I got mine today.... yipeee... Just want to say these calenders are great, beautifully printed, the images turned out perfect... Thanks to Caedes for taking the time to put these together, a job well done.. *pats caedes on back... claps... they are going to make great pressies for my family... Thanks again..

I got mine today too! They are currently waiting on my bed to be wrapped up all nice for Christmas for my parents. =) They're great.

I'm guessing mine are coming by fed ex carrier pigeon as they still havent arrived two weeks after a despatch mail arrived...

wow thats a long time.. it only took 7 days to go all the way to aussieland..

Phil posts all his mail with Cadbury fingerprints .. and the postman's fed up

ohh Phil.. really... don't ya know your supposed to lick the Cadbury off your fingers BEFORE you post your mail.. geez.. lol

it doesnt usually last long enough to melt :-)

lol

well a card arrived today from Her Majesty's Highway Robbers aka The Post Office demanding payment of 50% of the Calendar's value in import tax before they will deliver them which is annoying for a variety of reasons most notably the fact that books and printed materials are exempt from import duty and tax in the UK and even if they were - the tax would only be 17.5% at most. Looks like the local sorting office are trying to boost their Christmas bonuses. A whole barrage of expletives springs to mind, none of which are suitable for here :-(

Sounds like they read your equestrian comment

could be - either that or they are just being their usual usless selves

or as it now transpires, the charge is because the morons at Café Press had put on the customs declaration that the package contents were tshirts which do get taxed. idiots.

boy i would get onto them for that and tell them they have to pay for the taxes.. their stuff up they pay for it..

So .. I was never any good at math .. what are we talking about here .. in real dollars not english pounds** ;o) ..

you could break it down to a per day cost .. per month .. per look

**(my mother went to England a couple years back and was 'nicked' [pickpocketed for you yanks] and when the police were taking her statement, they asked how much she lost .. in "real" money [meaning only English Pounds would be counted] ... she then proceeded to snap her ankle clean thru and spent the last two weeks of her vacation in an English hospital .. and lived to tell about it)

surviving two weeks in an english hospital unscathed is a miracle indeed - talking dollars Keith not pounds so including the UPS shipping, the cost of the 2 calendars, import duty, VAT and a Royal Mail International Handling Charge whatever the hell that is seeing as how it was supposed to come by UPS - the grand total to date is rocking up to $80....

I've had similar problems but I bought 4. I shall be surviving on bread and gruel over christmas, washed down with my crate of ethanol.

Hmm - it seams that most folks who ordered from the UK are getting hit by this - it's a shame really as the calendars look great and are supposed to be there to raise funds for the organisation selling them - I would have much rather contributed the extra $40 straight to the site rather than lining the pockets of some sketchy government agency that has no legal entitlement to it. Complained to Café Press about this screw up but guess what - they are staying strangely silent about it....

I would email them everyday until i get an answer (I can be really annoying when i want to).. Guess us Aussies were lucky, we didnt have all that to pay except for the postage.. =)

Phil, I agree with Jacqueline, I would email every day or as often as I possibly could until those people just cringed at the thought of coming into work & opening up their emails.....If you have to pay thru the nose I'd make damn sure someone else did too...

yeah .. just think .. it'll be a year of "hateful thoughts" each time you looked at the calendar

well .. more hateful than normal, anyway

is that even possible I wonder :-)

I got my card from the post office telling me I need to pay customs charges. I had a close scrutiny of the customs & excise website, but couldn't find anything to say calendars are exempt. Guess I'll have to go collect it and pay. Maybe if I go with a sawn-off shotgun they'll waive the fees?

Bastards. They'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

books, calendars and any other printed materials are exempt from excise and VAT. or not. as the case may be.

Maybe you should get a copy of the excise exemptions take it down there and say
"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A TSHIRT??? I WANT TO SEE YOU TRY IT ON.." lol

I am not as worldly as the rest of you .. but .. I would think that your complaint lies with the folks at CafePress .. since their shipping "category" of mousepads, calendars, and t-shirts does not take strange tax liabilities into consideration .. they have brought the full wrath of the english government down upon you

but they've been in business long enough that they should, not only know about this, but have some respect for their customers to make sure it does not happen

how eagerly will YOU be rushing out to buy $80 calendars next time

Yep contacted them but they aren’t answering any mails. Shocker. and yes, took a copy of the excise exemptions documents down to the post office but it didn’t phase them at all - they were completely unmoved by it even when i ripped open the package and showed them the glaring absence of any garments. Shouldn’t act surprised at that though as the Royal Mail only employ illegal immigrants or UK nationals with the combined office IQ of a pomegranate. These days you have to be thankful you get your mail at all as it has become quite common practise for the immigrant delivery workers to just dump their entire load of mail over a wall somewhere if they get bored of delivering it.

It isn't any different here.. Post office only employs those who can't think for themselves..

When I finally paid the charges, I was surprised that nearly half of the amount was the post office handling fee.

The customs declaration on my Cafepress package stated that the contents were 'apparel ceramics and misc'.

You're lucky it didn't break, I'm sure it wasn't marked fragile ....lol

As for the post office, I should have half their benefits, union & whatnot, plus their 15 minutes of fame when they go "postal " ....half of my stuff doesn't get delivered, but they leave notes in my mailbox so I can hoof it into town to get what they couldn't drive 20 feet down my driveway to deliver.....

wow .. 20 feet .. you must live in a palace .. (*faints*)

hardly

* fans keith, afraid if he faints & lands on his face, his nose'll squish *

here's the response from Cafe Press:

"Your feedback regarding this matter is greatly appreciated. We have revised our labeling system for international shipments. Your parcels will now be labeled according to the contents of the package, rather than the type of company shipping your goods. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Again, thanks for bringing this matter to our attention. Your valuable input helps us improve the CafePress.com shopping experience."

not much hint of a refund there then :-)

I would say "well its a bit too late for that when i've been hit with $80 FEE you stung me with.. I request that the amount be refunded to be ASAP or legal action will be taken" amazing what the word "legal action" can do.. LOL

made my heart skip a beat