If you are shipping goods and products from outside of Europe into Germany, then you may encounter more problems than you are ready for. We have had several of our customers at VJWorld.com and Amazon.com tell us that the Deutsche Post service (German version of USPS) has been requiring customers who buy products online and have them shipped to Germany, need to produce an invoice or the goods will be shipped back to the sender. They refuse to even open the package to see if there is an invoice inside, Here is the notes I have received from customers.

"today i also get an letter from German Post witch says the same as your other German customer. Every package which comes outside of Europe must have an invoice out of the package to declare it by German customs without open the package. Without this it needs much longer and I have to go to customs and bring them the invoice to pay the tax.."

"Custom office did not hand out the item- : -Dear Sir or Madam, unfortunately, your shipment has been sent back to you, as the the custom office in Germany required an invoice, which I did not have. I am sure that the invoice was in the package, but the custom office does not allow to open a parcel before the recipient does not show the invoice of the product."

This creates delays, returns and extra shipping costs that someone has to absorb (Pay), what a complete waste of everyones time. One customer had their postman at the door with the package and refused to hand it over unless he could immediately produce an invoice!

In the USA we let imports from Germany flow freely into our customers without creating this problem, I know Germany needs the money, having to bail out all of their neighboring countries but is this the way to do it?

So if anyone else has more details regarding these postal rules please comment as the USPS staff seem to know nothing about it, Nice communications!