I would like to make it clear for you guys how does the post work in the eastern and especially ex soviet countries. Just for you to understand, because it may seem odd that a guy gets into so much trouble for 15 packages. It will be a long read so get some cookies and a cup of coffee.
I would like to say first that i do not know QQ personally and i have never dealt with him, but living in a country which is similar in many aspects to Bulgaria i wanted to clarify some of the things that are common for us "easterns" and probably not that understandable for you guys who have the luxury to be born and live in countries which were not under soviet rule or influence.
We as already sovereign countries still have inherited lots of processes from the USSR. Now hopefully the things are starting to change slightly but it is a long way to go. So here how does the post service work in my country. EACH package is scanned or OPENED and examined by the customs, then if the customs officer considers that the value of the items in the parcel may exceed the value of 200 euros including the postage fees, that parcel is not delivered to the local post office but is distributed to the central postal office which has a customs department. Instead of a parcel i get a paper from the post office, which tells me that my parcel arrived to the central office. When i get to take my parcel i have to talk to the customs officer in a special small room, where my parcel is opened once again and the officer which is on duty that day, once again examines the contents of my parcel. If he considers that the value exceeds 200 euros, i have to pay 20% + some additional fees, but if i have an invoice for that item which clearly shows that the price is lower that 200 euros and also a document from the bank with wet stamp for that transaction the officer will let me go without paying those aforementioned fees. The laws in my country permit the officer to put in doubt the authenticity of the documents presented by me, and he could still freeze the parcel if he believes the real value exceeds 200E, for example if he sees a nice rolex with full package with an invoice for 150 euros he has the right to freeze that package at the office. Back in my first years of buying from ebay i have made a mistake of ordering 2 gold plated Rotary watches, which were sent to me in one parcel, i have paid something like 50 pounds for watches and postage combined, but the customs officer would not believe me. He have opened the parcel in my presence, saw 2 golden watches in nice plastic boxes and the bells rang in his mind, he was on the verge of making some money on a stupid kid. I was arguing with him for an hour and till i have threatened him that i will call his superior and basically lied that the watches were actually for my friend who is a guy with "connections" he said "ok i will write in the form that these are 2 used watches" and he let me go with the watches.
There was another case when i got 3 parcels (the first one was a watch, the second were shoes and the third one were 2 timex watches) in one month and every time when i went to take them, i ran into the same customs officer, so on the third occasion the guy threatened to inform the organized crime and corruption fighting police (now how ridiculous is that) about the fact that i get too many watches which makes him think they are for commercial activity (i.e. for sale) and not for personal use. That time i told him to go on and do that crazy stuff and that i did not care at all, i have told him to just write and sign officially the cause of not releasing the parcel. I guess he understood how silly it would look and let me go.
So these guys try by all means to make some money on every possible occasion. If i have got 15 parcels with watches at once in my country, i would be in the deepest sh*t. But bulgarian customs guys are even smarter, they have organized a full scale show with police and so on. The only goal they pursue in this situation is to extort as much money as they can, and of course they get a nice bonus of quality watches which will miraculously disappear from the evidence stocks in a month or 2 and nobody will look for them, or even simpler they will be marked as destroyed.
So once again i tend to believe that all that story was a set up by the ingenious customs guy. Now the cheapest way would be to find a guy in that police department (or a lawyer) who could calm the spirits down for a compensation.
I wish QQ good luck, and i hope everything turns out well
