The odyssey of packets between the US and Germany

A company tried to send a packet via TNT (originating near Los Angeles). The first shock for us was that TNT was not able to verify the address of our university! I guess that we’re, with more than 10000 students and 5000 employees, the biggest institution in Chemnitz :). But ok, they’ve been able to resolve this issues (probably), and sent the packet at Dec 4th. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that this is an Express packet.

The tracking log showed that the packet arrived at Dec 7th at Cologne Airport. It stayed there (in the customs) until Dec 21st when it was forwarded to Dresden (it nearly made it). Reviewing the tracking log today unvieled that the packet was sent back to the originator *argh*. We complained via the web formular and TNT called us immediately. It turned out that the customs office did not know what the contents of the package are :-(. And the packet is on it’s way back to the US.
Why don’t they send it to us and require us to open it in front of a customs officer? That’s the usual procedure if the content is unclear. Ohohoh …

We’ll see – I sent a parcel to the US today via DHL. I’m wondering when/if it reaches its destination :-).

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