Two years ago, around Christmas time, one of our sales engineers bought a bunch of golf shirts--12, I think, and asked me to ship them to our new Brazilian facility, to thank them for taking on a huge manufacturing project and meeting the deadline.
He asked me to make sure I put the actual value of the shirts on the commercial invoice. I questioned this in my mind, because I figured that would cause the customs office to impose a heavy duty on them, but he said he wanted the recipients to see they each cost $50, so I did as he said.
I used Fed Ex for the shipment, because he wanted them there fast. They shipped it and I got a call a week later from the Fed-Ex office in Brazil, saying the recipient refused to pay the duty. I had checked off the wrong box when I shipped it (using the old, manual forms at that time), and so Fed-Ex would not deliver it. I didn't have access to a manager to give me permission to pay the duty, but I asked how much it was. They wanted $500 for the duty. Since he wanted them there fast, I gave them my name and approved the charge. (The only alternative was to ship them back to us, duty unpaid.)
That "gift" ended up costing $1150: $600 for the shirts, $50 for the shipping, and $500 for the duty. I quickly e-mailed the sales engineer and his manager to explain the situation. Surprisingly, nobody said a word to me about it. (I mentioned this later to another sales engineer, and he said that was because they would have spent twice that amount on gifts for them, the company was so pleased with their performance.)
Moral of the story: I should have trusted my own instincts, and devalued the shirts. How outrageous for customs to charge nearly the value of the shirts for the duty.
Movinonup 
