Space Odyssey 2010

A short but sad story about the adventures of a parcel traveling from the United States to Austria.

Preface

We always thought that launching the satellite into orbit was one of the trickiest parts of this project. All wrong! The adventures that our TubeSatKit is having on its trip from Mojave, California to Graz, Austria are legend.

Departure

On September 7th 2010 a parcel measuring aprox. 40x40x15 centimeters was handed over to trustworthy officials of the United States Postal Service® by Randa Milliron from IOS. The Detailed Description of Contents (enter one item per line) on the Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note states Electronics KitTubeSat (Academic), Qty. 1, Value (U.S.$) 300.00. And off it went to Austria; (presumably) by plane.

Quarantine

Not even a week later (around September 13th) the parcel had arrived in Vienna. To its great surprise it was held back at the Auslandszentrum Wien (AZW) and put under quarantine. A suspicious customs officer mistrusted the above mentioned Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note and issued a Zollbenachrichtigung. The latter form requested proof of payment and/or an invoice to free our parcel from quarantine.

System Error

Eager to receive our parcel and not thinking about Murphy's law we faxed the bank statement containing the line that proofs the payment to IOS on September 22nd. Our patience had to hold until Friday, September 24th when a mailman presented our parcel! Just in time for the project meeting this afternoon was our first thought. All wrong! Mr. mailman had to collect a total of € 687.40 for customs fees before handing over the parcel. If we had had the money (in cash) we would have paid the ridiculous amount. Luckily we never have that much cash in the office.

Information Loop

Refusing the payment of € 687.40 meant that the parcel had to go back to a local post office (the one responsible for zip code 8018 to be precise) to spend the weekend there, together with all the other parcels and letters that didn't make it to their final destination.

A phone call to the Auslandszentrum Wien (AZW) later we were one bit smarter. We received the explanation that You can write whatever price or value you want on this Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note. We need an invoice to have proof of the contents value.. The thought of also being able to write whichever amount one chooses on an invoice never seemed to have crossed this person's mind.

Anyhow, we got the phone number of the responsible customs office. A short call there provided us with a new phone number which turned out to be the one of the responsible department of Auslandszentrum Wien (AZW). We could have played that game all Friday but both offices closed around noon.

Luckily and finally we found a competent person named Mrs. Grasmuck. She explained how the procedure of Zollrichtigstellung was supposed to work.

Go Back One Step

The sad consequence for our long awaited parcel is that on Monday, September 27th it had to travel back to Vienna to Auslandszentrum Wien (AZW), wrapped in a new coat of brown paper and accompanied by paperwork to explain its contents and proof its real value. All this triggered a procedure that according to the official at the local post office (yes, the one for zip 8018) has not occurred for some 20 years.

Parcel's current status

on the road between Graz and Vienna

(to be continued)