US Customs- WTF?

[pilotpat]

Aguadilla and San Juan Puerto Rico. Horrid.

ILM, BUF, ALB...smooth as silk.

 

[Hawker800]

Never had any issues in West Palm or Ft. Pierce. That is until the big boss insisted on using his cell phone inside the customs building. After a very short debate he found out he was not the big boss in there. No more issues.

 

[ag2pilot]

Just went through BGR yesterday. Customs met us at the airplane and we were done in less than 5minutes. In fact, from landing to takeoff was only 25 minutes... refuled (3000 gal.), lav service, trash & catering. Superb service!

I think that BGR customs is the best. I have used them a couple of times, and been treated great both times.
I sat in BTV one time for 30 min. before they came out, and I was right on time getting there. Once there the agent was nice though.
South Florida Customs are terrible.

 

[Seadogrun]

I think that BGR customs is the best. I have used them a couple of times, and been treated great both times.
I sat in BTV one time for 30 min. before they came out, and I was right on time getting there. Once there the agent was nice though.
South Florida Customs are terrible.

I agree BGR is great.

 

[soarby007]

laredo guys have always been great, as well as DAL. FLL is another story. My coast guard son always said to try OPF, but haven't had the chance so far.

 

[Diesel]

Cleared customs one day in pbi and got the usual reaming about my paperwork not being in order. sigh. The customs guy then procedes to staple a packet of paperwork for me to fill out next time i see him. He tells me this is the specific paperwork and to make sure I fill just these forms out. So we head back out to the islands that same day and come back through mia. I take the same exact paperwork the customs guy in pbi has told me he wants filled out. I take the paperwork inside and get berated on not having the right paperwork.

Sigh

My favorite though was a customs stop in new england. It had a 2 hour ppr which I complied with but the pax showed up early so we had to leave early. I land taxi up to customs and the guy never comes out. I can see him in the window but he's just staring back at me. So i call him. He says your 45 minutes early so you'll wait out there for 45 minutes.

I explains this to my passenger and we wait. Customs guy comes out right at 45 minutes and when I open the door the passenger demands to know his name and badge number. The guy recoils and get's the "who the f are you attitude.

The passengers aide then says maybe you don't recognize the senator. the customs guy says you should have told me. To which the senator replied why should i be any different.

I wasn't allowed to return there for quite some time.

 

[SCT]

Cool story, Diesel. I wish I could have seen the customs guy's face.... It must have been priceless!

 

[27 driver]

Get use to it.. it's not going to change any time soon. It was a pleasure to pass through customs today in the NE where you don't have to unload all the bags and pax and do the walk into the customs building to be degraded by government workers with an attitude! They came out to the a/c at the FBO, were very nice and in 15 min had us on our way. You want to see bad come down to Miami or OPF or PBI!!!! It doesn't get any worse than that!

Everybody gripes about MIA customs, but I have cleared GA customs in MIA at least 200 times over the last few years and never had a problem. I am not defending them, I am just curious what the problem is.

 

[Windsor]

South Texas = No problemo
South Florida = Big problemo

We go in and out of ELP, LRD, MFE and BRO on a regular basis. Never do we get the dog treatment nor do we have to bring our bags in to be searched. Every time in FLL, they make us do the perp walk even if we are coming in empty. Like some of the previous posters said, some standardization between cities would be nice.

 

[pilotpat]

The passengers aide then says maybe you don't recognize the senator. the customs guy says you should have told me. To which the senator replied why should i be any different.

I wasn't allowed to return there for quite some time.

I will vote for this Senator.

 

[Say Again Over]

Great story.

 

[Diesel]

The senator is still in position and she has grown to be one of the more influential senators in the northeast. I was always impressed with her.

 

[learflyer]

South Texas = No problemo
South Florida = Big problemo

Another big problemo for both of these areas is the abundance of spanish speaking that is going on. The other day in Orlando, I saw a car with "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" written totally in spanish. uke:

 

[hammer2]

MMU's custom agent is very nice. She's a pistol.

 

[XLDaddy]

Brown field in San Diego was so hit and miss, I started taking our plane to Calexico, CXL. Depending on whatever the hell it was, the SDM guys could make you wait up to an hour, then act like we were really putting them out just rollin on their ramp, totally sucked. The Calexico guys are friggin great, always consistently friendly and I've never waited more than 15 minutes to clear. If you can get past the smell and the heat, cxl works nice.