Shady Lane

Posted by jbcortes (A) on October 02, 2008 at 10:13:12

In Reply to: RE: International Woes--Who to Avoid on AG posted by lrcordell on July 02, 2008 at 22:23:31

Yes it is common practice to underdeclare a bit. I don't have a problem with it if it's an exceptional occurrence and obviously that's it not organized fraud from business to business. If you declare full value, the customs will apply an exchange rate which is unrealistic (and not in your favour) and add mysterious taxes. As a result, in Europe, you would end up paying about 30% on anything you order from overseas.
So yes, that's a little white lie that doesn't hurt anybody. Kinda like copying an album on a tape in the 70s and giving it to a friend. It's tolerated as long as it's not the kind of abuse we see now of downloading anything for free.
The downside is that obviously, you can't insure more than the value you declare. That's a risk you're taking. You've been very unlucky with this customer, but rest assured not everybody's like him.
Now YOUR mistake was to send USPS and with no tracking number to a faraway country. That was really looking for trouble. Considering the guy is dishonest, he probably DID receive your cable. It was his plan all along. You've learnt a lesson and it's got nothing to do with under declaring.
I have no idea why Duilawyer went off the rails. Maybe he had a bad week.

Edits: 10/02/08   10/02/08   10/02/08   10/02/08