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Just Us Bears May 23, 2007

Hi All...I haven't been around for AGES! Long story, but I do hope to be back here and posting regularly again soon. I miss you guys!
I am in need of someone who can explain something to a German collector for me...please! She has very limited English and doesn't understand what I am telling her.
She bought one of my bears...for $210. She has asked if I can send the bear marked as a gift and to put the value at $45 otherwise she will have to pay heaps to customs. I am trying to make her understand that although I can mark the bear as a gift, I simply cannot estimate it's value at $45! I always insure my bears no matter where they go and if I insure this one for $45..that's all I can claim if it should go missing. I tried to tell her that if having me mark the true value of the bear on the parcel means she would rather have me refund her money, I am happy to do so. Can anyone explain this for me in German so I can cut and paste it to her? Please??
And incidently...are German customs really that prohibitive?? Seems extreme!
Many thanks in advance,

RaggyRat May 23, 2007

you could try typing a set of simple sentences into babel fish or something like that ...
i mark my parcels gift all the time for all my outside-uk shipping

i sypathise with you - shes asking too much really for you to bend the rules
marking gift should cure it really - if it was marked merchandise shewould have to pay

good luck
cat xxx

sarahjane May 23, 2007

Hey Hayley...Good to see you back here...I'm sorry I can't help you with the german....good luck!!

Just Us Bears May 23, 2007

THANKYOU Ellen!!!

bubbles May 23, 2007

Here is two online translators.  I sometimes receive emails in other languages like Spanish, Italian or French and then I use these to communicate with the collectors.  The translation is not always 100% but at least the customers understand what you're saying. (and you understand what they were saying)

Hope this info helps:

http://world.altavista.com/
http://translate.google.com/translate_t

thumperantiques May 23, 2007

Hayley,
     I have a customer in Germany, who has become an online friend.  We've even traded a few things - she bought me my German bunny candy containers and I made her a rabbit.  She has always begged me to send the items at a low value and marked gift because of customs and I have.  I've sent four items to her and they all arrived safely.  I believe their customs are even worse than Canadian customs, if that's possible.  My guess is she might refuse it, if you don't send it the way she wants, as she would end up paying a LOT of money.  Good luck.

                                      hugs,

                                      Brenda

Just Us Bears May 30, 2007

Thanks for those links Ilze...I ended up using Babelfish to translate the small emails from the collector..and ellen to do the bigger ones! Ellen did a WAY better job! 

Brenda..I ended up sending the bear marked $45 as she asked. She said she would take full responsibility if it went missing. I understand where she is coming from now...she said that they pay almost the same value as the item itself if they have to pay customs tax and it makes it too hard to afford anything outside the country. My postal clerk told me that you can't insure postal articles going into Germany anyway, so as it turns out, even if I did state the true value of the bear on the box, I wouldn't get anything back for it if it went missing. Scary thing to send expensive stuff to Germany!