Care Packages from Home Issues

[yuna628 9,680]

My FIL called today and told me that the care package he was trying to send from the UK to my husband was rejected by the courier service he usually uses to send to the US. He said they refused to take the package as it contained chocolate and ''US authorities would just destroy it''. Kind of scratching my head here as we've always sent items back and forth, including a nice stock of Cadbury etc for my husband's chocolate fix. I can find no regulation that would prohibit the sending or receiving of chocolate for non commercial purposes, the customs forms are always filled out, and he's never had that courier reject him before. Nor have US customs ever destroyed our items (they did cut a hole in a box once when he obscurely wrote 'sweets' instead of being more descriptive but still gave it a pass). He usually uses a company called parcel2go. Should he just try royal mail?

 

Is there something new going on in customs regulations? :/

[BenjaminKeating 114]

I get sent a care package from the U.K once a month and it's crammed full of chocolate, teabags, biscuits etc etc.

 

My mum sends them Royal Mail and they always arrive in good time and in good condition. 

 

Clearly this parcel2go company are ###### morons

[GreatDane 366]

No, someone just misunderstood what they were/weren't supposed to do.

 

Or your FIL wanted to keep the delicious chocolate for himself. Most likely, the first one

 

He should try again with another postman or carrier.

[Illiria 980]

Due to the fact that Hershey's only want US made cadburys in the US, the import of British cadburys was attempted to be stamped out and Hershey's actually took some importers to court over it. Which is probably what the shipping company are worried about it. Hersheys brought the right to use the Cadbury name in America in the 80s. 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Illiria
Grammer

[Illiria 980]

We use amazon and tend to only order things that aren't made for the us market to avoid accidentally getting the us version. 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

Hershey is licensed to do US Cadbury. They had a lawsuit that was something about keeping UK Cadbury from being imported to the US.  Not sure of the latest and if the suit settled, but it was all over social media awhile back. Either the shipper knows the final verdict or just believes the social media and chooses not to take Cadbury. Maybe you will have to switch to Galaxy. 

[NovaSprings 89]

As a Canadian, I too miss some of the items readily available in Canada from across the pond, that I can't seem to find here (especially in Mississippi...ugh).  Proper Chocolate, biscuits and Pataks brand items (lime pickles...yum).  If it is any help I have had good luck using the following site to purchase some of the things that I miss.   https://britishfooddepot.com 

 

Hope this helps!

[yuna628 9,680]

1 hour ago, Wuozopo said:

Hershey is licensed to do US Cadbury. They had a lawsuit that was something about keeping UK Cadbury from being imported to the US.  Not sure of the latest and if the suit settled, but it was all over social media awhile back. Either the shipper knows the final verdict or just believes the social media and chooses not to take Cadbury. Maybe you will have to switch to Galaxy. 

It was to my understanding the lawsuit was regarding small niche British import food stores in the US trying to re-sell the items from the UK in the US that Hershey was mad about. Not people sending gifts to one another that are not for commercial re-sale. The company told my FIL that any food of any kind including chocolate, candy, cookies.. literally anything would be destroyed by US customs. Very bewildering, but I'll keep pushing him to use Royal Mail.. it's more expensive but I think it's it'll be just fine. I thought perhaps they were nervous or were interpreting US restrictions on Dairy products in an overkill way.

Edited April 7, 2017 by yuna628

[Wuozopo 4,293]

16 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

It was to my understanding the lawsuit was regarding small niche British import food stores in the US trying to re-sell the items from the UK in the US that Hershey was mad about. Not people sending gifts to one another that are not for commercial re-sale. The company told my FIL that any food of any kind including chocolate, candy, cookies.. literally anything would be destroyed by US customs. Very bewildering, but I'll keep pushing him to use Royal Mail.. it's more expensive but I think it's it'll be just fine. I thought perhaps they were nervous or were interpreting US restrictions on Dairy products in an overkill way.

It sounds like the shipper is just not informed and is trying to save your Dad from wasting chocolate and all the good stuff. Maybe if he said "I'll take my chances" they would send it.

[3rd 84]

I knew about the lawsuit, but I wouldn't have thought it would impact on a care package, especially not with the quantities he'd be shipping over. My mum and nan sent me a big parcel of Cadbury, Galaxy, and all manner of other chocolate for my pregnancy cravings only maybe a month or two back and there were no issues. They used Royal Mail, but bear in mind the cost of the postage far outweighed the price of the chocolate. Haha!

[GazLisa 1,168]

Last week sent my fiancé a parcel to USA stuffed full of Cadburys chocolate 🍫 got there no problem st all