I just spent an increasingly distressed several hours trying to fill out Customs forms because the online Customs page for paying import fees doesn't allow the possibility that you're receiving a replacement item covered by warranty from outside the EU without having mailed something out of the EU first to be replaced.
This is unfortunate, because Twsbi piston fountain pens have to be taken apart to be cleaned and they come with a special and totally unique wrench that you have to use to take them apart with, and I broke the wrench, but they don't sell it separately. The ONLY way to ever use my expensive Diamond 580AL ever again was to personally email the Twsbi customer service dude, who put me in contact with their factory in Taiwan, which will mail a replacement metal wrench to you in exchange for shipping costs only, presumably because the wrench itself is so small that the cost is negligible and it's not like it would benefit anybody who didn't have a Twsbi fountain pen anyway.
I was on the verge of tears and had nearly yelled at![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waxjism about what an MRN was (something to do with shipping numbers but it's not a shipping number) when she finally advised me to just fill out the form as a purchase that cost 6 USD with free shipping (rather than a free purchase with shipping that cost 6 USD). That way it went through automatically, scrutinized only by computers, and I was able to pay 2,15€ to customs and 2,60€ to the post office for their trouble and now they will finally deliver my tiny wrench to me with, purportedly, no further cavil.
This is unfortunate, because Twsbi piston fountain pens have to be taken apart to be cleaned and they come with a special and totally unique wrench that you have to use to take them apart with, and I broke the wrench, but they don't sell it separately. The ONLY way to ever use my expensive Diamond 580AL ever again was to personally email the Twsbi customer service dude, who put me in contact with their factory in Taiwan, which will mail a replacement metal wrench to you in exchange for shipping costs only, presumably because the wrench itself is so small that the cost is negligible and it's not like it would benefit anybody who didn't have a Twsbi fountain pen anyway.
I was on the verge of tears and had nearly yelled at
waxjism about what an MRN was (something to do with shipping numbers but it's not a shipping number) when she finally advised me to just fill out the form as a purchase that cost 6 USD with free shipping (rather than a free purchase with shipping that cost 6 USD). That way it went through automatically, scrutinized only by computers, and I was able to pay 2,15€ to customs and 2,60€ to the post office for their trouble and now they will finally deliver my tiny wrench to me with, purportedly, no further cavil.
