Q: Why was my shipment inspected and why was it so expensive? - Inspected and poorer in Ramat Bet Shemesh

Dear Inspected and Poorer, This is a very important question and I am glad to clear up the air about this subject. First of all, about 4% of all shipments into Israel are inspected. A few are randomly inspected as decided by Customs. Others are inspected based on intelligence sources - usually those with guns, drugs or illegally smuggled or declared goods. Finally, customs will inspect those shipments that don't "smell" quite right.
Reasons for inspection include a container being heavier than expected, based on the packing list or a large shipment not including any electrical items, etc. In short, anything out of the ordinary may trigger an inspection.
There are two kinds of inspection, and your shipment can go through either or both! X-ray inspections are the easiest and potentially least expensive. Physical inspections can be very difficult and expensive.
With an X-ray inspection, your shipper will have to truck the container from the port or bonded warehouse to the X-ray area. You can expect to be charged for trucking and time of your shipper to supervise the inspection.
If you go through a physical inspection, the charges are much higher. Again, your goods are trucked to the Custom's Inspection area where men will unload the container as directed by the Customs' official. They will open individual boxes if requested and repack them before reloading in the truck. Depending on the time and effort involved, you can expect a relatively high expense for this "adventure."
You do not have to be present during the inspection, but you can be there if you like. Inspections are almost never done on the same day as requested by Customs, but rather on the following day.
Some very important issues...
1) Customs does not charge for either type of inspection
2) You can arrange the entire inspection yourself and save some money, although you may end up paying more if you order a truck from the "Yellow Pages."
3) Demand and insist on getting the Customs Report of the inspection. Every inspection results in a Customs Report. If you cannot get this report, your shipping agent may be pulling a fast one on you.
4) Inspections are always done before clearing customs.
A client just told me an unbelievable story - his friend received his container a few weeks ago. On the morning of the delivery, his agent called him saying he had bad news - he was at the port supervising the inspection of his container because, on the way out of port, customs had pulled his container for an inspection - please pay the driver NIS 750 for the inspection.
Less than a minute later, the driver called and said he was on his street, but could not find his house.
Obviously there was no inspection and this less than honest agent was taking advantage of an unsuspecting client. Don't let this happen to you!