Dette er en utskrift av en epostkorre8spondanse med Jane Dyer, som er ansvarlig i USPS for pakkepostforsendelser utenlands.
This is an excerpt of my email correspondence with Ms. Jane Dyer, who is in charge of Global Package Services with USPS

Svar 18.02.03 --- Reply 2/18/03

Subject: RE: Air parcel mail problems in Norways are still continuing - your action is needed
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 04:10:38 -0500
Fra: "Dyer, Jane - Washington, DC"
To: uspsnorway@yahoo.no
Cc: "Wilderson, Bill - Rosslyn, VA"

Dear Mr. Hxxx,

Indeed, the USPS is extremely concerned for all of our customers sending packages from the US to Norway and for the recipients of these packages living in Norway.
We value this business and in an effort to satisfy our customers, we are currently in discussions with an alternate delivery agent in Norway and hope to come to terms shortly. By copy of this, Bill Wilderson will be sure to send you the appropriate information as soon as we are able to make a public announcement. We anticipate implementing this change the first week of March.

Thank you for your kind note.

Best regards,

Jane Dyer

Spørsmål 17.02.03 --- Enquiry 2/17/03

-----Original Message-----
From: uspsnorway@yahoo.no [mailto:uspsnorway@yahoo.no]
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 7:29 AM
To: Dyer, Jane - Washington, DC
Subject: Air parcel mail problems in Norways are still continuing - your action is needed

Dear Ms Jane Dyer,

As I have been able to gather from correspondence you have had with other postal consumers in Norway, you are very aware of this problem. During the last 2 weeks an online petition has gathered more than 340 signatures asking USPS to change the customs clearing agent for Norway, because they continue to assess an administrative fee on non-dutiable items:

http://home.no/uspsnorway/

This fee we believe is in direct contradiction to the customs duties procedures stated explicitly on your web site: http://www.usps.com/global/duties.htm

"All items entering a foreign country are subject to customs inspection and the assessment of duties and taxes in accordance with that country's national laws."

"For most countries, there is an administrative fee, in addition to duties and taxes, that is collected from the recipient to cover the costs of clearing the item through customs."

For Norway, this administrative fee is set at €17. We do not object to this fee being assessed on items that are in fact cleared through customs, meaning: the item is dutiable and duties and taxes are assessed in accordance with the item shipped. This is in line with the statements on your web site:

"The administrative fee for parcels destined to Malta, Norway, and Switzerland remains €17 for customs clearance."

However, the web site also states:

"Business air parcels delivered by GLS to Norway valued at NOK 200 ($27.79 as of December 9, 2002) are not assessed customs duties, taxes or an administrative fee."

and

"Consumer air parcels delivered by GLS in Norway valued at NOK 500, ($67.47 as of December 9, 2002) are not assessed customs duties, taxes, or an administrative fee."

We read these statements to mean that said parcels are to be delivered to the recipient without any additional charge. Nordisk Express, the customs clearance agent for GLS, continues to charge a NOK150 plus VAT charge on these items. NOK 150 is currently close to €20. Nordisk Express claims that the procedures required by Norwegian authorities for clearing non-dutiable items through customs is a de facto customs clearance and thus a fee should be assessed. We believe this to be utterly wrong based on the statements on your web site, explicitly mentioning that "Business/Consumer air parcels delivered by GLS in Norway valued at NOK 200/500, are not assessed customs duties, taxes, or an administrative fee".

When a sender in The US posts a non-dutiable air parcel to Norway, the sender enters a contract with USPS for delivering this parcel to the recipient at no more charge than the postage paid to USPS, as clearly indicated by the statements on your web site. The sender trusts in the USPS information being valid and does not worry about the recipient having to pay to receive the package.

Consequently, we think that Nordisk Express is engaging in a "breach of contract" as to the stateside mail customer, who believes that the non-dutiable parcel is handled free of any other charge than the postage paid. USPS customers in the US have no means of knowing that their recipient is actually charged an administrative fee by Nordisk Express to have their parcel cleared through customs.

In addition to the administrative fee issue, there has also been much delay in the package delivery. This matter is still ongoing and needs a quick resolve.The customs clearing procedure applied by Nordisk Express adds up to 1-2 weeks to the package delivery: The package has to be registered, an invoice has to be sent to the recipient, the recipient has to pay the fee, Nordisk Express has to acknowledge payment and notify NSB Expressgods, who are in charge of delivering the packages to the recipient's doorstep.

We believe that you have a sincere interest in resolving the fee issue as quickly as possible. If left unresolved this matter will taint the image of Nordisk Express as a reliable partner of GLS and subsequently taint the image of USPS as a trustworthy mail handler in the minds of millions of consumers both in Norway and in the US. Consequently, people living in Norway will urge their stateside friends and relatives not to send packages with USPS. American consumers, as they become aware of this issue, will hesitate to use USPS for their parcel mail to Norway. No one will benefit from this and neither of us wants to see this happen, do we?

To sum up, we ask for an explicit clarification of the term "are not assessed customs duties, taxes or an administrative fee" in the above mentioned statements. We would also appreciate if you could let us know whether and how you intend to act upon this. Mail customers on both sides of the Atlantic deserve to know what charges and fees to expect when mailing a package to Norway.

Thank you for your kind attention to this message.

Best regards
x Hxxx
xx
6411 Molde
Norway