Customs Clearance Issues/Delays- Forwarder/Agent Not Supportive
Hey Fellow Sellers,
I am facing an issue with my shipment that got stuck through customs since the end of December and still hasn’t been released. Wondering if any of you have experienced this before or can provide some advice.
My supplier has hired a forwarder to ship out the goods from China to the UK, which in return employed an agent to clear out the goods. The goods have been put in a container with other sellers’ goods.
The shipment arrived before Christmas and after a few days, 4 of my boxes (part of the same delivery) have been released while the others remained stuck with no further notice or communication.
I’ve been in touch with my supplier who is claiming that there are local issues with the customs and because of Brexit and covid-19 restrictions there are massive backlogs caused by these events. While this might be true I contacted the local authorities who claimed there are no longer delays than 1 week to process the goods in and something might be questionable.
In order to investigate it, they would need an entry number from a specific form which each agent is required to have.
Since a few weeks ago I am struggling with both the supplier and the forwarder to provide this number and all I am getting is that there are long delays in the port and that all sellers are facing weeks and even months of delays.
While this has been true to some extent, I found it awkward that they won’t provide this specific requirement mentioning that they do not have it and the agent is not forced to provide this level of information or contact me.
The blame is going in a circle from the forwarder to the supplier to local customs and even to me because I am pushing them too hard.
You can imagine my worries since part of my order have been cleared and delivered to my address and the rest remained stuck for no given reason.
They offered me the option to get a full refund since there is no final resolution to this situation but are questioning the shipping cost which has also been covered by me.
I’ve been using this supplier for a while and never had issues with them in terms of production, quality goods, or shipping but this time they hired a new forwarder that ended up ruining my business. Moreover, they stopped cooperating on the basis that I am too pushy for wanting to find out what’s the issue with my goods.
I am at the end of my patience with this situation and I am wondering what would you guys do to sort it out in an efficient manner? While I do want a refund because of the unknown, I also don’t want to lose my goods if they will be released at some point.
Regards,
V
13 replies
Seller_AosJD54bRJJWc
Hi,
I believe its the local clearing agent here that should be able to provide you with the entry number. as far am i am aware the entry number they are asking for is what the clearing agent is given when clearing your goods with local customs, i.e providing documents (inv, packing list and BL etc to customs to get your goods cleared for delivery)
Its also very strange that only part of the shipment has been cleared if its one shipment and all goods being cleared are on one invoice.
Seller_RLXCX068q9bgP
I have a 40’ container on a ship that left China on the 19th Nov that still hasn’t docked, 3 months late.
I would have expected you to be paying storage charges if the shared box is on the dock or in a customs clearing warehouse. Something is amiss.
Have you been invoiced (and paid) for Import Duty & VAT before arrival?
Seller_wqciCXuQbNS4p
All sounds a bit weird, but it may help if you let us know on which terms were the goods shipped? CIF, DDP etc? That will lhelp us advise on the customs issues, and the second question, is did the freight charge cover the cost of carriage to your door or the port?
Moral of the story is always use your own forwarder, so that you have total control.
Seller_wqciCXuQbNS4p
Absolutely.
There’s been loads in the press about it lately, you can read about it on the https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55740063, or maybe the FT https://www.ft.com/content/ad5e1a80-cecf-4b18-9035-ee50be9adfc6
Costs have just filtered through to us on our last shipment, whereby we paid triple what we did for the shipment before Christmas.
Hopefully you can hold them to the original quote.
