Just got my parcel from @MrSnuff‌. Great store and always declares everything wonderfully. Yet…my envelope had a big sticker on it. “Opened and examined by customs”. I could tell that the seal of one snuff was broken and the box of another was half empty. I suppose it can’t be avoided but it still annoys me and it’s quite intrusive too, I reckon. Rant over.

@kiwi78 happened to me too, but nothing was damaged. Are you in Canada?

New Zealand. It seems that the world just doesn’t know what snuff is. Too easy to suspect something illegal.

Canada customs opened my Toque order a while ago, and didn’t seal the tins or put them back in the little baggies they were originally in. Snuff spilled all over the inside of the box. They know too that they are potentially wrecking your stuff - they just don’t care.

I received a shipment today of an order of 13 snuffs but there were only 2 of those 13 in the box–but no customs sticker. I have no idea what happened to those snuffs but I am very sad about it, I must say.

What a tragedy @fredh… we need to set up a support group…

@Kiwi78, I don’t think it is about knowing what snuff is, but rather a question of import duties. There are heavy restrictions to tobacco imports all over the world. I don’t know what is the case of NZ, Canada or Commonwealth in general, but I bet the customs just checked if the package went over some duty free allowance. Sad story in any case. However, just because they may know what snuff is, does not mean they know how it is handled and stored and subsequently ruined (plus they prob don’t care).

What a tragedy @fredh… we need to set up a support group…

A support group would be nice :-S @stogie, but I am hoping that Mr. Snuff will replace the missing items and that would be much preferred! But thanks for the kind thoughts!

Last year I imported a tube of coca powder (inca tea) directly from Peru. No customs checks at all. What I did was choosing the slowest shipping option. It took 30 days to get here. Customs know that most folks want their stuff quickly and perform more checks on those shipments. So maybe look at the shipping options Mr. Snuff has to your country and choose for the cheapest one - which would be without tracking. Another experience I have with customs are packages containing books. When I ordered only one book title nothing was wrong. But when odering more then one title I had to pay extra customs tax.

Another experience I have with customs are packages containing books. When I ordered only one book title nothing was wrong. But when odering more then one title I had to pay extra customs tax.

An educated general public is a dangerous general public.

I do pick the slowest option without tracking every time. As a matter of fact snuff is import tax free in NZ. They just check because they can.

The only package that I ever had opened was one of shaving supplies from turkey. Package was opened, no customs stamp. Luckily the only thing they opened was the shave cream. And luckily they had seals under the caps that they left in place, as they never replaced the caps!!

I received an order from MrSnuff, and three of my 12 tins had been opened, interestingly all three of the tins were SG black rappee. I guess there is something about SG black rappee that draws suspicion. One of the lids was placed back so loosely that I’m surprised that the lid stayed on and thus avoided dumping the contents into the shipping box.

Maybe there is a huge amount of snuff-enthustiastics in customs all around the world. Then they raid all the packages containing this sweet powder to take couple of pinches without the need of ordering themselves and feeding the other greedy customs persons!

I always feel I had a lucky escape with a load of Indian snuff I got about a year ago. An Indian colleague at work had seen me partaking, and offered to see if his relatives in the home country could get me some. I said that would be wonderful. In India it appears the post office workers are rather enthusiastic about checking what’s leaving the country and regularly open large packages to see you’re not exporting something it’s against the law to send out of the country, and this guy’s family in India regularly sent Indian bidi cigarettes to the family in the UK by sticking the ciggies in the middle of a package full of bags of spices, so the postal guys would think it was simply spices & not check any further. Their original plan was to do this with the snuff, but then they changed their minds and decided instead to just post it out of the country in a package. At the time there was an international cricket tournament happening in the UK (ICC Champions Trophy), so the plan became to go to the post office when India were playing Pakistan (this is one step below actual warfare) because they figured all the workers would be too busy watching TV’s or listening to radios to be bothered checking what people were posting abroad. Worked like a dream and the snuff duly arrived - 3lb of it in weight!! Not only that, but as most of you know, a lot of snuff in India is sold in heat-sealed transparent plastic packets, which they just put a paper sleeve round with the product name etc on. My colleague’s family had, for some reason, decided to remove these paper labels, so what arrived was 3lb in weight of unmarked plastic packets full of light-brown powder, looking for all the world like a bulk delivery of something a lot less legal than snuff! All the way from India to the UK, and no-one saw fit to open that! I feel for you guys who’ve had customs interfere with, and even possibly steal from your deliveries, when I’ve been lucky enough to get away with that…

Good news! Mr. Snuff will be replacing the missing tins in abovementioned order. I am a happy guy! But hey @Stogie, we can still have a support group! But, er, ah, wait a minute… Isn’t that what Snuffhouse is?!

Canada customs opened my Toque order a while ago, and didn’t seal the tins or put them back in the little baggies they were originally in. Snuff spilled all over the inside of the box. They know too that they are potentially wrecking your stuff - they just don’t care.

That’s disheartening

To date my perhaps dozen shipments from the UK- through the US and onward to me here have not been touched once. Now I almost regret saying that since I just clicked order over at Mr. Snuff a few minutes ago and I am likely doomed. When I recently flew back to the states I had a moment of pause about loading up my carry-on and checked luggage with assorted tins of Hedges and McChrystals, along with a few value bags from Toque, but in the end I did and never got a second look from DHS or Japanese customs on either end.

If you have ever watched those customs shows on TV where they try and make themselves look like big men opening up a suspect package that is a blatant plant for the TV they test the powder for drugs. putting nasty substances in snuff tins would be an easy way to try and smuggle it into places, I suspect that’s all they are doing, whilst probably letting actual drugs get through!

@SgtJon‌, I’ve only been to Japan once, and I took a few cob pipes and some tobacco. These items attracted intense interest at customs, where I was subjected to very thorough search. I was dressed reasonably respectably, although I was arriving as a tourist. I really wonder what the attitude would have been if I’d been carrying a few tins of snuff.

@SgtJon‌, I’ve only been to Japan once, and I took a few cob pipes and some tobacco. These items attracted intense interest at customs, where I was subjected to very thorough search. I was dressed reasonably respectably, although I was arriving as a tourist. I really wonder what the attitude would have been if I’d been carrying a few tins of snuff.

Pipes are not that common here so that may have been the cause for extra scrutiny; cigarette smoking is the norm here. I do notice that pipe smoking is gaining some traction based on the growing selection of pipe tobacco at my local shop. While they do have a large non-Japanese customer base, I have seen some Japanese buying both pipes and tobacco. As for tins- with multiple trips in and out of Japan I have never once been asked about my snuff even though I frequently carry a tin and usually a tap box in my pockets as well as an assortment in my carry on. Even an acrylic bullet has gone unnoticed in my carry-on. One thing I have done, even though never asked is keep the box from my Gawith which is labeled in Japanese with picto-grams on how to use it.

@SgtJon‌, I certainly never saw another pipe smoker while I was there – although when I smoked it in public, it generally just evoked curiosity and positive interest. There are a handful of top-notch Japanese pipe makers, who are internationally recognized and who charge high prices for their work, so the concept is obviously not completely alien. There are also some makers of traditional Japanese pipes – too expensive to consider buying on a whim, though, several hundred dollars for quite basic designs. Wonderful country for a short trip, I must say. I found the people very reserved, yes, but willing to go out of their way to help a poor, lost-looking foreigner. I can’t imagine a native of New York or London being as remotely helpful to non-English speaking tourists in situations like ordering noodles in a busy resto or buying a ticket on the underground. I think the difference is that English speakers presume that everyone else in the world should speak English, while the Japanese think it’s entirely natural, desirable even, that foreigners don’t speak Japanese.

@JakartaBoy‌ Cigars are certainly coming into favor here, though I still get those same curious looks when I have one from time to time. I think this is more out of wonder and given that while smoking is very common here, few Japanese would dare spend the requisite half hour plus to take in an average cigar- at least during the work day.