I am in Australia and have caught the pheromone obsession and have been trying an assortment of the more known suppliers. Recently I had two parcels confiscated from Alpha Dream with serious letters from Customs on both accounts. (no problems with Androtics ever)
My questions are:
Has anyone been prosecuted for repeat offending?
Has anyone continued regardless of these letters, and if so what happens?
Does anyone know the exact substances which are the problem (ie. is it just DHEA and Rone?).
Has anyone got around this for argument sake legally with a prescription and some kind of import approval?
Has anyone had customs issues ordering from Hax? or Androtics?
Your help would be greatly appreciated as I am slightly terrified at the moment!
Not in Australia but I’ve been following this here and in other places as there is a potentially similar issue for the UK.
It does seem to be mainly Androsterone and its related compounds that get hit and unlike the UK who FTM appear to have been persuaded that in the phero context they are in not in any abusable form or of a dose that makes any kind of extraction viable, Aus customs take the hard line and seize everything that lists them as ingredients.
So far, I’ve only once seen an AD order get hit and they dealt with that in their usual excellent manner.
The main way companies seem to have got round it is simply to stop listing any of the offending compounds on the bottles or documentation. PXS alone has started offering products with formulas modified to suit the Australian regs.
Never heard of anyone actually being prosecuted, despite the letters.
Aussie guy, I was recently stopped at customs on my return from an overseas trip to have all my stuff searched and tested for steroids. As you know, pheromones are derived from steroids but not useable as anything but a cologne… unfortunately, Australia is really stupid about little things like this.
I didn’t declare them, because I felt like I had no need. They got rude to me very quickly about it and took my pheros to their lab – which came back clean.
It was a pretty aggravating day to say the least.
Edit: I was stopped specifically because I have had packages confiscated previously from other vendors.
Can you imagine the grief that would cause in some sections of the phero-enthusiast community?
I’d guess the strident cries of “PRODUCT CHANGED - NO GOOD” at the slightest change in packaging/branding and the resultant loss of sales might outweigh anything to be gained by doing it.
And worse still, the resultant debate from having two slightly different bottles of the same stuff on the market. Look at the number of times we get people asking about “the difference” between Standard and WE Ammo!
It’s being done. And making extra labels to be placed on products going to Australia and other places having this problem, doesn’t sound like a major change once you know who are the REPEATED CUSTOMERS ordering from Australia and other places that the products are getting snatched up. Still … if Australian money is not wanted or needed … I’d say you are right. So they will only lose a small sale. It was once said, “WE LISTEN TO OUR CUSTOMERS,” but saying and doing is always two very different things.
Most of the time when some of us complain that a product is not working is because it’s really not working. I do believe some people might have a whinge when the labels change but I doubt anyone would take it seriously unless others chimed in with their IN DEPTH explanation of why that’s the case.
Regardless, Australia has work to do. There are people importing loads of drugs into the country, pheromones should be the last of their problems.
The ones that he picked up were Dirty Primitive by Liquid Alchemy Labs, API by PheromoneXS and also a bottle of A314.
API has DHEA and Androsterone listed on the label which is why they were tested. I had a few others as well but they guy didn’t acknowledge them. I had to use every last ounce of willpower I had to not tell the guy to f*** himself.
When I first got stopped, I explained what they were (referring to the packages that got confiscated earlier). I explained that they apparently had steroid compounds in them. He asked why I didn’t declare them and I said they’re not used for steroids or injecting/ingesting etc… at this point, he started carrying on like an asshole saying stuff like “nah mate, don’t change your story because you think you’re going to get in trouble” and “you can’t backtrack now, you told me in detail how these things work, you know they are steroids”.
Then I told some customs lady that I’d rather just leave them there because I had people waiting for me. She replied “I have people waiting for me too” which really got on my nerves. It had already taken an hour or so… then I finally snapped back “you don’t need to get smart about it. you should be more professional” and just left it at that until they finished their testing.
Its like the domino effect though -yes, somebody starts with a whinge, then someone else - usually someone with little or no exprience of pheros in general or the “old” product picks-up on why this “must” be the reason its not working for them and it just snowballs. To the general detriment of everybody.
Well, I don’t work for Androtics, so I don’t know the cost. I was not talking about changing the labels, but having labels for those who are ordering from those places where there’s a problem. Of course, if it’s ONLY one or two people, it could be a problem; but if it’s lots of people … having labels in stock that does NOT have those ingredients listed to accommodate the customers, cut out the hassle, and make more money is NOT a bad idea. I’m in America, so I’m good.
I don’t see it as a problem as AD have never listed ingredients on Consumer Line/A314/Putative bottles - only on individual Experimones, IIRC there are only a couple of those likely to fall foul of the Australian regs. So I don’t see a problem and it may account for the rare occasions an over-enthusiastic customs officer has stopped them.
Maybe we should be more proactive in warning Australian newbies that certain named products might be siezed?
As for other firms, they will do what they see fit - most never list a full set of pheros anyway.
My experiences with customs in aus (Via west) as follows:
(Note i have never ordered any of the individual experimones which are restricted from import, RONE and DEHA by memory…)
First order - via fed ex - Straigth thru no hassles.
Second order via Fedex - this was held till i provided a tax invoice and photos of the ingredients labels on some other togo bottles i had. This order contained shine, a314, + a few other consumer lines. They held it a week but never opened the parcel. The issue appeared to be a declared value mismatch which caused this. (was declared as plastic and glass value $10usd. after they got an invoice which i emailed in, they wanted the photos and also Jasmin sent a letter to fed ex outlining the details of the products and compliance. Fed ex released an unopened parcel with a day or so of getting all this info.)
Third order was for more putatives and A314, via DHl and was cleared without incident.
Androtics are pretty good with getting products thru customs. as for the other suppliers, I have never used them, but I suspect their originating location has been flagged as for non compliance in the past (for shipping restricted chems such as DEHA) and is subject to closer inspection than others.
We have a stock letter with all the specific customs regulations we send to Australian Customs when customs decides to be picky that day. It usually puts the customs agent in their place. It was written by Jasmin some years ago and our CS team sends them out when we get any issues.
If anyone has any issues with Australian customs, please drop us a note and we can patter your friendly Ozzie customs agent with any of our weapons grade form letters. Just have them get it in writing, or a fax#/email address for the responsible agent. It tends to clear it up quicker.
Thanks for all the comments guys…appreciated…it looks like they put tabs on people who have had something confiscated. Last parcel from HAX was opened and tested by the looks of things as the seals were broken. It was however delivered…I wonder what they tested for…
Well I am here in Auckland NewZealand. If I remeber correctly last year some time ago thay hold my > “Ammunition In the Battle of the Sexes!” hmm yeah A314 oil and Ammo 30ml for 2 days at DHL auckland, thay did not open it I dont think, but yup shit happens now and again. DHL has been preety good I may say .
