myco Posted January 29, 2013 so my friend got a call from quarantine today he didnt speak to them on the phone his housemate did they said it was quarantine and wanted to speak about a plant he had aparantly ordered he's never recieved any letters and is wondering why they would be calling about this issue rather than getting a notification by mail and also wondering what he should do about it ignore the calls ? call back and see wat they say ? is this one of those things where they are trying to get some admission of guilt ? any help would be greatly apreciated guys Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheExplorer Posted January 29, 2013 You'll probably need to provide a bit more info: What sort of plant? Is this WA domestic/internal quarantine? Or an international parcel? Would they have proof of order? i.e. Did it come with an invoice or anything like that? Has your friend been warned or been in trouble with quarantine before? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted January 29, 2013 sorry its not an international parcel its W.A quarantine the parcel was coming from NSW it was an ebay purchase so possibly came with an invoice he said he lost a couple of packages from over east a long time ago but never recieved any letters or anything Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Halcyon Daze Posted January 29, 2013 It may be a bit tricky with an invoice. You could say that this is the first plant you have ever bought and the guy assured you that it was not a banned plant etc, they might let you off with a warning. They let me off with a stern warning (in Tas) because I said I never wanted it to be sent to me, it was just a gift that I never even asked for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
obtuse Posted January 29, 2013 (edited) It may well be a warning call from a nice quarantine officer who wanted to: 1) let your friend know the state quarantine laws, seekign verbal confirmation that he/she now understood them (next time they will just fine your friend); 2) to work out what to do with the plant, returnit to sender, or have it destroyed; 3) To work out if sender was also aware of quarantine laws in order to also contact them, and potentially fine them. Your friend will be put on a list somewhere and any future scrapes will be inexcusible because of verbal acknowledgement. I would return the call, asking why. otherwise they may just receive a fine. first time offence will probably just be a warning. I got a very stern warning from Tas quarantine, and the phone call was related tot he above three points. I got let off a very severe fine with a first warning, but found out they can potentially also fine the sender. Guy who called me made me confirm i understood the regulations and next time was fine time. package contained heaps of dirt from unwashed roots, and not packaged very well as dirt was leaking out the side - for Tas and WA this is absolute no no. Cheers, Ob. Edited January 29, 2013 by obtuse 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted January 29, 2013 cheers guys i'll pass on the info im figuring this was most likely a warning call then i thought it was a bit odd to get a phone call rather than a notification by mail Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sallubrious Posted January 29, 2013 (edited) Stories like this are becoming more common these days. The common factor in many cases (both international and interstate imports) seems to be paypal. The paypal transaction list must be cross referenced with a naughty list and anything that is prohibited gets flagged for closer attention. I know they do it in the US because people have been caught importing Lophs from Canada by their paypal invoices, so I bet they do it here too. If you get your paypal items invoiced as permitted genus/species (contact the seller before the sale) it could save a lot of drama. Edited January 29, 2013 by SallyD 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goneski Posted January 30, 2013 That doesn't surprise me about Paypal. They were/are blocking MHRB sales from what I read, among other things. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted January 30, 2013 so i was just informed that quarantine called back today my mate talked to them he said it was a very nice sounding guy that basically was asking if he'd been ordering anything from overseas wich was a bit of a surprise he then asked about buying things from ebay so thier must have been an ebay invoice in the package my friend assured them he hadnt bought anything from overseas to wich he was told its possible that some people on ebay might say they're in one place and then just get thier things sent straight from overseas i guess thats possible the quarantine bloke assured him not to worry and that he's not going to get into trouble and began to tell him how things arent allowed because of certain weeds and diseases he says he seemed very nice and said he wasnt going to get in any trouble he also said something along the lines of "dont stress out im not gonna lock ya up or anything we're not here just to persecute people you know we also have to just try and inform people" at the end however he did confirm details phone numbers address ect. then he asked for an email address aswell and said he would call back probably early next week he didnt really say why but he did say something about sending some information out so maybe he just wants to call about that to say what he'd sent out as he seems to have been very nice and helpful saying you can go to thier site and use the search thing to find out wats allowed and wats not and offering lots of advice on how to go about getting things such as permits and what certain things mean on the aqis site so all in all it seems like it was just a warning call however he's a little worried about why exactly he's going to call back Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
endorfinder Posted January 30, 2013 So relieved for your friend, good news indeed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tipz Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) if your friend has numerous items seized items from OS ( particularly if one was a loph ) ( IF - that is ) ( remember if they do come and find the particular plants alledgedly sent from OS - it's a different situation alltogether ) I would not take what this guy says at face value and would be expecting a knock on the door any time... I have heard of it happening for much much less. I dont want to mention names, but i am talking active members. ( hopefully they can drop a line or two here with their experiences ) If i was him i would be moving everything to a safe location and stashing my pc !! better to be safe than sorry man... Edited January 30, 2013 by tipz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tipz Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) if they have proof via paypal and invoices from said seized items, then a verbal denial from your friend would perhaps imply a deliberate attempt to circumvent customs and quarantine. Dont want to stress him out or anything and if I am wrong someone please correct me. I think there is more to come with this story Myco Edited January 30, 2013 by tipz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moses Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) had a 10cm trich pach sent as a gift from OS. first call quarrantine, came to visit, happy that i had ordered seeds and mix up was in translation. meanwhile customs decide it looked like an obvious attempt to thwart import laws. after conferring with quarrantine they knock on my door at 7 in the morning with warrant to seize my computer to check on email converstaions between me and seller. everything went well emails proved my side but loss of computer for a week and then only because i gave them passwords etc otherwise their tech had to hack it so it would have been on their to do list. they saw my garden which had trays of seedlings everywhere at the time so it also added to the story that i wanted seed not plants. all were very nice blokes to deal with. Edited January 30, 2013 by Moses Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tipz Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) so if they had have proved you conspired knowingly to thwart the laws by importing a plant ( or number of plants ) on the banned import list Moses, the outcome may have been quite different ? I suppose you were lucky because the data on your laptop confirmed this. What if there is no laptop to search and no plants present at the time of the raid ? would they really come down that hard on someone whom has never even received a warning before ? what are the possible consequences for this ? ( because I am unsure myself ) Do you have any input here T ? Or someone better versed in customs/quarantine laws ? Edited January 30, 2013 by tipz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted January 30, 2013 who exactly came to your house moses was it police? customs officers? did they search your house top to bottom did they even want to see plants or anything or did they just want your laptoop and thats it ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waterboy 2.0 Posted January 30, 2013 I've had customs previously look over my ebay feedback history in the past after looking over an invoice....my feedback history is now PRIVATE. Which may be handy for some..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shortly Posted January 30, 2013 Ebay & Paypal have an open book policy with the commonwealth grubbyment, Apparently you dont own your messages, they are the property of ebay. So anything & everything you say or do on either should be considered to be automatically handed to the PTB. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waterboy 2.0 Posted January 30, 2013 ^ true that Shortly, helps with the "quick" look, if they are asking for it they will be building a case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shortly Posted January 30, 2013 It seems almost to the point that Ebay &/or Paypal are actively reporting breaches, after collecting their fee's of course 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moses Posted January 30, 2013 who exactly came to your house moses was it police? customs officers? did they search your house top to bottom did they even want to see plants or anything or did they just want your laptoop and thats it ? customs officers came to the house, i was already at work, from what the g.f. said was they had a quick glance around literally a cursory glance but mainly came specifically for the computer because i had told quarrantine i had corresponded with the seller using an online translator and email. They walked through my cacti to get to the back door(we dont use the front) didnt care just impressed with amount. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moses Posted January 30, 2013 so if they had have proved you conspired knowingly to thwart the laws by importing a plant ( or number of plants ) on the banned import list Moses, the outcome may have been quite different ? I suppose you were lucky because the data on your laptop confirmed this. What if there is no laptop to search and no plants present at the time of the raid ? would they really come down that hard on someone whom has never even received a warning before ? what are the possible consequences for this ? ( because I am unsure myself ) Do you have any input here T ? Or someone better versed in customs/quarantine laws ? well i know im black flagged from before the internet even existed so i dont know if this played any part, but the "nice blokes" had an air about them that if found guilty this was gonna fuckin hurt and large penalties were mentioned but i played ball and they went home happy.. no pc would be end of story as that was all they wanted to see was the correspondence between me and seller(italian if i remember) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted January 30, 2013 Thanks for the info Moses Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted February 8, 2013 just to let everyone know wats happening aparantly theres been no one knockin on the door and no more phone calls so far so not really sure whats going on with all this hopefully it will just go away Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
myco Posted February 11, 2013 so it looks like they want to check his feedback history or more they called back today asking for the email associated with his ebay wich he doesnt even know and needs to find wat do you think would happen if they were given a different ebay address ? aparantly you can change all details on ebay name, address, email maybe it could be changed and made his? if you catch my drift Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitewind Posted February 11, 2013 That's a worry does he have a history? No need to ask. It's difficult because they will try to match it with the latest purchase. Sounds like he could be in for a fine, my guess Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
