Customs confiscated entire order!
 

Sorry if this isn't the appropriate location for this thread, but I need to vent a bit about waiting in vain on a seed order that arrived over three weeks later.

The box arrives from Richter's with no indication of a problem. My wife finally opens it up to find that lovely customs note telling us that the contents were destroyed due to a lack of phyto-sanitary certificate and illegal materials.

My wife ordered plants (lemon verbena and something else), and several packs of basil from Richter's out of Canada. I have ordered from them several times before, live plant material included with little problem. From the size of the repacked box, i can't imagine that the live plants were in there, but haven't confirmed yet.

We are, of course, going to deal with Richter's, but has anyone ever had seeds confiscated coming from Canada? If there was no PS Cert, I understand the plants not making it, but the seeds perplex me? :no:

Any similar experiences?

I have a friend that lives in Florida that has had the contents of several packages from Canada confiscated. She doesn't even try anymore. Personally I've never had a problem.

I had tree seeds confiscated coming from UK. I complained to the seller and they resent new seed, but NOT ONE of those seeds germinated (about 100). I think they might have been irradiated.

Oh no, so sorry that this happened to you. I have the same friend as Patihum, it was terrible for her too. They now have a strict rule about no import of seeds without a phytosanitary cert. it is the law, unfortunately. BrokenBar's son had his pepper seeds confiscated too, If I remember correctly. She started a thread here about obtaining a PS certificate. I hope someone can search and find it.

Here it is, just found it. [url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=39541[/url]

I had tree seeds held up for months, coming to Canada from the US. That was years ago, but from what I hear, it's gotten worse of late! :(

What a bummer!

You'd think a reputable company like Richter's would know how to send stuff to the US.

Linda

[QUOTE=bower;547459]I had tree seeds held up for months, coming to Canada from the US. That was years ago, but from what I hear, it's gotten worse of late! :([/QUOTE]

Used to ship to the states, the garlic had to be inspected in the field growing and once more before shipping what fun. Most growers find phytosanitary permits just to much trouble.

I used to buy a lot from Richters, and last I knew they were not shippihng from Canada, they had a shipping place in I think way northern NYS,so I don't know if that's the current problem,that is they are only shipping from Canada.

Have you contacted Richter's to ask about this?

I always found them most helpful.

For several decades I've been sending and receiving seeds from many countires,Mary,Brokenbar, and I have talked about this,there's a long thread about it here,and not once have any seeds sent to me been confiscated.

As I recall,the situation with her son sending from Spain was rather complicated as she explained it, but I have some seeds sent to me from Spain with no problem at all.

Carolyn

[QUOTE=henry;547467]Used to ship to the states, the garlic had to be inspected in the field growing and once more before shipping what fun. Most growers find phytosanitary permits just to much trouble.[/QUOTE]
Really... it isn't a tariff, but just as much a barrier to trade. :evil:

What about "Seeds from Italy"?

I got my seeds from them with no problems.

Do their seeds not really come from Italy?

[QUOTE=bower;547491]Really... it isn't a tariff, but just as much a barrier to trade. :evil:[/QUOTE]

So true it brings the price up and is a form of protectionism.

In Texas you cant buy a pecan tree from out of state.
So the darn things cost a ton of money here.
A peach tree will cost around 25 dollars a pecan tree of the same size can cost 50 dollars grown at the same place.

Worth

Richter's was of course very cooperative. They assured my wife that they insert phyto-certs in all orders, but she was the second customer recently to have the same exact issue.

They are going to reship the order, but are working with my wife to see where the error was. Read below and see it appears to be DHLS.


Of special interest and curious note: Upon Richter's request, we inspected the envelope and noted a large orange sticker from the [U][B]Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirming that it had been inspected and complied with all phyto-sanitary requirements of the United States.
[/B][/U]
It was shipped from Canada on 3/4. Shipped to us empty with USDA notice with date of 3/24 from [B][U]MIAMI [/U][/B]and DHLS tape on the envelope(which I didn't notice at first). I think we might have narrowed the geographic source of the issue. The notice said contents destroyed because they were prohibited, and that there was no psc.

Losing my mind...It was an envelope and not a box.

So it was only the seeds and no plant material at all.

Friends of mine have ordered so many 'legal/illegal' items from overseas without issues that I think it is just a matter of 'X' shipments out of 'so many' that actually get sampled by customs. Personally, I will not order anything from out of the country, but I travel extensively and if I find some pepper or tomato seeds that spark my interest, which is not very often, I just hand carry them back with me and have never had an issue.

[QUOTE=rhines81;547557]Friends of mine have ordered so many 'legal/illegal' items from overseas without issues that I think it is just a matter of 'X' shipments out of 'so many' that actually get sampled by customs. Personally, I will not order anything from out of the country, but I travel extensively and if I find some pepper or tomato seeds that spark my interest, which is not very often, I just hand carry them back with me and have never had an issue.[/QUOTE]

Same. The people that always get caught are those with a like a half pound of seed. That lights up on an x-ray really really well. :) 1 seed packet or 20 seeds stuffed into a bookmark, not so much.