Likewise, the company's official explanation doesn't mention the customs issues at all despite the difficulties appearing two weeks after it placed production orders.

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We have many reasons to be skeptical when Matrix One doesn't mention the customs issue, is known to have been unresponsive to customers and even reported itself as closed, but this news at least gives us hope that buyers won't be left hanging.

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Even after the state of heightened alert ends, Customs officials don't expect the slowdown at the border to abate much -- because the current volume of 6, 500 trucks a day through the Detroit crossing is expected to rise to more than 7, 000 next year.

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The first inklings of trouble didn't come until we sauntered through the airport to the customs area.

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In addition to its location is the fact that Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, so passengers from there don't have to go through customs upon arriving on the mainland, said Laila Rico, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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At the so-called Green Line dividing Cyprus from Turkish-administered Northern Cyprus, customs officials said they weren't searching people walking across the border unless they had information they were carrying large sums of currency.

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When you don't know where you'll be in a country with unfamiliar customs and language, the novelty of seat-of-the-pants travel can wear thin.

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