Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas. Johnny Carson

When it came to our packages, they didn't lose them they held them and not just one week or two weeks but for 50 days!!!  That's 7 weeks and one day! There were times where I thought we would have to mail them back home but we persevered. So let me start at the beginning of this very long story.

Nancy at Customs

 We started with 15 boxes that we mailed to ourselves back in July.  When we arrived August 1st, six of the 15 boxes got delivered to the school.  Where were the other nine?  Why were they held at the post office? What do we need to do now? That was the start of our nightmare.  Luckily for us, we had the school support and an agent named Nancy.

Nancy worked tirelessly to get our boxes to us but she kept on getting road blocks. She wanted to do it all legal which she did but it was not easy.  Every time she felt she was moving forward, another issue came up.  So what was the issue? What was the problem? It came to our forms that we filled out, randy's calculators, my spices and soaps.  Let me explain to the best of MY ability.

On the form Randy wrote down what the calculators would cost if he had to replace them instead of what they were worth. because of this one mistake, the customs agent didn't believe Nancy it was a mistake and wanted to see me (since the packages were addressed to me).  So at the end of August, I went to the Customs agent ready to pay taxes around $1,200.  They still didn't believe her and refused for me to talk to them and they refused to talk to me. So I would tell Nancy in private about the cost of the calculators.  I showed her a picture of what the calculators look like.  Still they wouldn't budge. Also the price for the release of the boxes went up in price about triple. Nancy said no and she will figure out the next move.

Customs Office, Take a number

Throughout all this, the school staff and especially Nancy kept on assuring us we will get our boxes. She didn't want us to pay this exorbitant amount of money. finally we got the word that the customs office sent a message to the post office they can release the packages.  We would be getting our packages delivered to the school and be ready at 5. We were ecstatic!  We were finally getting our packages. At 5:05 we got word that the packages were not coming.  They had to look through them and make sure all the packages matched what was on the form.  On box four, we wrote soaps which we were told by the US post office that would count for all soaps, shampoos, etc.  NOPE. Since it was not bar soap there was a discrepancy and wouldn't release ANY of the boxes. They also wanted to see the actual person that the boxes were addressed to. Nancy was stumped.  She needed two more days to figure out her next move. one week later, on September 5th, I take a personal day (which I only get one per year) and this time, the head secretary of the school went with me as my interpreter.

We met Nancy at the post office in Dalian (about an hour away from DAIS). The boxes were cleared and we were on our way to pack up the boxes into the car.  But wait, the computer crashed and they needed a 'receipt' to release them at 1:30. it was 11:00! They sent Nancy to go to the customs agent (across town) to get a receipt, pay the taxes then they would release them.   At this point I am a bit frustrated but kept my cool. What else could I do?  They can see I am a real person.  The items in the boxes did match the forms and we were willing to pay the taxes for the 'spices' (30%), the calculators (40%), and the soaps (30%) plus the 'holding fee'.  Total price $1,300.  I KNOW it was more than that, but Nancy refused me to pay her any more.  I don't know if she paid them under the table or what.  I just know it was a lot more.  Eileen tried to explain to me that it was the holding fee.  If I understood her right, it cost $15 per box for 50 days times 9. that would equal $6,750!!!! Holy $%@!!!  I don't know what she did but she refused for us to pay anything more than $1,300.

So close!

 After interpreting that soap is soap and paying the money (by the way, you go through the banks for all transactions with any government business like the post office. When Nancy went to pay for it, they were closed and she had to go again, across town to pay at a different bank-wowza), we finally loaded up the boxes at 3:00 and arrived back on campus at 4:00.  Every box was looked through but not one single thing was missing and nothing was broken.  It was a happy day indeed.  We gave Nancy a pound of Starbucks coffee (that was in our boxes) and we ordered flowers for her (which she declined).  Without her, I am pretty sure our boxes would have been sent home.

 

Now that we have all of our boxes, I have my passport back and we have a local bank account, I feel more at ease than before.  Patience and trust was the key component through all this.  I cannot say enough how much we appreciated Nancy and DAIS.