In reply to Alpini's question, majority of the time there is absolutely no requirement for customs to notify the sender or the recipient if an item is confiscated, as there is a clear breach in postal conditions. I believe every single postal carrier in Europe have basically the same exclusions on what can cannot be sent i.e. no ordnance 'ammuntion', just like fireworks, knives and anqtiues etc .... the list seems to grow every year. Most people ignore this as otherwise half of what's on eBay would be excluded. The confiscations are supposed to be reported to police, however, who would actually know if a customs agent took the items for himself? in all reality if the items get reported to police or EOD, the counter terrorism branch is informed and will follow up with the sender ONLY if numerous instances are reported within a specified period of time. The breach lies with the sender and any fine is directed towards the person who posts the item. I know of one UK dealer that was really stung by Canadian customs and was written to via the Canadian Police attaching a letter from customs and he was subsequetly fined C$600. I saw this letter and the attachment from customs several years ago and it would certainly make you think twice before sending anything to Canada again, it was quite intimidating.
As far as defending yourself or getting the item back Alpini, there is a clear line which has been drawn in the sand - If the item is an excluded item, of which is your duty to establish before posting by reading the T&C's of the postage carrier there is nothing for customs or the postal services to answer for. This is the blunt if unsatisfactory party line that any claim will be met with. There is no legal remedy at all, as far as they are concerned a clear breach in transporting excluded items trumps any argument that may be made against this decsion. Fortunately as I have said before, MOST of the time sending within ones own country is trouble free however, a TV program aired a few months back in the UK showed how drug dealers are using the postal service to avoid the risk of dealing on the streets. As there is no way of preventing this the post office are considering bringing in measures to scan parcels UK to UK with sniffing devices etc ... it's a sign of the times. I also deal in antiques and have had items go missing, when I inform the PO of this I have been told the insurance is invalid as antiques and ceramics etc. things that are breakable are also excluded. I started using Hermes (a well known German company which operates in the UK) they also decline to reimburse dealers and have a huge exclusion list. So many people never read the T&C's and therefore the carriers are protected by the exclusions, hence the onus is always on the person sending the package to prevent such confiscations ! Those that infringe this run the risk. To many this is an acceptable risk, to others it unfortunately changes whole attitude from buying abroad.
