Shipping from Ireland to the UK for first time since Brexit. Boxes stuck in customs. Wondering if common issue

#1

Hey everyone :slight_smile:
I used to ship pretty regularly from Ireland the to UK warehouses. Brexit happened, and I shifted over to the German ones instead.

After some conversations with people on here a few weeks back, I decided to try and send stuff to the UK, aided by the fact DHL’s systems have come on leaps and bounds since the intial Brexit split. I went through the process of uploading and inputting all details, making sure that I was responsible for any and all duties that needed to be paid. Putting in all the right codes. I even rang my DHL rep before shipping and asked them to throw an eye over it all, to make sure I’d done everything right, and they were very happy with it all.

Aaaaand now it’s all stuck in customs.

The message I got from DHL is as follows…

“Dear colleague, Please be advised in order to customs clear this shipment we need to know the true importer of record details.We have tried to contact the importer as per the information stated on the paperwork and they have advised they are unable to provide assistance with the information we currently hold.”

I rang up DHL, and they said that they’re trying to contact Amazon over this, but Amazon are famously difficult to actually get in touch with in these circumstances. I’ve asked DHL to further my details to the UK customs side of their operation (no response back yet though).

Has anyone else had this sort of issue? I’ve told DHL I’m happy to provide any and all requested details, if they can talk to me, but is this a common issue? I feel it’s DHL getting blanked by Amazon, and I’d have thought Amazon would be semi-used to this sort of process now.

Anyone got advice on how to handle this? I’m aware most of the posters here will likely not have had to deal with this, but hoped someone might, and would have ideas about what to expect.

Thanks :slight_smile:

#2

If you’ve put Amazon as the Importer of Record then that’s wrong and they won’t accept it. You yourself are both the Importer and the Exporter of Record in this case.

Unless I’ve misunderstood something :thinking:

#3

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember that even being an option during the process of filling out paperwork. But I was meticulous in constantly putting myself as being responsible for everything it asked about.

EDIT: The only thing in Amazon’s name is the delivery address, so now you’ve written it like that, I’m wondering if they’re getting annoyed cause the name on the delivery is Amazon, Amazon warehouse, etc, but Amazon aren’t willing to be the “importer” in that sense. Sigh.

#4

Are you VAT registered in UK?

#5

Yeah, I am. Had to register when I was doing it originally.

#6

And shortly after starting this discussion, I got an email with a “Customs Clearance request”, asking for all the info about the Importer. Hopefully that moves things along now…