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had anyone received a letter from US customs and border protection?
 

just received a letter, basically seizure letter, does anyone have experience with this? what to do? do i reply and give up the seizure or just ignore. it says i may be subject to fines/penalty, anyone actually get fined before/

what does the letter say? Whos it from?

from us customs and border patrol.
basically a notice of seizures and asking me to forfeiture or appeal.

i take it this wasn't a stealth account if you actually received the letter?

last year i was doing some dvds and many got stuck in customs. in turn i received several letters from customs. i never replied to any of the letters bc they were asking for a letter from the copyright holder stating that it was alright to import these yada yada yada. i had gotten about 5-8 of them for different orders over the span of 2-3 months. i did not act on any of them. never heard anything back. since then i import a few items without problem. i do most of my buying now domestically. less worries.

goodluck op

If your items were counterfeit, which I'm assuming they are. Your subject to some ridiculous fees and you have to get the actual company that's on the product to vouch for you having it legally.

If they weren't counterfeit, then you might just owe some taxes.

Its your choice if you want to fight it or just throw the letter away and forget about it. I've only had one package get seized by customs but I only receive 1 or 2 every two weeks. Big boxes too, I don't get how they believe a 50lb box full of goodies is only valued at $40 dollars.

This usually means you are busted. Happened to me once with Canadian customs. Never replied or answer. Then 5 months later, out of the blues, it was at my door... never knew what happened.

If these are legit items might be worth fighting for them, if they are not, I'd ignore the letter and move on.

I've had product seized. Just let it go and take the loss. You won't see any fines. They just take your product. If it's not something super-illegal, you can try to appeal.

I'm also interested about this. With certain items that are imported internationally, do they actually try to chase down who is sending them, or is it really the people on the receiving end of the product that get these letters?

^^^Both. It depends on the items. Deal with the trade of certain items and be aware of the consequences. If Customs of any country want to act and go for the 'bad guy', they will AND do.
Buying ⊗⊗⊗⊗ designer goods isn’t harmless - TODAY Fashion & Beauty

It is often easier for them to hassle the person on the same side of the border as they are. And hassle usually means confiscate the goods and make it not worth the recipient's effort to challenge. It is supposed to discourage buyers and thus eventually starve the hard to reach across the border seller. And it works. It don't cost customs very much to keep your goods and intimidate you in a manner that makes you give up without a peep. It is costly for them to chase people across geography, large bodies of H2O, and political redtape barricades. It is also mostly unsuccessful. So bug you, easy. Get some actual work done, not easy. Hmmmmm.....

Interesting. I know a seller that I'm friends with who says only sometimes their items get stopped for inspection and held for a month, etc, before being released. Is it all brand-named items, or just ones that look ⊗⊗⊗⊗?

It's a combination of things. Point of origin, political climate, economic climate, size of package, declared value, is recipient on the black list, which checkpoint it passes through, brand of goods, category of goods, DEA issues, Ho'm land Security, is the customs officer's teen son a recently soon to be father in an unhappy way, and just as much as anything else.... Murphy's Luck. When you need it the most, the worst will befall.

on the letter from customs, it mentions something about storage fees.
any comments/advices?

Burn the letter, change your phone, paint the house, flip the welcome mat face down, draw the curtains and forget about it. If anyone asks, play dead or play dumb.

I type that with a straight face. What can you do aside from not much vs even less vs OOPS vs Dang! (?)



[this presumes the likelihood that the letter is the unexpected, unwanted, or unmanageable type]

so just ignore it huh...

Just order more, the chances are this won't happen again. It's luck of the draw who's packages get opened and searched really.

then i must be very unlucky, first time i ordered from china and it gets confiscated :( what are the chances...

I am in UK and our customs are far stricter and our allowed import values (allowed in free) far lower than for the US. You people are soooo lucky - you can import about $200 worth or more without fear of import duty while for us its a miserable $30.

I have a DHL comes from the USA every week and about 1 in 4 gets inspected 0 but never had one opened. They just look at the paperwork and mostly send it on its merry way in 24/48 hours. However most of my stuff is second user and not a great deal of interest to customs - and never Vero stuff.

If I had something siezed it would not be worth appealing because its very expensive - better just let it go and keep your head down. Also best to have your stuff sent to another address for a bit in case they put a flag on yours!