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Anyone can help get packages released from UK Custom PLEASE??
 

Hello,

I have a package being held in UK custom for over 10 days. It delivered by DHL, and tracking page of DHL shows the progress is Clearance Delay!

So, what does Clearance Delay mean?? Anybody has similar experience of using DHL deliver package, being held in UK custom with Clearance Delay?? How u guys get packages released? Or what results it could be leading to??

I am just anxious as I need to get this package asap! So, anybody would be kindly helping please??

Thanks a lot in advance!

are the contents anything customs may confiscate?

Hi, thanks for reply!

I have no idea of what it is going on with custom. I just called UK DHL, but they did not offer me a lot help. They said they can't do anything but wait.

I am wondering if I am supposed to contact custom to try to get my package release!?

Anyone can help?
Thanks a lot in advance!

what was in it matters, to advise further, I mean were they copies, where from China?

^^pm me if its sensitive

hi,
your items have gone

wait a few weeks and you'll get a letter from hm revenue saying if you have proof that the goods are real you have to do something

otherwise they will destroy in 2 weeks

Hi, mate

Thanks for reply! Actually, this is just what I am worried about!

What about if I can confirm its real? what kind of proof they want? How they confirm their authentity?

I have not received any letter from them yet!

Thanks for help!

Cheers

An imported item does not necessarily clear HM Customs in what 'you' regard a quick time. The parcel may be sitting waiting to be assessed & is so delayed in release to you. It needs to be checked for different matters from its authenticity to its VAT assessment. Which hub has the parcel ?

If you have a tracking no# from DHL, call them back & get an approx time when it got handed over to Customs. (There will be a general time only.)Unless otherwise arranged, clearance ACTION may not start at once. If DHL have been your agent, then they should be proactive in helping you get the parcel. IF DHL are agents for EMS, then they may not be as helpful.

tbh, if it is less than 14 days, it is early days for its release. Annoying but that can be the case. Let us know what happens. You have the right to appeal if anything goes wrong B4 your items get destroyed :ranger:

ebay, Please resize this image. No need for it to be so big :ranger:

sorry Greenbean for some reason can't reduce the size anymore :confused:

:noidea: Not to worry. Royal pain though.

Hello, thanks for great information@!

I think this is very offical response for any packages they seize, but I am expecting clearance delay might be because they are too busy, and have not had time to check my package.

I am wondering how they confirm its authentity? Do they seek help from other parties? like trading standard//

Should i contact Custom to find out what realling going on? or just wait for their repsonse?? Actually, I don't want to give them much of my information!!

Thanks in advance!!

quite possibly a clearance delay..

how do they tell, I dont think they refer them, they just look at them, its usually noticed by their trained eye, on stitching, packaging for borderline stuff but of course some things are just obvious - things from China etc

Getting Customs items released
 

Often its worth giving them a call and providing the reference number.

Sometime there is a surcharge to pay. Also make sure your supplier covers up the Branded names where possible. Most will do this if you ask them.

Also ask them to mark it gist and put a very low value.

If you value is high that is often the reason for a hold and a surcharge.

if branded goods are coming in from china
in large quantities it is obvious to anyone they are f=a=k=e

sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on


i'm just telling you the plain truth your goods have gone mate

That is not often always the case. If the customs workers open a box from China and thats an "if" there is no guarantee that they will take action against a small shipment. I.E Pack with 5 to 15 handbags. It is just not financially viable. They are after the bigger fish. They caught one with a whole container of thousands of Nike Branded products and they prosecuted this guy.

I would give them a call and feel it out. If there is a charge to pay then pay it. If they have sussed that the goods are ⊗⊗⊗⊗ then they will destroy them = no charge.

It makes me laugh a bit. In my opinion most ⊗⊗⊗⊗ are better than the real thing. I purchased a genuine C Dior bag or £850 and a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ for £55. Almost everyone I asked thought the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ was genuine as the genuine bag smelt of s**t. The ⊗⊗⊗⊗ smelt of lovely leather.

Im all for ⊗⊗⊗⊗ until these companies start charging normal prices. THEY are the criminals.

if they weren't going to take any action he would have got it by now
with yellow tape

You could possibly be right. My point is never "assume" or you risk making an "ass" out of "u" and "me". It is often worth carefully pushing issues all the way as sometimes the results can be surprising.

Yes, I also tend to believe my package already gone! Otherwise, it should have been delivered very quickly, as DHL is very quick usually!

Hi, mark, I am interested on what u said " covered up brand name in package", so what does that mean? How do u do this? Brand covered could be escaping custom's eyes??

This is first time I meet this situation, and I paid higher to DHL, but lost more reversely, too sad!

Thanks for all answers! thanks a lot!

A good Supplier
 

What I mean is by covering up the brand names. For example: The Christian Dior Gaucho Handbag has a metal clasp on the front with "Christian Dior" on it.

Now anyone who sees this should instantly know its a Dior Bag.

Any supplier with a bit of "know" will cover up all brand names in such a way that it looks as though they are trying to protect them item rather than cover anything up. So with a little bit of this applied if someone was to open the box there is a better chance that this could help.

Also I knew of one supplier that packed his items in such a way with lots of tape so the boxes where very difficult to open and once opened they would be a real pain to re seal in an acceptable way. This is great as this also allows more chance of an item slipping by.

There are some really good suppliers out there but my main advice to suppliers would be

1) Pack items well with lots of lightweight packing material, and cover up brand names, but make it look like protection.

2) Make the outer packing as hard as possible to get into which means you wreck it when you open

3) Mark "gift" as a very low denomination say £10 or $10 and write a vague description such as "fashion accessory" or "fashion item"

4) If a supplier doesnt seem to know what he / she is doing find a new supplier, there are plenty out there.

5) Dont forget that suppliers want to keep YOU happy, they want YOUR business.

6) I knew of one supplier that put a high price of the customs form £250 and listed as handbags. The person who bought them went mad as they had to pay £45 in excess custom charges. They emailed they supplier who then sent a FREE parcel to keep the persons business.

N.B Most good suppliers are VERY switched on and really great friendly people.

Tip is, if they do stuff that creates you hassles give them a chance to rectify, if not NEVER use them again.

I have always found DHL quite helpful over customs delays. They did tell me customs can hold your item for upto 30 days in principle.

Clearance delay can mean that there is some discrepancy between what is on the documentation that goes with the package and the info which DHL supplied electronically to the HMCR computer. In this case HMCR may then require information from the original sender which can obiously take time. A clearance delay is exactly that - and is not the same as a siezure.

I have had packages stopped by customs and delayed because there were few staff on duty and this happens at busy times like the run up to Christmas. Just because they stop your package does not mean they are going to open it.

We used hold up to 45 days quite some years ago ;) This was long B4 the markets were flooded with Chinese goods. Much of the imports were from Japan & some from Europe B4 the EU started. Parcels sit waiting, would-be-importers need some patience. :ranger:

Getting your shipper to make the description on the airway bill boring and generic is good advice.

I buy up collections of antique and vintage items in USA and have them DHLed in about every 2 weeks but they are never labelled "antique". I have my shipper put descriptions like "used" "second user" or "junk jewellery findings" on them. In theory antiques are free of duty and VAT but in fact require all kinds of documentation and authentication. However if they opened a box it would contain "what it said on the tin". Second user items are also very difficult to put a value on.

Also they put on the commercial invoice "special offer free shipping" and send me the real invoice by email so I know how much they are debiting my card and for what. Dont forget (British) customs will also charge you import duty & VAT on the shipping cost. I dont know if customs in other countries do this.

For items coming from the US the shipper is allowed to mark the wholesale value which is typically about 1/3 to 1/4 the retail price. Wholesale is defined in US law as "cost to the manufacturer of producing the item" so for a vintage/second user item this would typically be very low anyway.

So my shipper is not breaking US law by following my instructions to mark the value at $xx - always less than the limit at which UK customs assess VAT and duty.

Hello, thanks for great information, and I really wish what u said is true to me!!

Now, it has already been 3 weeks, but have not seen any response from Custom. I think I am about to call them up!

thanks again!

Just keep tracking it and bide your time the item will either be held up and could take a month or so before it turns up just being backlogged or in a couple weeks you may get a letter, just have to be patient not much you can do to speed the process up

please Help me :((
 

My shipment went on clearnce delay on 24 august 2010 and today 15th September 2010 I got a letter from Nintendo solicitor saying that they recieved a letter from Custom UK that they found 400 wii remotes in a shipment which belongs to me.

So on behalf of Wii nintendo GmBH EU and Nintendo US inc he wants me to give the permision to UK custom by writting them a letter and saying that they should destroy the goods. If I didn't give them a notice in 5 working days then The solicitor will put a case against me in civil court and they will continue to fight on this metter and my goods will be held until court will announce the final result.

Plz can any one tell me what should I do? should I write to custom? or should I just disapear as they have only my name in there record. So I am moving my house too so can they still goto court and do some thing ??


Or should I do allow them to destroy the goods.

thanks

Sounds like a seizure to me. They will get a rep from the company of the imported goods to say whether they are real or not. A lot of companies have departments dedicated to this.

This case is much complex,so you have to deal with it more carefully .You should ask some professional people who have rich experience in this .

large o small quantity
 

I am planning to buy goo ds from chi na, the question I have is whether to buy little and large quantity, wanted to know when they refer to large amounts we are talking about 500, 1000, 0 2000, 5000 or may be 100 etc. thanks for plan to buy dvds replay,

anyone can tell me how to do to remember where I write in this forum?

large QTY mean in b/w 350+ to 1000 pcs and it depends on the size of goods but they some time even open very small boxes too. The ideal which I always have no problem is 150 pcs to 250 pcs never had any problem

thanks

...so if I was to order say 30 brand named purses or sweatshirts from China I probably would not have a problem with goods being seized?

I am new to this importing game so please ignore me if this is a silly question.

A few months ago, a parcel with contents like that would have sailed through. Now though Customs are checking everything and seizing anything that is ⊗⊗⊗⊗. You might be lucky and get a few through but honestly ask yourself whether or not its profitable to keep losing parcels and addresses...

hi forummember you scare me with what you say what do you thinks 50 p90x white box is ok is to large quantity and weight?

@MERMAID

Pm'd.

hey
 

hi there i know abit about uk customs what was the item???

be careful with any parcels from china in run up to xmas, from now till jan, i would not recommend having large parcels or large amounts of parcels, i keep to my rules and have never touch wood had one stopped, if they are stopped and they are brand then unless 100% real walk away, if you get a good suppiler they will send good parcels, remember they are doing this all day every day and know how to by pass customs, but if worst happens and you lose your parcel to them a good supplier will normally go halves on cost of parcel contents. once you are a good customer to them then they will help you so they keep your custom, never pay for your items from china with paypal you will end up limited very quickly

20 PCS p90x white box is about 27kgs,each package should not over than 20kgs,and each shippment come with 2 package should be ok .

So how many small parcels (less than 20kg) would it be safe to get shipped to one address in UK in a month? Would one every week be too much or would that probably be ok?

One a week shouldn't be problem as long as it's wrapped well. Sometimes though they go for everything, watch out for news reports on it.