Ah! Kafka!

[viktor_haag]

So today, mere days after I ordered it online, I received my BlueTooth barcode scanner (I guess I shouldn't be terribly surprised; it's not like they have the May TwoFour in the States). And my friendly postal-agent here tells me I owe CRA an extra 22 bucks. This kind of thing always annoys me, but it's the kind of annoyance you live with because, you know, it pays for provincial transfer payments and the like (I'm looking at you Stephen Harper! I live in Ontario! 'Nuff said on that matter...).

Then I have a closer look at the package.

The shipper clearly lists the contents of the box on it's documentation as "barcode scanner".

Then on CRA's paperwork manifest, I read some long number followed by this description: "scanner/police / Postes - de radio, domestiques"

Buh-whaaa?

Great. So now, no doubt, I'm listed in Stockwell Day's super-secret-national-security files as someone who buys, what, a police band radio? A radar detector? Neither can be all that good.

Thank-you, CRA. Clearly the words "barcode scanner" mean something entirely different to the charming gentlemen and ladies you have checking packages that come north of the 49th.


("It's a barcode scanner, your honour! A barcode scanner! It's for barcodes! Honest!")

Comments

[thebitterguy]

Heh. Save me a comfy bunk on Hans Island.

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the customs charge would be different if it hadn't been labelled as a "scanner/police / Postes - de radio, domestiques."

Doug.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

So CRA's business procedure is to run a matching algorithm that tokenizes the original shipper's description, and then looks for matches against keywords in their own costing table. Obviously, the algorithm privileges matches that contribute more to provincial transfer payments.

w00t.

(In reality, I assume that their customs charge was simply levied as a standard percentage of the stated value of the goods by the shipper, and it wouldn't have mattered if the box contained postage stamps of that value, or a bunch of "Jeb in 08!" buttons. But then maybe I'm living in a glossy candy-wrapped dreamy world...)

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

I wonder the same thing.

Customs and excise levies vary guite dramatically for various items.

::B::