How P/O Ferries treat smokers … by choice!

In these hard economic times, we have a company doing it’s best to alienate and lose a large percentage of it’s customers. This company is P&O Ferries. Despite not having to impose a smoking ban by any regulations whatsoever, they choose to impose one. No-one l know of who use this ferry company were ever asked their opinion but P/O Ferries have faux surveys that are supposed to show that we support this ban. Sounds like an ASH tactic, doesn’t it? Maybe the Dreadful Arnott gave the P&O Board certificates for their walls and then patted them on the head? Unfortunately P&O Ferries Board have no shareholders to answer to, they are owned by the Dubai Government under an investment company called Dubai World.

Dubai World’s portfolio is so vast l doubt they even know they own P&O Ferries and so the Board of P&O Ferries do their own thing so to speak. P&O Ferries are not doing well at all and yet continue to damage/destroy the business they already have. This again is right down ASH’s street, ASH produce absolutely nothing but they damage/destroy jobs and businesses with not a care in the world. They do however fill their own pockets/handbags.

P&O know that many people use their Hull routes to purchase tobacco products and the amount these people spend is not insignificant at all. On our recent baccy cruise l asked a few people and observed how much they were spending. l estimated that the amount was around £10,000 and this was by no means all the passengers who were buying tobacco products. None of them bought from the ship!

Why? … because P&O carry virtually no stock so people make arrangements in Bruges, Ostende etc before they sail.

This is P&O’s stock at the beginning of the cruise.Just 12kg of Samson and 11kg of Drum. This is at the beginning of the cruise remember! Note, this isn’t a one off, every cruise l’ve been on has been the same. The shop staff themselves can’t believe it either. Just to add insult to injury, the P&O Board then treat their smoking passengers worse than livestock and with little regard for their safety too.

lf P&O Ferries had shareholders … would this Board still be there? Even the Cross Border Shoppers are now stopping using these ferries and taking flights instead … and who can blame them? Unless l’m missing something, this P&O Board must rank in the top 10 of incompetence rankings!

Oh and the complete lack of help for Cross Border Shoppers goes without saying!

P/O tobacco stock beginning of cruise

P/O tobacco stock beginning of cruise

Bits N Boobs- SBC

It’s hard when you’re a pirate

..ok, that was a typo…no tits here (edit SH heh heh … adds pic)…you can google for porn yourselves if you need it.

Just a couple of little things of possible interest but not needing a full piece to themselves.

*Holland For Cheap

*‘Free’Holland …with every packet of cornflakes

*Prices dans Calais actuellement 

Holland For Cheap

I’m off on a baccy run to Rotterdam this week. Going out on the night ferry and coming back the same day (and if you know Rotterdam you’ll understand why-it’s not so much a ‘City’ as a concrete Port).

Foot passenger ferry (Stena Line) prices from Harwich to Hoek have now gone down to their winter low of ₤34 ish each way and ₤20 for the compulsory cabin on the night boat.

Book with a DEBIT card and save the ₤5 Credit card booking fee.

Book via either of these two sites and save 10%-15% on top. Neither site seems to check whether or not you are a member.

The AA

MCN News

Total cost of my ticket ₤87. Remember that the price of tobacco in Holland is usually the same as in Belgium due to the Benelux and that, even with the cost of my diesel to port and back, even if I were to only bring back ten 140g tins of tubing tobacco the saving alone will have already paid the travel and probably a burger at MC Rotterdam. Of course I intend to bring back a lot more than that…..

Free Holland With Every Purchase

I was boasting to my friend ‘DSL’ online about how I had managed to save myself 15% on the ferry fare (see previous snippet) when he said “You shop at Tescos Online, you could have got it for free”.

A lot of you probably knew that already. I didn’t. They also can be used for the Chunnel.

Of course it isn’t really ‘for free’-nothing in this life is but still, instead of blowing your vouchers on luxuries like food…

Every little helps.

Prices Dans Calais 

Had to email the well known english speaking ‘Bar Tabac Brazza’ in Calais today with a query about ‘tabac pour tubes’. They reply promptly to emails and were kind enough to send me their current price list:

They also would like to remind any customers coming from the UK to pre-order at least 2 weeks in advance to be sure of getting the amounts you want.

“WOTZ A BELGIUM INNIT?!” … By SBC

They, the Kids, were all sitting around the table watching me tube some smokes.

Youngest Offsprung (19) had had some of his mates come round. All of them topless cos the sun was shining, all of them with their jogging trousers almost around their ankles so they could display their boxer shorts to all.
…and that was just the girls.
 
Some of them on furlough from HM Forces. Not that any of them would actually know what ‘furlough’ means of course.

“Fur low?” “iz  like ‘poOO-BiKK Hair'(this is Norfolk) innit, ai?”

Yep, and that’d be just the girls. Again.

Anyways one of the little Cherubs asked me:
“Excuse me Sir, may I inquire where you purchased that tin of tobacco and how much you paid for it?”

No he didn’t actually phrase it like that but writing in ‘chav’ for too long makes my nose bleed.

I replied “In Belgium and it cost me a tenner”

A look of confusion passed across their collective angelic little faces and then one of them posed the question that titles this piece.

“Wotz a Belgium innit?”

No, I’m not joking.
Anyone here care to defend the teaching profession or Blair’s Education Policy? No?

Thought not.

How on earth does one reply to that level of mind aching ignorance? Should I have said ‘a small continental nation betwixt France and Holland, member of the Benelux and seat of the European Union but has no actual Government of it’s own’?

Not really an option seeing as I’d need to start by explaining the four proper nouns in that description.
However before I could formulate a reply one of the others, one of the brighter ones said:

“If you paid ten quid then that means you saved, I dunno, fifty..sixty..fuck loads of money. I’m going to drive there and get some myself, how much can i bring back?”

Which is the reason for this article.

Smoking Hot’s Guides are brilliant. They should be required reading for anyone wanting to shop abroad.
Problem is they, the guides, contain lots of those ‘word fings’. They were written by an educated literate adult for other educated, at least to O level standard, adults. They were written for people who can read a wall of text without moving their lips.
But the people keeping the White Van Men in business aren’t 40 year olds who wore proper shirts not polo shirts to school.
 
I tried to explain briefly to the kids that it isn’t just a question of driving over to Belgium and bringing back as much tobacco as their giros/wages will allow and that they should, under no circumstances, take their own car anyways.

I then showed them my latest SOT and the half inch of ‘evidence’ that goes with it.

“So that’s like basically telling Customs to fuck off like?” as one of them put it….while the rest of them were backing away from the table and from anything called a ‘Statement’ like vampires at daybreak.

It would have been really helpful if I could have said something along the lines of:
“open the internet on your cell phones and go to “n2d“.

“n2d” tells you all you need to need and shows you how to do it. Lots of piccies and no big words!”

Basically we need a glossy online brochure of very basic advice with SH’s guides condensed down to a very simple level. For example “NEVER TAKE YOUR CAR COS THEY’LL NICK IT” or “BUY TOBACCO HERE [map]”.

And at the end of the ‘brochure’ a simplified Statement Of Truth. “My name is, I went, I bought, I ain’t done nuffink wrong like”

Think of the Children SH, Think of the Children!

They did like the badges though but prefer different text, something like “Fuck Off Goonies!” they said.

New UKBA Guidelines re 1kg tobacco/800 cigarettes re cross-border shopping

l’ve had a few texts from a couple of readers about these new guidlines announced in the Spring budget.

People still think these guidelines are allowances and limits … THEY ARE NOT!

Currently the guidelines are 3kg of tobacco and 3200 cigarettes but soon they will change to 1kg of tobacco and 800 cigarettes. The changes are to come into effect in the autumn of this year but no specific date has been given. Regular Tripper said the UKBA at Dover had told the driver of the coach the new guidlenes were to implemented in July. Yet l was talking to UKBA/HMRC last Friday and they said it was under review and no date had been set.

Now it would not surprise me at all if Dover were already using the new guidelines (albeit unofficially) to harass and rob cross-border shoppers of their legally goods. Their reputation as nasty,evil, lying, intimidating, robbing,  and power mad  at Dover is well documented by their victims. Dover is closely followed by Glasgow Airport.

So what effect do these new guidelines actually have on your right to buy as much tobacco/cigarettes for your personal use? The answer is NOTHING! … that’s right … NOTHING!

We were bringing in our tobacco/cigarettes when these guidelines of 800 and 1kg were in force before they changed them to 3200 cigarettes and 3kg of tobacco in 2002. We haven’t changed our shopping habits regardless of how the guidelines have changed for 20 years …and we’ve always been above the guidelines … well above.

GUIDELINES are only GUIDELINES! …. NOT LIMITS! …. PERIOD!

Now UKBA will use these lower guidelines to harass and intimidate and rob more cross-border shoppers of their legally bought tobacco/cigarettes and vehicles. The only way they can do this is if you go cross-border shopping unprepared. There’s enough info on here to tell you how to prepare … especially the SOT (Statement of Truth) along with the rest of the advise at the top of the page.  Use it and tell your friends/colleagues to use it if they are going cross-border shopping, if unsure about anything … contact us!

Thanks again to those who sent me a text. Oh, and to the guy who said he goes to Spain to buy his cigarettes … go to Poland or Bulgaria instead …. 45% cheaper there!

More tales of woe involving UKBA/HMRC Dover … but who cares?

I’m in contact with a lady who suffered at the hands of the horrendous tactics used by UKBA/HMRC at Dover. I shall be putting up her story shortly. Dover is especially out of control in my view, this story is one of many. How many? … well seeing as UKBA put the figures of seized vehicles at over 5000 a year one has to judge for oneself. whilst remembering that figure does not include people wronged at airports and foot passengers at the ferry ports. UKBA/HMRC also make sure that once they have seized the goods they go to great lengths to tell you that you can’t win and it will cost you thousands of pounds in costs. Many of their victims believe them.

Yet our country is blind to it and l have to say intentionally blind. This includes amongst the usual suspects, the so-called big Libertarian blogs, groups and the like. Sure they can go on about the loss of civil liberties and freedom of people but god forbid that they should highlight incidents where ones civil rights are totally stripped from you as they rob you at will. No, well talk about CCTV cameras instead or how Mr Photographer was stopped taking photos or Mr Citizen was threatened with a fine because he filled his wheelbin too high. Yes they still need talking about but not at the cost of the disgraceful, illegal and totally unjust ordeals that passengers suffer day-in, day-out at our ports and airports. These crimes, for crimes are what they are, are totally ignored.

Sorry l forgot, ignore the previous paragraph … we’re smokers so are open to any attack aren’t we? In essence … it’s Open Season on smokers … all 4 seasons! Enjoy your lunch, convention, function or whatever  … sorry to have bothered you.