I bought a couple of gemstone dress rings(I have a thing for rings ) on Ebay end of Jan. Yesterday instead of the parcel I get a letter from Swiss Customs and a 60chf pink slip....
My hubby asked someone at work to translate the letter as it is 3 pages of law quotes and other stuff.
According to them the rings were found to be fake and was/will be destroyed and I have to pay 60chf or face criminal charges!
What the h*&^? How did they test it to find out its fake, can I ask for more info from them or do I just pay and let it go?
Were they "copies" of something with a brand name? Fake Rolex watches from Hong Kong or Bangkok for instance will suffer the same fate at customs if you are caught. Importing counterfeit goods is illegal in Switzerland. So, if that is what it was, I would pay and let it go. If not, then I would enquire further, although if they sent you all the legalese to back up what they did, what more are they going to tell you?
No they were not "knock offs" they were regular costume jewelry with lab created gemstones at around 15chf a ring. I guess they view anything coming from Hong Kong as suspicious.
Maybe I was just unlucky that it was my parcel that was picked. I have ordered things from there before and never had any issues.
Well I guess you live, you learn, I would not want to become an "enemy of the state"!
I would contact them to find out where the problem is, eg. breach on the copy right of the design, wrong declaration of the materials e.g. colored gems which are not declared properly or illegal hallmarkings.
While you apparently do not (yet) know what the seller put onto the CN22 (green label), it is clear that the contents should be given as "fashion jewels". In view of customs authorities in Europe chasing fake jewels, you should find out more from customs. "Fashion Jewels / Modeschmuck" however should be exempt from their "fake jewels chase".
As I understand it, withholding payment for services/goods is against the law in CH. You should pay and then try to get your money back.
E.g. in a dispute with the landlord for something like a broken window that needs fixing or some such, you cannot withhold rent payment until the problem is fixed.
To be fair it doesn't though does it? I mean outside paying for fines and withholding payment for invoices that have already been sent. It's always struck me that one of the nice things about this place is that folks here don't seem as anxious to get paid as in a lot of countries I've lived in. You ask for some work done or order some goods that aren't in stock. Nobody asks for a deposit payment in advance. It's done on trust. Then maybe a month, maybe even two months after the work's been done or the goods handed over, an invoice arrives in the mail which gives you another month to stump up the cash. And if you miss that, they send a reminder. I've had to chase up people to invoice me before before now for work done months before and I've even had invoices that have offered a discount for paying on time!
I agree with the fact that online orders and purchases are based on trust here and they send you goods first, then you will receive an invoice later. Very nice and surprising. Uncommon, me think for any other countries, which expect payment first e.g. often time I do online shopping in my favourite tennis shop in Germany. They should know me well by now as a trusthworthy customer, but it is always prepaid in advance system then they only " schicken die Waren für unseren Kunde ". At the end of the day it all boils down to money, doesn't it? They will recover it and custom sooner or later will send you their invoice.
We had that discussion with other colleague of mine form non-EU country, he always disputes all the bills and scruitinizes all of them, whereas his wife from here is more inclined to pay bills without further objection just with mindset that the authorities sort out the things right.