iphone Screens seized by US Customs, Cell phone repair is Illegal!!!

[cellrepairus]

I have been running my own retail cell phone repair business in Central Florida since 2003, I started importing iphone repair parts from China lately since almost 5 months, small packages in $1500 -$2700 . I mainly use it for my own store repairs.

Last week I tracked a package that was transported by DHL, the package had 100 iphone4 LCD screens and 40 iPod touch Screen Assemblies, DHL told me that the package has been seized by US customs, they gave me the officer’s contacts.

My wife first called him and here are the bolts and nuts:


· We are violating Apple trademarks because we have to be “CERTIFIED SERVICE CENTER” and also licensed by them to import any parts.
· He took photos of those screens and sent it to apple to determine if they are genuine, and in both cases I can’t even ship them back to get my money, they will be destroyed anyhow by the customs!!!
· If you break your phone, you have to go to the manufacturer only to repair your cell phone, and what I am doing “cell phone repair “is illegal because I have to get the parts only from the manufacturer, and be certified from each one. BTW, I used to be certified by Nokia and Motorola when they dominated the markets almost 6-8 years ago, and I decided not to renew my license since I have very little benefits and you get $15 per the whole repair.
· As my wife asked him if he has one of those “smart phones” that everyone uses and asked him if he went to the manufacturer to fix it even once, he didn’t have an answer.
· All the companies selling parts (IPHONE –HTC-BLACKBERRY-…ETC) on ebay, amazon, and their own site, the US customs “WILL GET THEM ONE BY ONE, THEY ARE ALL ILLEGAL”.
· I will get a letter within 2 weeks; possibly get sued over fraud and trademark violations!!!


I contacted several customs clearance offices, basically they said I have to let go this shipment, take my losses and possibly consult an attorney if they decided to run after me!!! I have a meeting with one of them in a couple of days to see if he can help me get an import license for those items.

I decided to go myself to the customs office based to on an advice from one the brokers I spoke to him, the broker said this is just a small shipment ($2800), and maybe they can settle it directly with you.

Well, I was completely wrong, the officer was a complete Jerk, he even took a copy of my DL like I am a fugitive, he told me that those big companies pay them to “CATCH” people like me, he showed me a memo (could not get a copy) that anything, I repeat ANYTHING, has the shape of an iphone is a trademark violation, either it is a screen, digitizer, battery, battery door. All the big companies pay us money to bring down people like me.

As I told him I am just a small business who struggled to stay in business in this bad economy, he blamed “ people like me” , because all those “honest big companies” pay money for research and development and you people make them lose a lot of money because we do not go through them to buy parts and customers go directly to us instead of going to the manufacturer and use a legal way to “repair their cell phones”, I was even harassed by another officer who left his customer and joined the smack down on an “ illegal way to make money”, he told me to leave and do not come back here again, just appoint a customs broker to handle it.

What is the Hell is going on? It looks like the government job now is to keep the big business bigger and make sure the small business stays small or go out of business. I do not think anyhow that Apple, and all the other big boys are interested in hiring people like me who know all the tricks to repair their gadgets.


Anyone has any leads and news on similar incidents? I was in a T-Mobile meeting in Miami 3 weeks ago and one of the attendants has stores in Miami and said he said that several service centers in Hialeah were shot down because the government shot them down because they were using a selling aftermarket iphone parts, anyone can confirm that in Miami?

Please give honest advises, I am not one of those big cell phone franchise names out there who can afford to hire top paid bozos attorneys who can fight *******s like apple, I am trying to make a living and avoid my business of being shot down.

Thanks

[alexlaboratory]

LCD/TOUCH ASSY DO NOT CARRY APPLE LOGO OR ANY TRADE MARK, If you bought back covers for the Iphone then YES It contain s Apple logo.

Customs is wrong and UN-lawfuly detaining your goods ................. like I said if they found apple logo on any of your parts then you pretty much screwed .

[noobfix]

you can do the repair as long you dont have the apple logo anywhere.

the repair is not illegal dont make the misleading title

also anything you buy from over sea by law you have to pay coustumm fee, unless they didnt catch you, if they did ... well its just import tax you had to pay in the first place. I know they are trying to break us, money is hard to earn after all. Sorry to hear your story :/ I understand.

[noobfix]

oh you can always pretend you have no idea what they are talking about. since the sender of that package broke the law. not you... you are the receiver, just say you are not reconize the items that have the apple trademark on. say I have never seem them in my life " I didnt not order these it was a mistake on the sender."

they can not sue or touch you just based on that, unless you already acknowledge and signed for your crime. you can not be prosecute for the illegal items mailed to you without your knowledge. simple logic :] the law is nto that bad if you know a little of it and don't ever let anyone harass you into signing anything talk to a lawyer or someone knows law first.

in your case play stupid is the key :]

[Hobson]

Wow that's worrying. The one thing i can suggest is do not use UPS or DHL. My orders always get held up by them and I ALWAYS have to show a proof of payment.
I have been using the slower EMS service which seems to get through every time without checks and if i add in the customs delays for DHL etc then the delivery time is about the same.
You could also try and segregate your orders, maybe anything you know has an apple logo on it ,get shipped in one parcel (via EMS) then all the other stuff via your usual route. keep us informed on this one please.

[simonchunk]

The only thing that gets checked by customs in Australia is batteries... Have had no other issues.

[mrpld]

(Australia)

Apple does seem to be monitoring eBay auctions a lot and you frequently see parts stores closing down and opening back up a week later under a new name due to Apple serving a cease/desist I suppose.

Fortunately though it seems that with the dedicated website business sites selling Apple spares there appears to be no problem (yet).

[DerryTM]

I see two main cause for your problem.

Quantity being shipped

Location items are coming from.

You wouldn't be allowed to move so much items at once without being flagged. That's why ebay sellers never get caught. Apple is on a drive to capture all the money that their products make (sale, after sale,repairs,apps). Installous is an example of this. They have been threatened with big lawsuits and had no choice but to shutdown their servers.

My advice is to show that you are not a large repair franchise or business even if you are. Familiarize yourself with all Apple's legal information pertaining to repairs so that you will not be taken advantage of and if you wish to retrieve the items, get someone who can assist you on your behalf.

I wish you all the best.

[adaseb]

You know whois fault this is?

Its the evil and greedy Apple corp.

Remember a few years ago when they sued some 15 year old kid because he opened a website selling white conversion kits for the iPhone 4 before the White iPhone came out?

Many many sellers on e.b.a.y they always cover any products showing the Apple logo. If you order any of the back covers, many of them will have a sticker or a entire cover coving the entire back glass.

You most likely got caught because you ordered the back glass covers which contains the Apple logo trademark. I don't think they can seize the LCD screen.

Also your shipment was VERY big and usually DHL always checks EVERY item. Next time order a smaller shipment and use regular China Post/Hong Kong Post, it takes longer but very very rarely do they ever inspect those items.

This is nothing new. Apple is just a greedy greedy company. Look how they keep suing Samsung.

They don't like you buying $3 back covers because they lose $160 potential profit when people go to Apple to get their iPhone repaired.

[kostelectronics]

This is soo mad! I'm a bloody repairer and i really can puke after i read this! Tell us what happens now.....

BR Matthias

[Wites OM Tesla]

Bad bad thing what i read here but i knew this will happen soon or later,i agree that simple and slowest post is best wait more and get what you paid for,i would want that here in Moldova they close allot of this kind of repair shops so i will have more customers but this will not happen,here laws not work only money are law!
Too bad this happen in US and possible will happen in other country.

[jegerjon]

I do not hope the Danish customs will begin practicing this kind of law! I usually order packages in the same size as yours.

What i stumbled across was this: "ANYTHING, has the shape of an iphone is a trademark violation, either it is a screen, digitizer, battery, battery door." I can not possible believe this! I mean, WHAT? How can you own a SHAPE?

So far I have never had any troubles. My part-dealer always put stickers over the apple logo, maybe this saves the shipment?

[motex]

Sounds like you had more then just LCD screens in your packages.

No logo, no nothing. Aftermarket parts are everywhere, for just about everything.

Buy a car from FORD, and fix it at Autozone. Oh wait....is that illegal too?

nonsense....

[Wites OM Tesla]

Originally Posted by cellrepairus

I have been running my own retail cell phone repair business in Central Florida since 2003, I started importing iphone repair parts from China lately since almost 5 months, small packages in $1500 -$2700 . I mainly use it for my own store repairs.

Last week I tracked a package that was transported by DHL, the package had 100 iphone4 LCD screens and 40 iPod touch Screen Assemblies, DHL told me that the package has been seized by US customs, they gave me the officer’s contacts.

My wife first called him and here are the bolts and nuts:


· We are violating Apple trademarks because we have to be “CERTIFIED SERVICE CENTER” and also licensed by them to import any parts.
· He took photos of those screens and sent it to apple to determine if they are genuine, and in both cases I can’t even ship them back to get my money, they will be destroyed anyhow by the customs!!!
· If you break your phone, you have to go to the manufacturer only to repair your cell phone, and what I am doing “cell phone repair “is illegal because I have to get the parts only from the manufacturer, and be certified from each one. BTW, I used to be certified by Nokia and Motorola when they dominated the markets almost 6-8 years ago, and I decided not to renew my license since I have very little benefits and you get $15 per the whole repair.
· As my wife asked him if he has one of those “smart phones” that everyone uses and asked him if he went to the manufacturer to fix it even once, he didn’t have an answer.
· All the companies selling parts (IPHONE –HTC-BLACKBERRY-…ETC) on ebay, amazon, and their own site, the US customs “WILL GET THEM ONE BY ONE, THEY ARE ALL ILLEGAL”.
· I will get a letter within 2 weeks; possibly get sued over fraud and trademark violations!!!


I contacted several customs clearance offices, basically they said I have to let go this shipment, take my losses and possibly consult an attorney if they decided to run after me!!! I have a meeting with one of them in a couple of days to see if he can help me get an import license for those items.

I decided to go myself to the customs office based to on an advice from one the brokers I spoke to him, the broker said this is just a small shipment ($2800), and maybe they can settle it directly with you.

Well, I was completely wrong, the officer was a complete Jerk, he even took a copy of my DL like I am a fugitive, he told me that those big companies pay them to “CATCH” people like me, he showed me a memo (could not get a copy) that anything, I repeat ANYTHING, has the shape of an iphone is a trademark violation, either it is a screen, digitizer, battery, battery door. All the big companies pay us money to bring down people like me.

As I told him I am just a small business who struggled to stay in business in this bad economy, he blamed “ people like me” , because all those “honest big companies” pay money for research and development and you people make them lose a lot of money because we do not go through them to buy parts and customers go directly to us instead of going to the manufacturer and use a legal way to “repair their cell phones”, I was even harassed by another officer who left his customer and joined the smack down on an “ illegal way to make money”, he told me to leave and do not come back here again, just appoint a customs broker to handle it.

What is the Hell is going on? It looks like the government job now is to keep the big business bigger and make sure the small business stays small or go out of business. I do not think anyhow that Apple, and all the other big boys are interested in hiring people like me who know all the tricks to repair their gadgets.


Anyone has any leads and news on similar incidents? I was in a T-Mobile meeting in Miami 3 weeks ago and one of the attendants has stores in Miami and said he said that several service centers in Hialeah were shot down because the government shot them down because they were using a selling aftermarket iphone parts, anyone can confirm that in Miami?

Please give honest advises, I am not one of those big cell phone franchise names out there who can afford to hire top paid bozos attorneys who can fight *******s like apple, I am trying to make a living and avoid my business of being shot down.

Thanks

I don't believe you,your purpose might be to scare technicians so your business or of someone else will flow,this could be to stop competition please show proof to us!

[naz13]

Originally Posted by Wites OM Tesla

I don't believe you,your purpose might be to scare technicians so your business or of someone else will flow,this could be to stop competition please show proof to us!

What would he gain by telling lies ?