AN Islander who lives with a stoma has told of how she faced unnecessary delays in receiving a parcel of free samples of medical equipment due to a “ridiculous situation” with Customs.
Shell Wason’s first had a stoma fitted in 1996 because of her long-term condition ulcerative colitis, that causes chronic inflammation.
The 69-year-old who lives in St Saviour also has skin problems which means she needs to use a special type. She was the only person on the Island to be granted a certain type of medical equipment by the Health Department.
However, she recently ordered some free samples from a company, to see if they may work better and said she had “ordered samples before and trialled them”.
But last Thursday she received a letter from the Post Office telling her that Customs had withheld her parcel, as it has to have a “monetary value”, despite Ms Wason repeatedly telling her they were free samples.
While Ms Wason said her stoma is something she’s learnt to “handle” and that she goes on “living her life”, she finds “unnecessary hurdles” like this make things harder, so she took to Facebook to share her experience.
The post caught the attention of Deputy Lucy Stephenson, who passed it on to the Ministers who in turn passed it on to relevant officers.
Ms Wason said that when a support officer for Customs called her, he told her that the “way to get around this” on the government website is to “declare that it’s retail food or goods” and to put “a made up monetary value below the GST limit”.
However, she said this was something she was “not comfortable with” as it doesn’t feel like it can be legal to lie on a government form, even if it’s what she was instructed to do by the officer.
After following the advice of the officer, Ms Wason got a letter saying her equipment was on its way, and she finally received it on Tuesday 31 March – five days after she received the original letter.
Deputy Stephenson said: “People don’t want to be feeling like they are doing something wrong when they are just trying to get access to necessary medical equipment.”
Although Deputy Stephenson said she’s “glad she got to get her issue sorted”, she said that the “public response to the Facebook post” showed that “this was not the first time this has happened”, particularly with “ordering samples of medical products with no value”.
In the comment section, several others shared they’d had difficulties with Customs when ordering stoma equipment or other items such as catheters and cochlear implant hearing aids.
“There are clearly some improvements that could be made to the wider system and how the rules are enforced and communicated,” said Deputy Stephenson. “The fewer barriers we can have in way of those dealing with serious and long-term medical conditions the better.”
A spokesperson for the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service said they are “aware of concerns raised on social media about delays in releasing imported goods”.
They said: “We would like to clarify that, as part of long‑established revenue‑protection controls, all consignments imported into Jersey must have a declared value. Any consignment arriving with a nominal manifested value of £1 or less is routinely held pending a declaration from the importer.
“This measure helps prevent the under‑valuation of goods and the evasion of GST or customs duties and applies consistently to all goods, regardless of their type or intended use.
“Once the importer submits a declaration confirming the accurate value, the consignment is assessed in line with Jersey’s GST rules. Goods valued below the £60 de minimis threshold are released without GST being charged, allowing them to move quickly through the system.
“JCIS remains committed to supporting customers through the declaration process and ensuring that goods are released and delivered promptly once the correct information has been provided.”
There is information on how to make a declaration, as well as information on reliefs and funs on the gov.je website page titled “paying GST for online shopping and imported goods”, they added.
