Crystal shop owner insists on help from customs worker, ignores giant fee: 'He wishes her a nice day and tells her the bill will be coming in the mail'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 23, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

This woman found out the hard way that she got what she paid for. She just didn't know that she was paying for something in the first place! 

U/OneGlassOne had an excellent tale of malicious compliance to share. They and their coworker work in a line of business that deals with commercial imports. They write that people need to fill out lots of paperwork when importing items into the country, probably in a similar way to declaring your valuables at the airport. 

This woman told the original poster that she was the owner of a store that sold crystals and other trinkets, so she must've had quite a bit of stuff to declare. That also would've meant a lot of paperwork, which she seemed totally baffled by. As a business owner, you're going to have to get used to paperwork… and cost-cutting measures, just to name a couple important aspects of owning a company. This woman may be in over her head. Now she's learned another crucial life lesson: always read the fine print. 

Next up, this trucker really didn't want to unload their truck, so they added a few extra zeros into their contract rate… then one day, someone called their bluff. 

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  • 01
    'My colleague gets a call... from what I can only describe as the most obnoxious woman I have ever had the misfortune of hearing'
    via Dan Farrell on Unsplash
  • 02
    Free advice is seldom cheap I work for my country's customs administration. Me and a colleague are responsible for all import related inquiries within a certain geographic area, me handling private imports while he is in charge of commercial (business) imports. If you import something into my nation as a business, you have to input a ton
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 03
    of information into a centralized system which then calculates how much you owe the government in import fees and VAT. Companies that are engaged in importing goods usually do the aforementioned administrative tasks either in-house or hire a forwarding agent. The process is fairly complicated so there are various ways my colleague tries to help businesses that haven't
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 04
    gotten the hang of it yet, especially when they are newly formed and quite small. My colleague gets a call (calls are always put on speaker so there is another person who can confirm what is being said) from what I can only describe as the most obnoxious woman I have ever had the misfortune of hearing.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 05
    The woman explains without even a greeting, that she has opened some sort of thrift store for small trinkets relating to crystal healing (no...no joke...that's the type of shop she opened). She then explains that she has ordered a rather large amount of merchandise from abroad and now wants us to make the necessary system entries into our system.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 06
    My colleague is nice. Very nice. After confirming in our database that this is the first time the woman makes a business import, he kindly does it for her on his computer while explaining the whole procedure to her. The whole brouhaha takes about 90 Minutes. After everything is done, he tells her that next time she will have to do it herself or hire a forwarding agent. The woman. just says that she will be
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 07
    expecting the bill for the import duties in the mail and hangs up. One month goes by. Another call from the obnoxious woman. This time she bluntly states that the next import is due and that she,,has another order" for my colleague.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 08
    My colleague, still with a voice like honey, explains to the woman that this time he won't be able to oblige. He explains that last time was to show her how it works and that he would be happy to give her an industry site listing the various forwarding agents who can help her.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 09
    Unfortunately it doesn't go any further, as the woman immediately cuts my colleague off. She informs him that she ,,knows the law" and is thus ,aware that he is required to help her fill in the forms, whether he wants to or not".
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 10
    My colleague obliges. After another 90 Minutes he wishes her a nice day and tells her that the bill will be coming in the mail again.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 11
    After that, my colleague takes a deep breath and opens a form on his computer I haven't seen before. Seeing my confusion he proceeds to tell me what the form is for.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 12
    Apparently, the customs administration is indeed required to make the system entries for businesses if asked. However, in order to not interfere with the free market (and probably as not to incur the wrath of the forwarding agent mafia), the customs administration can charge businesses for the time our employees spend on such requests.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 13
    My colleague then shows me the fee table and my jaw drops through the floor while my eyebrows visit the back of my head. The fee is charged for every 15 minutes of work and makes the hourly fee of the greediest forwarding agent look like a bargain.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 14
    My colleague prints out a single bill, containing the import fees as well as the charge for his time spent on the woman's request (the charge being higher than the import fees) and drops it into the mail.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 15
    What happened next was handled by a different office, so I will have to summarize. Woman complains that charging her for my colleague's work is illegal...and is shut down because it is perfectly legal. Woman then complains that she didn't know about the law...and is shut down because me and my colleague confirm that she said she knew the law. Woman then pays up.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 16
    She never called my colleague again.
    via u/OneGlassOne
  • 17
    Psy... me you guys are so much better than the customs agents here in Slovakia. I once tried to import some bedding, which was expensive so over the 'personal use' import limit of 150e. The customs office told me I needed to use a forwarding.
    via u/PsychedelicTeacher
  • 18
    agent (50e) or find the Schengen area import code using the code website (5000+ codes) I found the right code, called the office, and said: the code is (XXXXX) The woman on the phone went 'no sorry sir that is the wrong code'
    via u/PsychedelicTeacher
  • 19
    so, of course, I asked her what the code she had on the screen was (i.e 'you know the right code - what is it?') and the response was 'sorry sir, IT ISN'T MY JOB TO HELP PEOPLE'
    via u/PsychedelicTeacher
  • 20
    RaistlinWar48 He he. good example of MC. She should have seen that coming in a crystal ball.
    via u/RaistlinWar48
  • 21
    DangNearRekdit Now that is some Grade-A MC!
    via u/DangNearRekdit
  • 22
    Gem Jam Jelly This was a very satisfying read!
    via u/Gem Jam Jelly
  • 23
    Mrchameleon_dec Wow! Some people are just eager to find things out the hard way1
    via u/Mrchameleon_dec
  • 24
    [deleted] me and my colleague confirm that she said she knew the law. LOL perfect
    via u/[deleted]

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