor improperly... Parts were in that room from 20 years before I started there.


And they are not A$$holes, they are doing their job of protecting this great country from contraband and non state actors. Its not a glorious job, it does NOT come with great pay, and I imagine its quite boring with rare moments of shear terror. Plus mountains of paperwork.


Why am I irate about this? I was in a Bank eight months ago while I was still in the state's employ.. I had just worked all night (no overtime allowed) to get a system back on line. A lady working in bank told a customer, she was sorry things were going slow, but that she was not "Slow Like a State Employee". It hit a nerve. I wasn't hourly staff, and expected to work far beyond my 39 paid hours.

I've cleared enough gear through customs to know its a systemic problem, not a worker bee problem.

Next time hire a broker or do the paperwork...

But accusing a person in authority of stealing, without proof, is JUST PLAIN WRONG...

File a claim with DHL.. Its your right under the Warsaw convention. The Warsaw convention is what keeps shippers in line, but sanely limites their liability... Oh wait, DHL is going out of Biz in the US, Gee,,, I wonder why...

Steve
 
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mfo

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You just hit a Nerve... DANGER! RANT MODE...

Do you have any idea what the penalties for a government employee stealing from a bonded customs facility are??? Its a Federal Felony. You get tossed in the same cage with the drug dealers and human traffickers. Or worse, your put in solitary because you WERE a government employee. They did NOT steal your lasers..

I'm a former state employee. I can tell you that as a government worker you face much more jail time and career damage then a normal citizen. And you get looked at EVERY time you spend money, yours, or the tax dollars.

You get held to a double standard, and do something chicken$hit like loose a 5$ receipt for a part, you get a instant audit. We had rooms full of dead parts.., Why? To prove to a auditor we didn't dispose of a 35 cent dead transistor improperly... Parts were in that room from 20 years before I started there.

And they are not A$$holes, they are doing their job of protecting this great country from contraband and non state actors. Its not a glorious job, it does NOT come with great pay, and I imagine its quite boring with rare moments of shear terror. Plus mountains of paperwork.


Why am I irate about this? I was in a Bank eight months ago while I was still in the state's employ.. I had just worked all night (no overtime allowed) to get a system back on line. A lady working in bank told a customer, she was sorry things were going slow, but that she was not "Slow Like a State Employee". It hit a nerve. I wasn't hourly staff, and expected to work far beyond my 39 paid hours.

I've cleared enough gear through customs to know its a systemic problem, not a worker bee problem.

Next time hire a broker or do the paperwork...

But accusing a person in authority of stealing, without proof, is JUST PLAIN WRONG...

File a claim with DHL.. Its your right under the Warsaw convention. The Warsaw convention is what keeps shippers in line, but sanely limites their liability... Oh wait, DHL is going out of Biz in the US, Gee,,, I wonder why...

Steve

You act like people that work for the feds never steal shit. I work for the Govt, and I see it happen from time to time. I also know people that work for Customs. They actually do make good money, GS-12; go look it up.

People with authority are more than capable of stealing stuff. You can think it's as wrong as you want for Luke to think that, but if I were him I'd want to know wtf happened to my lasers too. If they confiscate something, they are supposed to send you paper work stating why and what you need to do to get it back.

Edit: And another thing, you're not necessarily going to get locked up for stealing something, it all depends on the value of the item you stole. Most instances, you're terminated. In the rare case you stole something valuable and an investigation is launched, then chances are you'll be facing criminal penalties. And just because someone works for the Govt, that doesn't mean they're not assholes. I see PLENTY of assholes in my agency, and they're also supposed to protect people.
 
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mfo

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Sorry LSRFAQ didn't mean to offend you.

I read your entire reply through my email, and I don't see what was so offensive about your post. I'd be blaming customs for this too, especially if they didn't send you the paper work stating the reasoning for the "disappearance" of your lasers. Sounds like someone stole them to me...I mean why else would they not send the paper work?
 

KiLLrB

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@lsrfaq There is no doubt in my mind it is DHLs fault i have had more stuff broken, lost and delivered late by these ppl than anyone else.

I suggest anyone thinking of usind DHL look somewhere else unless you like gambling on if your package will arrive and be in one piece.
 
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Wow LSRFAQ. Also I have used DHL once and it got here in three days from China.
 
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Joined
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I've got a quick story about DHL.

Once I ordered a SCSI hard drive from Seagate. It was shipped via DHL. (Which was annoying, since I'm in Evergreen CO, and Seagate has offices in Thornton, CO where they QA the drives. But I guess they wanted to ship me one from their Mexico facility, so *shrug*..)

A few days later, after not receiving it, I checked the tracking number and it said "Delivered"; I was surprised, I couldn't find it. Wasn't around my front door. My girlfriend hadn't signed for it.

I called, complained, for two days. They swore it was delivered, after contacting the driver; and signed for by a "J. Thompson" (Not my name.) I told them that this was not my name and figured it had been delivered to a neighbor.

Then, on the third day. I went onto my back deck, two floors up. In the middle of the deck, was a box from Seagate, DHL label, wet from rain the night before.

The DHL guy had signed for the package with a convincing name and hiked the box from the street up to my 2nd floor deck like a football. It sat there in the rain for two days.

DHL called this "delivered".

Needless to say, Seagate let me drive down and pick up the next SCSI drive.

I think this is more of the reason why DHL is pulling out of the US than anything else.
 
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LSRFAQ

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DHL = Doesn't Handle Lasers... They have a really long track record of breaking things back to the Ion laser days... I can show you posts on a really old laser site about a laser owner watching his ion laser dropped off a plane..

Seriously, get them under Warsaw.. It may take months, but you'll get your money..

If you ever go into a older UPS facility, you'd be shocked if you see the sorting bin. Three or four foot drops onto other packages or a steel bin floor are not uncommon in the older one I was in... Pack accordingly.

Fedex and the Postal Service are tied for best handling as far as I'm concerned. I've sent glass laser tubes Postal with the special handling request and they do a great job.. They have services they dont advertise, where stuff gets locked in cages or safes overnight. Fedex is mondo expensive, but gentle. I'm also taking a liking for EMS for stuff from China.. They may not be able to track well, but they seem to be fast and gentle with the galvos and optics I'm received, even when the galvos were way under packed.

Yobraseal, perhaps I was a bit harsh.. But my bet is on the DHL folks. They just closed 16 US airport hubs. One, near where I live, 3000 people lost their jobs. They have handed their flying over to UPS.

Steve
 
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I recently had no issue attaining a 1W 445nm or one fine 50mw 405nm... had used EMS through DHgate before to get a few 100mw green kaleidoscopic pointers a month ago with no problems, but received a bunch of empty boxes after Customs seized 12 100mw green kaleidoscopic pointers I had ordered thru same service and site this past week.

Customs included a statement with a reference number but was looking for some advice before I went any further towards trying to reach a pseudo-resolve, as I am aware there are "no gurantees" in many cases.

My question: What can I do now?
 





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