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Date:      Thu, 17 Sep 1998 00:52:00 -0700
From:      "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
To:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Promotional CDs and evil customs agencies.
Message-ID:  <25283.906018720@time.cdrom.com>

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[ I know that this is typically -chat material, but I'm not going to
  reach the people who are actually involved by sending this to -chat ]

I just thought I'd let folks know that I've reached a hard, but
irrevokable, decision with regard to sending promotional CDs overseas:

I'm not going to do it anymore.

This decision doesn't come easily since I know that there are a lot
people overseas who have done some very good work with promotional CDs
in the past, but these people also need to understand that almost
every single batch of CDs I've sent overseas has come at considerable
personal cost.  I've probably had over 500 long and tortured
conversations regarding CDs stuck in customs, CDs which got billed to
the wrong people and CDs which just plain got destroyed on the dock.
I just can't afford to spend that kind of time on this sort of thing.

Not only do european and asian customs deparments make the process of
sending "freebies" a total nightmare (no matter how we declare them,
and we've tried just about everything from free to cost-of-materials
to full-value on the declaration forms), but the shipping is very
expensive, even by boat.  Most people don't know that we spent over
$10,000 shipping the 2.2.6 CDs to various people overseas, and if I
ever do something like that again I'll be taken out to Walnut Creek
CDROM's parking lot and shot in the back of the head by the financial
controller.  I won't even get a fair trial first.

So anyway, please don't send me lots of emails going "gosh, don't do
that, we can pay shipping!" or "I have a brother in customs who can
smuggle them out, just tie a red ribbon around the parcel and mark it
``attention Sigfried''" - I really have thought about this and it
really is just too much trouble for us.  My mind is made up.  No more
non-U.S. freebies.  The shipping department, already overloaded with
work as it is, also refuses to send special letters or otherwise
attempt to mediate when stuff gets stuck at customs if the whole deal
is only going to cost money (e.g. they'll do this if you're a paying
customer, but it's too much to expect for free), so it's really just
not practical to try and do this anymore.

If you know of someone in the U.S. who is willing to deal with all
these issues for you or otherwise provide "trans-shipment" outside the
U.S., then that's obviously something else entirely and I'm perfectly
willing to do that.  Sending CDs within the U.S. is not a problem.

What this all says to me is that maybe it's time for some company like
S.U.S.E. to pick up the job of making and selling FreeBSD CDs in
europe since Walnut Creek CDROM isn't doing much of that anymore in
any case.  Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see us have a bigger
european presence, along with a big inventory of FreeBSD CDs over in
Europe which could be sold and/or given away for promotional purposes,
but I also don't see that happening anytime soon.  We tried to do that
about 3 years ago and the whole idea just sort of fizzled out, as much
as I would have loved to have seen "Walnut Creek CDROM, Europe."  It's
not just enough to have a distributor there, you need to have the CDs
*made* in europe in order to avoid customs problems.

My sincere apologies to the various non-U.S. folks who used to get
promotional CDs from me, but I think you also know even better than I
do just how much trouble customs can cause and can pretty much relate
to my predicament.  If it were just one or two incidents a year, I'd
deal with it, but it's a heck of a lot more work than that and if I so
much as see one more customs declaration form, I'm going to scream! :-)

- Jordan



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