Posted by Jim Andrada on March 20, 2004 at 01:52:35:
In Reply to: Re: customs posted by Custom Music on March 18, 2004 at 09:55:45:
And even that might not work, although I know people who have done exactly that and gotten away with it.
On the other hand --- I had a friend who many years ago went to Europe and bought two ultra expensive woodwinds. When he got to the US the Customs inspector informed him that the trademark was protected and he wouldn't be allowed to bring them into the US unless he defaced the brand markings by scraping them with a knife.
After seeing my friend go into shock the inspector relented and let him "deface" the brand by lightly making a small pencil mark across it that could later be wiped off. Sometimes you win, but sometimes you lose.
By the way, the actual importing process is a bit time consuming but generally simple enough and I've found the Customs folks to be helpful if you have a good attitude and don't get all snotty with them. In our case we had visited an accordion factory in Italy and ordered a customized model for my wife. It showed up at the airport and we went to the freight forwarder and got the paperwork, then drove to the customs office and processed the paperwork and paid the duty and got a release form which we then took back to the freight forwarder and excanged for the accordion. Took about 3 or 4 hours.