Salaam my fellow Gupshup’ers,
Here is my dilemma. Recently, I had sent a package to my wife in Lahore through USPS (United States Postal Service) Express Mail since it being the most economical compared to UPS and FedEx. The package contained some Eid greeting cards, chocolates, and an HP Touchpad (similar to iPad 2) as an Eid gift. I had declared the package as a gift with a minimum monetary value of $10.
Now I don’t understand why would the GPO in Lahore call my wife and ask her for Rs.5000 to pickup the package. Plus the last time I had sent her a netbook, they did the same thing (ask her for Rs.7000) and the package had been opened and the greeting card seals had been broken, along with the netbook box.
Are they allowed to do this? Why the heck would they require Rs.5000 for? I had declared the package as a gift and for personal use rather than commercial goods for resale purposes (which I would understand the customs and additional duties) But this is just strange and makes absolutely no sense what so ever? First of all I had paid for all the shipping charges for express mail, insured and furthermore, the package gets scanned at various security check points to verify hazardous materials regardless. So why would the GPO officials open up my package and inspect each and everything including the contents of the greeting cards, not to mention the Rs.5000 ransom.
Lastly, why couldn’t the package be delivered to the house address, it’s a small sized package weighing less than 10lbs and instead my wife would have to drive all the way to the GPO and pay them to get her package which I paid for in whole for all the delivery charges in the US to begin with.
I would really like to know about the GPO rules (even though there is no such thing in Pakistan) regarding oversea shipments and are people supposed to pay extra to receive their packages. Please let me know about your experiences along with the types of shipping carriers used. Thanks for all your help and comments.
Wsalaam.