Bureaucracy is everywhere

Remember my TIA entry? Well maybe this one should be titled TIB, this is Britain! All the jokes about queuing and having a department for everything under the sun seemed to crash into my reality.

I am in the throws of importing my personal items to the UK from South Africa. I hired a forwarding agent in SA to complete all the forms for Britain and read the new legislation (changed 26 March) to make sure all was in order. Every person I spoke to in the HM Revenue and Taxes assured me that all was well and I only had to pick up items with my passport at arrivals.

Day One:

My second day here, I called the number for freight at Gatwick. The phone rang for no less than 3 minutes then I was cut off. I made subsequent attempts but no one ever picked up.

Day Two:

I checked the calendar to make sure there were no holidays I was forgetting and tried again. No luck. I called their branch at Heathrow to confirm the number, spoke with several supervisors who all told me that the number I had was correct. One gentleman told me he spoke with the Gatwick offices earlier that day so I was assured to keep calling. It was even suggested that I check the phone line.

Day Three:

Called Heathrow again to check the status of the shipment that was flying today. I was told that I was mistaken and the freight would not leave SA until the next day and I would need to hire a UK agent because civilians can not self clear packages as it was strictly ruled out by HM Customs as of 26 March. A supervisor went so far to take the number of my South African agent to give them an earful. As he read through the documents to me over the phone (the same one I had been using), his voiced trailed off as his mouth pronounced the words I so carefully quoted to him 3 hours previously. To this he offered apologies and passed me on to yet another person.

This person proceeded to tell me my items actually arrive the previous day and that I was going to be charged stowage unless I could process customs in the remaining 15 minutes before they closed. Which meant, I would have to hire an agent who miraculously could process my documents 24 hours a day. So I rushed the documents to the forwarding agent, only to be told the items were only leaving Jo'burg that evening for arrival at Heathrow in the morning, then transport to Gatwick by early afternoon.

Day Four:

My items arrived at Heathrow and I am now prepared with documents in hand to complete the transactions myself sans the agent. I have doted my "i's" and crossed all my "t's" – I was ready for anything they would dish out. Until I was told that the items would not go to Gatwick until this evening …Friday evening (as the day crew was in training), meaning customs would be closed until Tuesday (May Day on Monday so they are closed). All this translated to three days of stowage charges or hiring an agent all at about £200 more than I was intending to spend. The cherry on top, was the agent telling me I would have filed the previous day after-hours for processing in the morning.

I love bureaucracy!