Customs and terminology - trigger vs transmitter

[MissionMan]

I decided to order a Godox Xpro-F trigger from Hong Kong as they are only scheduled to be here in a month and I wanted early access. Used DHL express and then suddenly it got trapped in customs. Some weird phone calls like "Is it for business or personal use" etc had me wondering what the hell was going on. They were asking for copies of original invoices from Godox and myself, so I thought it may even relate to them suspecting I had undervalued because a Fujifilm Xpro is $2000 and a Godox Xpro trigger is $100. Finally, they asked me what it was for, and I gave them a nice explanation about how it was used to trigger speedlights and strobes on a camera. They inspected it and let it go.

Finally released from customs and got an answer from DHL about what the problem was today...the word "trigger". Yes, customs thought i was importing a firearm trigger (which was why the initial question about business vs personal came in) and immediately decided to intervene.

I suggest if anyone imports a "trigger" in future, you may want to tell the vendor to use the word "transmitter" to save yourself 5 days of customs delays Or don't have Gear Acquisition Syndrome, wait a month and get it locally

[Mark L]

Bloody ridiculous IMHO.
If they want to refine things like that then they need to know their photography gear.
Just as well your new gear wasn't trying to get here on a boat.

[Hamster]

Bloody ridiculous IMHO.
If they want to refine things like that then they need to know their photography gear.
Just as well your new gear wasn't trying to get here on a boat.

I think it’s a bit much to expect customs to have knowledge of everything that can be imported. Whilst a Godox trigger might mean something to you, anyone who isn’t a photographer wouldn’t have a clue. I do wonder, however, why they didn’t just open it up and take a look. That could have saved 4 days and 23 hours

[Tannin]

Too busy admiring their new shiny black uniforms to find their bums with a map and both hands.