Alpha Smart and Customs in Bali

Today I rode down to Jimbaran via the Bypass. My quest wasn’t fish, but the FedEx office right there on the main road. I have to get my Alpha Smart back to the factory in Wisconsin USA, so they can fix it and send it back. Alpha Smart have their act together and I have all the details of how to appease them. They said it would take them only 4 days to fix the machine and get it back to me.

Arriving at the FedEx office the polite receptionist started explaining my problems. “Well” she said “you see there is a problem if you want to re-import it to Indonesia.” “The customs will withhold it and it could be expensive.” “But its belongs to me” I said. “I’m just getting it fixed.” I told her it cost about $250 new and was worth less than that now. “It should be less than $50” she said, “otherwise they will hold it.” “Better its a new item, then it has a chance of coming through without being checked, but for used items, it will be held.”

“Okay” I said, “If its held how much will it cost?” “That depends” she said. “You see its complicated.” “First you have to get a special acceptance letter from a local customs office, detailing what the item is for, then you take that to the
place where they keep it.” I could see where this whole thing was going, a shakedown. Same ol’ same ol’.

The shipping cost 1 way is $73. Who knows what the ‘customs hit’ will be. She suggested I ask Alpha Smart to say it was a new item when shipping it back, but we’re dealing with an American corportation, so that’s not likely.

Anyway I didn’t ship my machine and its here unusable. Maybe we’ll work out a solution. Any Yanks out there who are coming to Bali soon?