Hi there
I had wrapped up three parcels to send overseas for Christmas. The guy at the NZ Post agency handed me three little green declaration stickers to fill in and stick on the corner of each parcel.
I sat down at a desk, filled each declaration in, and handed the stickers back to the Postshop guy, along with my parcels.
He tsk-tsked. " No. No. As the sender, you must fill in your full first name. Your first initial won't do. And the same goes for the people you're sending the parcels to. No initials allowed. "
"Um... Ooo-kay? I faithfully filled out three new declaration forms.
This time, the guy sighed. "You can't put 'Eng' for 'England' and 'Aus' for 'Australia'. Full place names please. The Customs people have to easily be able to read where the parcels are going ."
" But I have the full addresses - both mine and my friends' - in huge lettering on the front and back of the actual parcels, " I pointed out.
"And," he happily continued, ignoring my plaintive mewing, " You can't put ' NZ' for New Zealand."
I grabbed three new declarations and furiously filled them out. I handed over the newly-filled in stickers.
He rolled his eyes. "You've declared the contents of each parcel as 'stationery'?
"Yes?"
"What kind of stationery? "
"That would spoil the Christmas surprise," I said.
Do it again ," he said. Smugly
I brought back the declarations. "All done," I proclaimed.
"Go back and write in the value of each present."
I didn't even bother to argue about the surprise elements of the presents being ruined; I filled in the values, and glumly trooped back to the counter.
" You haven't signed the declarations, " the guy said.
I signed the three declarations, then waited till the guy was serving someone else before I took the declarations to another assistant....
My friend had a similar time at a NZ Post agency. She had declared a souvenir magnet inside her parcel. She was made to stand at the counter and take out the magnet because (who knew?) magnets were now banned.
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