After ordering an aquatic plant for my aquarium off of a popular auction site called Aquabid, I received this odd notice in the mail and reported it to the company that shipped the plant from Singapore:
Weirdly enough, my package containing the plant I ordered from your company was intercepted in the mail and was delivered with a “opened for inspection U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Agriculture” sticker on it, sans the plant. The envelope has a mail interception notice inside, stating under the disposition headline: “prohibited material removed and destroyed.” They commented at the bottom that “the item seized” was “declared as a ’soft toy’” and “propagative material requires a phytosanitary certificate issued by the country of origin for entry.”
So, I didn’t get my plant. And it appears there’s no reason to resend it since they’ll likely intercept it again. (Which I feel is VERY wrong of them.) Do I need to apply for a refund here or are there other options?
Is it really that odd, in context of everything we know already about our over-reaching government? No, not really. But it surprised me. A friend said he’d heard of people receiving notices like this but has never actually seen one. It was rather creepy finding out that I can’t even order a common aquatic plant off the internet. It wasn’t some exotic species, just a Cryptocoryne undulata, a $5 plant you can pick up plenty of places.
I’m telling people, we really need to start paying attention. These “little things” are mounting.
BTW, this is no fly-by-night company out of Singapore; it’s established and well-known among aquarists who have been ordering from them for years.
Newsvine
Safiyyah said
Hello!
I am a Muslim and live in a little town. Part of my name also contains the word “jihad” lol.
I order a lot of Islamic print material from the internet. I have ordered from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa, Egypt, etc. Often my packages arrive in very bad condition; sometimes, they have been opened. Only ONCE did I get a package with a inspection/re-wrap notice on the outside of the package. My local post office has told me that they do not open my mail.
Yup! I really believe that one!
Someone is messing with my mail, but they won’t admit it.
Another time, I was instant messaging with someone in Egypt. We were talking about politics. I happened to mention the Patriot Act. The person in Egypt asked me what the Act was. So I started to explain. I wrote something to the effect of “The Patriot Act is a US government act with wide-reaching …” and then bam – my instant message was cut off. I then got a message on my screen that the passage had been cut.
Can you believe it?!