Customs is driving me crazy...uke crazy

MGM

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A recent container of Ponos arrived to Hawaii week sunday and was scheduled for delivery last week tuesday. It was flagged for inspection by agriculture and USDA now its been 10 days and still no release,,, whats worse is they make the importer pay all the storage fees inspection fees and moving of boxes in and out for inspection....well i hope they found that snake i hid onboard for all of that trouble lol or was it my gator
 
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Cross your fingers, Mike and say a prayer!
 
Maybe they're having a jam session and you're buying the beer..
 
So they inconvenience you and then they charge you for it? What a racket.
 
Careful Mike...they might be listening..ha ha lol....yeah sounds like they got a good thing going by holding it back and collecting storage fees...
maybe they are just hungry and looking for that tasty indonesian food....
 
Ya, MGM, and you have all sorts of pestering customers calling you wondering when they are coming in, right? ::whistles:: Yes, I'm still neurotically checking the HMS pono page to look for those magical words: "in stock"

I hope they come in soon and stop leeching you guys. MGM, you've been nothing but helpful (and patient) every time I call/email. You have one loyal customer here; when people ask for advice on forums about where to buy instruments or who to ask...I always write your name and the link to the HMS website.

Good luck, and if they are not in, I'll call you sometime mid next week for an update ;-)
 
Good luck Mike, some of them are evil for sure. I once had them intentionally and completely smash some banjo-ukes, even slashing the PVC heads for no apparent reason. Then they wrapped a whole bunch of green "inspected" tape around them before jamming the pieces back in the cases.
 
Ja-make-a Me Cry (sung to tune of Jamaica Farewell)

That customs man, he got yo' Pono,
You want it back, but he say "Oh no!;
"Gonna charge you fifty bucks a day,
In Customs House they gonna stay!"

(Music Mike's chorus)
"Well, I'm sad to say, they're still on the way,
They may be freed almost any day;
Meanwhile, know, we pay the government dough,
So they can search for leechee nuts in yo Pono!"
 
Maybe they are interested in that special Java "packing material" and the powder in the silica packets:rolleyes:
 
that is right, the HI customs look for trigger words like "Snake" and "Counterfeit" just like the NSA looks for "b*&^B" or "Te*&$(%st". YOu might be in Gitmo (oops, trigger word) soon!

Careful Mike...they might be listening..ha ha lol....yeah sounds like they got a good thing going by holding it back and collecting storage fees...
maybe they are just hungry and looking for that tasty indonesian food....
 
Ja-make-a Me Cry (sung to tune of Jamaica Farewell)

That customs man, he got yo' Pono,
You want it back, but he say "Oh no!;
"Gonna charge you fifty bucks a day,
In Customs House they gonna stay!"

(Music Mike's chorus)
"Well, I'm sad to say, they're still on the way,
They may be freed almost any day;
Meanwhile, know, we pay the government dough,
So they can search for leechee nuts in yo Pono!"


Nice going, gokidd. Now write one about struggling to play an E chord.
 
Pono's stage a coup and escape late last night FREE at Last

The customs agents were falling asleep last night and then two pono's sent out some scouts. The low 'g flanked to the left and the high g's to the right.....Coast was clear. Rev the island movers truck and they sped out.....FREE at last.....Oh oh I hear sirens...pedal to the metal before 'Book um Danno" is heard
 
WooHoo!!! Thanks MGM for the fast call and great service! I'm sure my high g pono was one of the escapees..she wanted to get to me as much as I have wanted to get her ;-)

Thanks for your patience with my many phone calls and emails. I'll be sure to post some pics when I get it for all those here at UU.
 
It was more interesting still, when we used to get pianos from (then) East Germany with ivory keys. Everybody on the planet seemed to get an opportunity to delay delivery, customs, fish and game, PETA....
Once piano arrived in the country, it sometimes took months for us to get delivery. Not so much of a problem, now that none of Germany is eastern-block and you can't get ivory at all.
 
Aloha Mike! I work with Leolani Ukulele and we have import problems all the time. Thank the Lord that we work in the same facilities as the brokers and freight forwarders. You gotta physically go to the brokers office and demand that the papers get pushed. We waited a week also and found out that our papers just sat on someones desk. We had to push large deliveries back. The papers should NEVER take more than 3 days. We always go to there offices and keep them busy. But we get containers cleared really quickly. Hopefully you guys can get your Pono's cleared faster next time:)
 
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