May 6th, Sunday in Germany (everything's closed), Monday in Israel (meaning: offices are open). The office of Allal*uf, a partner of Grimaldi. Here we have to pay a fee (100 USD), and then, with the payment receipt, head on to the harbor and customs. When I see this company logo I would love to... I'm not gonna say it.... what happened?..... read on......
Day 1
Excited and full of anticipation! Our car is waiting for us!
Then, a first sign of warning: The Allal*uf manager told me via E-Mail to bring 100 USD for the fee. But now they're asking me for 150 USD. Ok. He told me in particular to bring USD, so prior I went to a money exchange and changed EUR into exactly 100 USD (because I didn't have any other use for USD except for paying that particular fee). He also had told me that the next fee in the harbor would have to be paid in Shekel. I brought exactly that amount, too, in Shekel, as requested. And the third fee, for the "customs broker", was supposed to be paid in EUR. Got that with me. Card payment not possible. Strange somehow, but oh well, paid 150 USD (50 USD in Schekel, so now I didn't have enough Shekel for the harbor fee) and headed on to customs.
At the customs office: "Hello, welcome, sooo, you would like to import your own car into Israel?" Me: "Yes, so to speak, we're tourists and would like to make a road trip here in Israel." Customs officer: "Ah, and how can I make sure this car is actually your car?" Me: "Not a problem, I got all the documents with me." He: "Ok, please show me the vehicle title." I pass him a copy of the title, which I had previously received from my bank (the car is financed). He: "That's just a copy. It's worthless." I explained the situation about the bank and that the car is financed/leased. He: "Ok, then we need a written confirmation by your bank that the car is not stolen and that you're allowed to drive it in Israel." Me: -ugh-
Thinking to myself: How the hell am I going to get that confirmation now, like, right now, from the bank? The bank is never going to be so flexible to issue that right now and send it over via E-Mail.
Customs officer: "So, what about the deposit?" Me: "Which deposit?" He: "Well, if you want to drive your own car in Israel we need a deposit so that we can make sure you are not going to sell the car here." Me: "Ah, sure, ok, and how high is that deposit?" Officer: "That depends on the remaining value of the car... wait... let me calculate this... -he calculates- ...ok, that should be around 140 EUR. Me -gasp of relief-: "Great, that's not that much, cool!" He: "Ahm, sorry, I meant to say 14,000 EUR!" Me -in shock-: "What? I don't have that kind of money." He: "Well, it's up to you, either you'll pay this amount and we can start the process of releasing your car, or we won't. Furthermore, you want to make a trip here for just a week? That's not really worth the while. I'm seriously thinking whether it makes sense to release your car at all." --- Ok, this guy doesn't care that we're just harmless tourists. He obviously has the power here and wants to show that, too. This was the first moment - of many others to follow during the next 3 days - where a strong feeling of desperation set in. Damnit. Now we've got a serious problem here...
There was a lady sitting next to me, let's call her Melanie, who was employed by the Israeli "customs broker". That customs broker was paid by me to assist while importing, and later on, also exporting the car and to handle all the paperwork. So, Melanie looks over my documents and suddenly screams out in joy: "You got a Carnet???". Yes, indeed, I had a
Carnet des Passages, an international customs document which is required for entering several countries around the world, mostly in Africa and Asia. According to ADAC, which is the German equivalent of AAA in the US and the biggest motor club in Germany, a Carnet is "possibly" required for entering Jordan. To quote ADAC: "Some of our customers made it into Jordan without a Carnet, some didn't." That is why I got a Carnet. And what do you have to do in order to get one? Right, make a cash deposit! Sounds familiar, hm? In my case I had deposited 7,500 EUR to the bank account of ADAC. Since Melanie was suddenly so happy I became happy as well, because it seemed like this damn Carnet could be the solution to the problem here? Melanie takes the Carnet out of my document folder and proudly places it on the desk of the customs officer. The custom officer replies: "Aha. Well, I'm sorry, but we don't accept Carnets in Israel." Melanies looks surprised and I feel again that desperation rising...
Because, other than it may seem by this text, I did not start the trip to Israel without any preparation at all. ADAC back in Germany assured me that a Carnet won't be required for entering Israel. True, but there was no word about Israel having a separate deposit system. Further, of course the first step was to ask Grimaldi, who were basically the organizer of this trip, about what one has to do to import your own car into Israel. The answer was: That's totally unproblematic, but just to make sure we'll put you in touch with our partner in Israel, Allal*uf, and they can tell you 100% what you need to do. The Allal*uf manager then reassured with the customs broker, meaning Melanie and her boss, that importing a private vehicle (in particular: EV/Tesla) into Israel is not a problem and totally unproblematic indeed and there's nothing in particular required. There was never a single word about a deposit or any kind of crazy documents to prove ownership.
Anyway. It was Sunday in Germany and thus all offices closed, so nothing could be arranged today. So, we sat in the customs brokers office, Melanie's boss, let's call him Olaf, for the next 6 hours, watching him how he tried to solve 10 different problems for 10 different customers at the same time. One of those problems was ours, and he did try to solve it for us. He tried to convince the customs officer that a Carnet is sufficient to release the car. To no avail. After 6 hours without any progress we left, frustrated, and were just hoping for the next day. In the meantime I asked the Allal*uf manager - my primary contact before and during the trip - what the hell was going on and how he could help us. No answers, just lame excuses.
In the meantime, however, Melanie had somehow arranged that the deposit to be lowered to be just 7,800 EUR instead of 14,000 EUR. But even to get access to 7,800 EUR during one day seemed quite impossible. There's a daily withdrawal limit for every card in Israel, and it's rather low. You could maybe withdraw 800 EUR per day per card. Am I rich and got like 10 cards with several thousand EURs on each card? Nope. Then I got an idea: The customs officer said that he'd actually prefer a bank guarantee instead of a cash deposit. I asked Olaf whether he would be willing to provide that bank guarantee for me, for a fee. He thought a few seconds, then I saw the sparkling in his eyes and he said: Sure, I can do that for you, I'll charge you 500 EUR as the fee. Me: You got it! Thinking to myself: This is the only chance to get out of here sometime soon.
Except for being eaten by a fake whale and playing E-palm (or rather: acoustic-palm) there was not much to do in Ashdod, Israel:
Day 2
It's Monday in Germany! First thing was calling the bank back home. Ok, they could probably issue the required document, but the final decision is gonna take until the afternoon. In the afternoon: "Boss gave his OK and we'll send you the document either this afternoon or tomorrow, at the latest." Of course I mentioned 10 times that I'm currently in Israel and would need the document via E-Mail, not via regular mail. Long story short. An E-Mail never arrived. But, of course, the document was in the mailbox when we got home to Germany.
Brilliant! Anyway, since it was uncertain whether the bank would issue such a doc, I was talking with Tesla Frankfurt at the same time, asking whether they could issue me a doc which said that the car is not stolen, that I am the owner, or that I'm at least the user, but Tesla couldn't do it because they could not tell for sure whether I'm going to sell the car in Israel or whether I maybe had already sold it to someone. Frustrating, but makes sense from their perspective. However, Tesla sent over all kinds of other documents that they could. The delivery protocol back from 2015, the signed lease agreement and some more docs. I forwarded everything to Olaf immediately, who in turn forwarded it to the customs officer. I also talked to the police in Frankfurt asking them whether they could issue a doc which says that the car is not stolen, but they said I should ask the motor vehicles registration office instead. Their phone line was busy the whole day, though. Anyway, good news in the afternoon: The customs guy had accepted the Tesla docs. Now we just needed a solution for the deposit. However, the day was over, so we were hoping for the next day. Customs officer needed an address of mine within Israel. I asked a Israeli business partner via E-Mail whether I could "borrow" his address and he fortunately agreed.
Day 3
In the morning we're calling Olaf's office, hoping for positive news about the bank guarantee. The opposite was the case, though: He can't give me the bank guarantee any longer, he used the money required for that for another purpose. "Tomorrow, maybe" he says. Uarrrrghhhhhllll. (I already saw the goal in front of me but just milliseconds before kicking the ball another played fouled me) --- Plan B: My mother back in Germany will send us the money through Western Union. Daily limit is 5,000 EUR. I had already withdrawn a part of the remaining 2,800 EUR from several cards the day before. And I'll withdraw the remaining amount today. We're back in the office of the customs officer and are telling him that the bank guarantee won't work out because Olaf changed his mind and instead we'd like to do the cash deposit now. He didn't like that. He repeats a hundred times: "Better, you would have told me this yesterday. Hrm. Hrm. Better, you would have told me this yesterday. Now I need to change everything." After that I sit 4 (four!) hours in his office, opposite his desk, and watch him type in about 5 characters per minute into his computer. "We have a new software." 1000 calls to several support hotlines, no real progress. But after 4 hours he finally made it! He prints out a document which enables us to go to the Israel Post Office Bank (and only there, no other place!) and make a cash deposit of 34,000 Shekel (equal to around 7,800 EUR), which I carry around in my wallet, to the bank account of the customs office.
It feels like the 20th taxi ride during the last 3 days and we arrive at a branch of the Israeli Post Office Bank. "Sorry, you can't deposit that big amount of cash. And where do you even got that kind of money from?" Me: "Western Union". Teller: "Proof?" Me: "Here's the proof for 5,000 EUR via Western Union, I got no other proof for the remaining cash (takes several days to see that in the online credit card statement)". Teller: "Bad luck then." Next branch: Closed. Next branch: "Something is wrong on this form. Something is missing. Sorry, can't take your deposit." Next branch: "Sorry, you can't deposit that much money." --- The taxi driver, which brought us to all those places, totally supporting our cause by now and really motivated to help us, yells around a bit in Hebrew, probably telling the teller that we've already been to 10 branches and there's no progress anywhere. The teller smiles and says: "Ok, as an exception we can do it." But as she inspects the form and starts to type things into her computer she says: "There's something missing on this form. I can't use it." I take a pic of the form and send it over to Olaf. He replies: "Everything is fine with the form." We give up and drive back to the customs officer. In the meantime our taxi driver and the customs officer are talking on the phone - LOL. Taxi driver sums up: The customs guy is an idiot. We have to drive back to his office. When we arrived, the customs officer takes another look at the form he printed: "Oh, indeed, I forgot something there. We have a new software."
One hour later he finally figured it out, prints a new form and adds a certain code to it, hand-written. We jump into the next taxi and haul ass to the main Post Office Bank branch in the center, after Olaf advised us to try that branch. It's almost 16:00 and the harbor closes soon, and it would be too late to get the car today. Once arrived at the main branch the teller says: "Sorry, you cannot deposit that much money here. Where do you even got that money from? Any proof?" --- The same story, again. In that moment I feel rage and frustration building up and internally, I'm starting to give up. "Lena", I say to my wife, "Let's go. We are not going to get the car." (Maybe we would get it in a couple of days, but it's pointless then, because our vacation will be over) --- In that moment my wife approaches another teller, tells the whole point what we're trying to achieve, again, and that teller then talks with the branch manager. The branch manager calls someone on the phone and after 5 minutes she comes back to us and says: "It's OK." --- I can't believe it. We are allowed to make the deposit. Unbelievable. They're scanning the form. They're entering the hand-written code into their computer. It's working, I can't believe it. It feels like Christmas and birthday at the same time. I'm making a call to the customs officer and tell him: "Please, don't knock off work yet, we're making the deposit as we speak and will be back in your office in a couple of minutes." He replies "OK, but the harbor will probably be closed then already." --- We're hauling our asses back by taxi to his office and indeed he can see in his computer that we made the deposit successfully. But, what's happening now? He can't issue the final document that we need to release the car because somehow the same deposit amount still shows as unpaid. "We have a new software." Then he realizes that he created a 2nd "project" in his software and the first project with the incorrect form still shows as unpaid. Doesn't work this way. He can't print. And without calling the tech support he can't cancel the first project. And the tech support doesn't answer the phone, they already went home. He asks us to come back tomorrow. And for the first time, he apologizes. Wow. Everything is so crazy by now that it's almost funny. We're heading back to our hotel and I drink 2 beers.
At least we were allowed to take a look at our car today because customs needed to document how many kilometers the car had on its odometer. It was sitting in a warehouse, a bit dusty, but fine. I had given the keyfob to the chief mate of FIDES while still onboard. A harbor employee then drove the car off the ship and parked it here. The keyfob sits on the front left tire. That's how it works.
Day 4
On schedule, at 08:30 in the morning, we were sitting in the office of the customs officer, smiling and being happy with anticipation. He had already spoken with tech support hotline. A while later he shouts out proudly: "Yes, I made it! See, I told you!" And he finally prints the release form. I'm smiling at him, but what I really feel inside I won't show him. I still need him. He approaches me and wants to shake my hand, I shake it, and he apologizes and says that the customs office represents the State of Israel and that our first impression, as tourists, is important for him and the customs office, and so on. I'm unable to coordinate words, thoughts and emotions and just say "Yes" and again "Yes" and am just trying not to throw my hands around his throat.
Hallelujah! We take the form, head over to the harbor, through the security checkpoint, and then the nicest person of all times by the name Guy meets us. He already brought us to the Tesla yesterday. That man is like from another world. A few hundred meters away sits the most incompetent person on the planet, and here's the most committed, helpful & nicest person on the planet. Customs office vs. harbour. Guy leads us through all the necessary stations, pay a fee here, type something into the computer there, print something over here, he invites us for a coffee and we chat about the places each of us has already been to. Suddenly, the world is fine again!
He brings us to warehouse 202. I ask Guy whether we can charge up a bit somewhere in here. In every corner of the warehouse there's several CEE red 3-phase 16A or 32A plugs. He replies: "Sure!" We're searching for a good accessible plug which is switched on. And we're charging with 32A (22 kW). A dream. Guy lets us charge up here for 1 hour, returns and escorts us out of the harbor. And the moment is finally there: Freeeedooom !!!!!!
