Cafepress Labelling - Will they ever get it right

[Ulkosh]

What is Cafepress' Problem?

Why do they always label my books as 'Apparel Ceramics and misc'

I've complained about this before and it keeps happening.

Well now i've had to pay customs duty on my replacement Vol 15.

First i get an unreadable one, now i get stiffed for customs duty on a free gift. Because Cafepress won't label a book as a BOOK, then they label a price on it of $39.99 despite the fact its a GIFT and THEN they don't mark it as a GIFT.

Its really not good enough.

[Jan]

Ouch, that is a drag. Sorry to hear it. Dunno what's going on, it seemed like CP had fixed the issue of customs labeling for a long time.

Write to [email protected] and put "Attn: Jaclyn" in the subject line. Let he know what happened and see what she can do about it.

Jan

[Ulkosh]

WOW CafePress suck!

I have a response and this is it:
========================
I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You may be
subject to import duties and taxes, which are levied once the package
reaches your country. Additional charges for customs clearance must be
borne by you; as we have no control over these charges and cannot predict
what they may be or when they occur.

Customs policies vary widely from country to country; you should
contact your local Customs office for further information. Additionally, when
ordering from CafePress.com, you are considered the importer of record
and must comply with all laws and regulations of the country in which
you are receiving the goods.
====================
So basically they're already shirking responsibility.
I've spent HUNDREDS on these books and THIS is the kind of service CafePress give?

Pathetic!

I'm still waiting on what Jaclyn says (its early for her yet) but right now i'm furious (not with Jaclyn, with CafePress). It was perfectly clear this would happen with them continually mislabelling goods but they didn't listen.


CafePress truly are terrible and i would recommend that if anybody else has mislabelled parcels from them they should complain IMMEDIATELY or you could end up in my situation.

[raw_bean]

My Vols 14 and 15 were mislabelled as well, as was my Other Voices Vol 1. I must say I'm not about to riot in the streets over it though.

[Jan]

Raw Bean,

You should contact the Scripts Team also.

Really, folks, that's what they're there for and they've got much better contacts within CP to get help from.

Jan

[Ulkosh]

My Vols 14 and 15 were mislabelled as well, as was my Other Voices Vol 1. I must say I'm not about to riot in the streets over it though.

And did you get an extra 3 week wait and get charged VAT and handling fees as a result despite having raised the concern previously?



In addition i would hardly call this thread a 'riot in the streets' merely an expression of exasperation and frustration at CafePress' inability to label things correctly, to listen and act on requests to do so and thereby avoid additional cost (having ,as we all have, already spent hundreds on this stuff) due to entirely forseeable circumstances of which they were previously warned.

And then being fobbed off with the explanation above. And all this on a replacement to a book which was shoddily printed in the first place.

Excuse me if that doesn't endear CafePress to me.
Perhaps though if enough people complain they will begin to label correctly and others can avoid having to pay unnecessary fees.

I am hopeful Jaclyn can help resolve this though. She has been and continues to be very helpful and understanding.

[Jan]

I don't blame you for your frustration, Ulkosh. Was your volume 15 one of the ones with blank or smudged areas? To be fair, from what I understand that wasn't shoddy printing on CPs part, it was an intermittantly failing part that caused the problem. Of all the books for it to happen on, though!!

Jan

[*Starstuff*]

I've had the very same problem. My last shipment was labelled "Apparel and Software" and all of the sudden I was supposed to pay 75-115 Euros ($116-178) for customs.

I sort of sorted it out with UPS and I wrote Jaclyn and she promised to take care of it in case UPS wouldn't get it right.

So far, I've been exchanging mails with UPS on this matter and it looks like everything will be fine, though I am still waiting for the correct customs declaration and therefor my final bill (which should be somewhere around 15 Euros).

I can only say: Jaclyn rules.

[Joe Nazzaro]

This is a problem that could (and should) be easily resolved. Back in the eighties when I was just out of college, I spent a few years working in an office, where I basically handled all of their international shipments. For the most part, it meant having to type up all the appropriate paperwork required for each country, each of which required different forms and often lots of them. What I do remember is that duty is paid based on what the item(s) is, so you would look up, say, what a book would be classified as and that's what you would write on the shipper's export declaration. Frankly, I doubt the 'apparel...' classification encompasses books, which in theory means the customers could be paying more, if the duty is higher on that classification. You certainly can't blame the customs officials, because they're simply going by what is being declared on the declaration. But it wouldn't surprise me if, for whatever reasons, Cafe Press is providing the wrong information for customs.

[Ulkosh]

I've had the very same problem. My last shipment was labelled "Apparel and Software" and all of the sudden I was supposed to pay 75-115 Euros ($116-178) for customs.

I sort of sorted it out with UPS and I wrote Jaclyn and she promised to take care of it in case UPS wouldn't get it right.

So far, I've been exchanging mails with UPS on this matter and it looks like everything will be fine, though I am still waiting for the correct customs declaration and therefor my final bill (which should be somewhere around 15 Euros).

I can only say: Jaclyn rules.

Ouch thats REALLY bad.
I hope it all works out for you.

Jaclyn is indeed great And things seem to be getting ssorted for me too.

Re: Jan
Yes smudged and blank areas.
One of my other volumes on the other hand is completely unreadable, with all the letters and words overlapping - its a problem i've seen before on pdf documents.


Re: Joe
Yes i think they're just labelling it with the 'apparel ceramics and misc' saying misc will cover everything and to hell with the customer's import costs. NMP.

Thank goodness for Jaclyn

[CeeBeeUK]

What is Cafepress' Problem?

Why do they always label my books as 'Apparel Ceramics and misc'

I've complained about this before and it keeps happening.

Well now i've had to pay customs duty on my replacement Vol 15.

First i get an unreadable one, now i get stiffed for customs duty on a free gift. Because Cafepress won't label a book as a BOOK, then they label a price on it of $39.99 despite the fact its a GIFT and THEN they don't mark it as a GIFT.

Its really not good enough.

Me too

I now have to pay import duties equivalent to the value of the item (ú15=$29), because Cafepress included the cost of shipping in the value, $36, and listed it as apparel and misc.

Not happy either. If a riot is started, let me know which street.

[Jan]

[email protected] Put Att: Jaclyn in the subject line. Tell her what happened and include your order number if possible.

Jaclyn is your friend.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

I was talking to somebody at Fedex earlier and I asked them about this on an informal basis. The person I was speaking to said they thought the shipper (in this case Cafe Press) was putting down the wrong harmonized code (apparel, etc) instead of books. This would make sense if Cafe Press was also shipping out items like T-shirts and so forth; it's entirely possible they're using a catch-all term instead of one specifically for books. I agree with Jan, if there's a helpful person at Cafe Press, they can answer this question better than anybody, but alternatively, I would speak to the customs people on the ground in your respective countries who should be able to answer some of those questions as well.

[Andrew_Swallow]

From the spam they send me Cafe Press sell a lot of T-shirts.

[CeeBeeUK]

Me too

I now have to pay import duties equivalent to the value of the item (£15=$29), because Cafepress included the cost of shipping in the value, $36, and listed it as apparel and misc.

Not happy either. If a riot is started, let me know which street.

Having collected the parcel, the cost of the duty becomes clear.

The replacement book 15, a replacement for the mis-printed version, has been labelled as Apparel Ceramics and Misc, with a value of $67.94 - not $29.99!



edit: and yes I have let the script team know!