stuck in customs

[milkit1]

Was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I sold an item to a buyer in buenos aires. For over a month the item has been stuck in customs clearance. The buyer started a dispute and now ebay has turned over a refund to them. Is there anyway to find out why an item is stuck in customs. Do I have any hope of getting it back?

[oldjudge]

About five years ago I traded for a very scarce N288(Buchner Police and Fire Chiefs) from a friend in the UK. The card made it to US Customs at Kennedy Airport but no further. I never did receive the card and have no idea what happened to it. The UK postal service paid the insurance claim, but I would have much rather had the card. It had lasted 120 years and then Customs ate it.

[bnorth]

Did eBay refund or did they make you refund? I have never had it happen just curious how eBay handled it. After 1 month you can't really blame the buyer. I hope it works out for you.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by milkit1

Was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I sold an item to a buyer in buenos aires. For over a month the item has been stuck in customs clearance. The buyer started a dispute and now ebay has turned over a refund to them. Is there anyway to find out why an item is stuck in customs. Do I have any hope of getting it back?

This is commonplace for many South American countries. Packages are stored in warehouses for indefinite periods of time before they are released for delivery. I have had some packages take only a week or two and others, including those sent via FedEx, take several weeks or longer. Unfortunately, I know of no method of tracking your package although sometimes, foreign carriers will use the same shipping number assigned by the U.S. Post Office. If you can speak Spanish or know someone in customs, you could probably get it back or have it delivered sooner, otherwise you will just have to wait.

[milkit1]

well it looks like they are refunding the money based on it showing on my tracking that it is in customs and the buyer asked me earlier if I would declare alow amount (which I didnt). However they said that even though it shows in customs they would normally side with the buyer andthe seller would be S.O.L.
Ive since signedup for ebaysinternational shipping program which is GREAT and I highly recommend everyone do it. It doesnt cover every country. The ones it does though make forcheap and sufficient shipping.

[steve B]

Ahhhhh Argentina.

I sold some films to a guy from there a few years ago.
Apparently his local PO includes the customs office. AND the guy there usually wants a bribe to release packages unless his place to store them is full. Supposedly the guy asks him when he walks in "How good of a day will it be for me George?"
He pays some small amount and gets his stuff right away. Another regular refuses and gets his packages when the customs/po guy feels like it, sometimes as long as 6 months. He'd actually seen the po guy tell the other guy something hadn't arrived when it was sitting on the counter.

A friend of mine also sold him stuff and sold enough to have an arrangement where the guy would have purchases shipped to him and then he'd ship a big boxful of stuff. Overall it saved the buyer a bunch of postage. The guy I know ended it when it got to be a nuisance.

Steve B

[chaddurbin]

i've had 2 packages to canada recently never made it out of customs...canada post is the worst! i've shipped to italy, malaysia, thailand, indonesia w/o much trouble.

[Duluth Eskimo]

I had a envelope sent from Canada make it to NY customs then get lost indefinitely. It is going on over 1 year. I would much rather have the items than my $200. The guy sent it registered mail and apparently that is what killed it. Who knows.

[D. Bergin]

Brazil can be pretty rough. I had a guy waiting for customs to release a package for six weeks and then he filed a claim with Ebay. I refunded his payment and blocked him (and the rest of Brazil) from bidding.

He contacted me two days after I refunded him, asking why he was blocked. I told him, and miraculously the package turned up a day later............supposedly. He paid for it and I unblocked him.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

About five years ago I traded for a very scarce N288(Buchner Police and Fire Chiefs) from a friend in the UK. The card made it to US Customs at Kennedy Airport but no further. I never did receive the card and have no idea what happened to it. The UK postal service paid the insurance claim, but I would have much rather had the card. It had lasted 120 years and then Customs ate it.

I had exactly the same experience with a set of rare boxing cards from the UK. We tracked it to customs in NYC [UK version of registered mail] and there it disappeared. I too would rather have gotten the cards than had the cash back. My cards were only around 90 years old but they'd made it from Thailand to London to NY before going missing.

I've never sold cards to Argentinean purchasers but I've had widely varied results getting them from Argentinean sellers. Sometimes the package arrives in a week or two, sometimes it takes two months. This arrived in under 10 days from one seller:



This took over a month from a different seller:

[milkit1]

Ouch. Well I'm sticking to just the countries that the ebay international shipping program deals with. Looks to be about 20 or so.