Obviously my first inkling of a problem was on the 20th of June, but I couldn't get hold of UPS until the 21st.
I spoke to one of the custom support staff who sent me an email (below).
The gist is I needed to have a NOTARISED power of attourney letter sent to UPS so they could clear the item through customs.
What this whole fiasco is about is that UPS would not give me a clear and concise breakdown of the costs involved in clearing the purchase until after they received the PoA letter, in other words they could hold me ransom to whatever charges where levied at me.
At a rough guess the customer service gentleman said the costs would be between 350-400 turkish lire, excluding the notary fee and translation fee (100-150 turkish lire and 40-60 turkish lire respectively)
Here's the email he sent me a few minutes later after the telephone call.
Dear Customer,
Formal entry required for the shipment sent from ACE PHOTO AND DIGITAL/ US under UPS tracking
number xxx due to the high value. As per Turkish customs law and regulations
the low value limit is 100 EUR which means the non commercial shipments having values below 100 EUR
can be released as low value shipments without formal entry.
In order to clear the mentioned high value shipment , a power of attorney approved by a notary and TAX number is needed. After receipt of these documents , the clearance process will be started. There will
also be customs charges such as duty , VAT , stamps fee ,storage handling etc.
If you need any other information or have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us
Best Regards
