I know this sounds like a strange request... I'm trying to send a shipment of toys to a Chinese distributor. This distributor is asking for photos of all of the packaging for over 90 different toys that I'm sending to them. They claim that they need this info for customs however I've never been asked this before and I deal with a distributor in Hong Kong regularly, who has never asked for this type of info before. Does anyone live in this realm and do you think you could possibly shed some light? Feel free to reply by PM if you'd like.. Thanks in advance!
Probably doesn't help, but my brother and I designed a dice game recently and we had a Chinese company laser engrave the dice. They sent pictures of the package and contents to my brother before sending them. I'm pretty sure they said it was for their customs procedure. I suppose it doesn't hurt to have photographic evidence to back up the paperwork and to prove the package left them undamaged etc.
Thanks for the input! Unfortunately this doesn't help but I appreciate the reply. It's gonna suck big time if I have to track down and shoot multiple photos of 90+ toys.. Ugh.. I guess it's worth it considering it will be the largest sale I've ever closed..
Whenever I fill out a customs form it requires that you identify each and every item, it's weight, and value. When I go to the post office they are very strict about it...but when I do it at home via PayPal and send it myself, I've never had a problem being a bit more vague. Maybe they are just being extra careful? Or maybe things are a bit more strict in China? I think in a perfect world customs wants details on every single item but if the items are identical you should be able to just fill in a quantity. I mean, you said it yourself that it was a large sale, so maybe they want to make sure no items are damaged or confiscated during shipping and have proof? Maybe they got screwed in the past by customs or international shippers? I can speculate all day. Hope this helps.
I work on a shipping/ receiving dock, and... ya this sums up shipping bulk orders, at least for us. We get weight requests constantly. They can weigh it, and verify the shipments contents accordingly. The request you got seems a bit of over kill, maybe they're just trying to assure that customs doesn't tear the shipment up. Which has been known to happen quite a bit. If they have photo documentation, this makes the business's ability to asses and qc the products easier. Never ship UPS, we refer to it as the big brown let down.
