Package Stuck at Customs

[mercurial333]

I sold a 500$ item to a buyer in France. Sent via USPS Express Mail with Insurance and Tracking.

It was Guaranteed to arrive by April 1st, but March 31st it arrived at Customs in France and it's been stuck there ever since. Buyer says he received a phone call from french Customs asking for receipt/invoice/proof of purchase. He is getting very impatient now.

He's english is pretty poor, so i can barely understand anything he writes.
He keeps telling me to contact USPS, so they can do something about, but apparently USPS can't do anything while it's sitting at customs.

I told him to contact Customs and provide them with invoice/receipt and all that, he then tried to tell me the following ( I believe he used an online translator to translate from french to english) :

Sir,

During the processing of parcels sent from a country outside the European Union, customs do not support tracking of shipments and never contact the recipient directly to the item.

Your single source (in case of problem) is the carrier or postal services.

Therefore, despite the words "awaiting customs clearance", your order is pending in the service clearance / "disconnected" from the French Post (correspondent in France of foreign mail).

This service is only responsible for your packages until delivery.

I invite you to contact him at: disjoints.cei @ laposte.fr

And then I believe he tried to contact the French Post and got this response:

Post: Post Office Research Service: 36 31
Coliposte: 0825.311.311
La Poste International Mail: N ° Azur 0810 821 821
Website of the Post: Colissimo.fr
Website of the Post Courier International: Portail du groupe La Poste - envoi de courrier et de colis, widgets, services financiers / courrierinternational
Post website: Portail du groupe La Poste - envoi de courrier et de colis, widgets, services financiers

Finally, missing an invoice for the value of the goods and proceed to taxation, I invite you to provide your carrier or postal service.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Regional Inspector, Acting Head of Service
Hervé FOG

Any idea how to proceed from here? I'm not sure he contacted the right department, shouldn't he be able to call customs and provide them the invoice/receipt I gave him?

PS: Sorry if this is in the wrong section, please move if so.

[rsot]

You did not use a Customs Declaration form for an item of $500?

What exactly have you done - you e-mailed him a copy of the purchase receipt? He needs to take that receipt with him to Customs and arrange for pick up.

If his English is that poor, you will need a translator. I'd help but I would need a fee so...prob not in your best interest =)

[mercurial333]

I sure did fill out out the Customs at USPS, declared 500$ , insured for 500$, described the item accurately.


Yes I did e-mail him yesterday a copy of the receipt from Ebay (Order Details) and the Paypal (Invoice).


So he is the one that needs to contact Customs? He keeps telling me that USPS has to or me. I don't speak french so I'm not sure how he expects me to do that

Shouldn't he have to call a number and maybe mail or fax the invoice/receipts? I'm not sure if he could pick them directly from Customs rsot.

[mercurial333]

Perhaps somebody could help me locate the number for French Customs, so I could give it to him so he can call.

I'm not sure the response he got there was from Customs, or he might have called the wrong department or something among those lines.

Thanks in advance.

[Themightycrow]

I cannot seem to find any number of french customs.

But there is an embassy in your country so try calling them and asking for it?

also found this on the internet
I believe that France requires 2 additional copies of the invoice to be included in with the customs forms. Could that be what is holding this up?

Hmm I found the number for french Revenue actually
The direct number for CENTRE DES IMPOTS - NON RESIDENT for foreign individuals is 00 33 1 57 33 83 00

[mercurial333]

Thanks for the answer guys, package was released after 13 days.