I ordered some bike parts from bike24.com, a German online retailer. No big deal, I have ordered many times from them in the past, to Switzerland as well, it always arrived within a week without any fuss.
This time, the parcel has been in a Schrödinger's cat state for a week now: post.ch says "Your shipment will shortly be handed over to the Swiss Post" and "Zustelldatum unbekannt". The merchant says the parcel is at swiss customs.
How can I see what is happening? Is there a way to check the parcels status at the customs? Is there a way to contact them? Is there a general customs hickup and delay of parcels? What is going on? I think this is the maddening part: not knowing, and not being able to have any influence over what happens. In the meantime I was counting on these bike parts and will be traveling in 2 weeks - if they don't arrive by then, I will have to look for alternatives.
It's very random. Once I had to wait 8 weeks for my birthday parcel from my mum which had been held at customs for "inspection". It was 2 t-shirts, a multi-pack of socks and a bag of toffee.
I've been in this situation, haven't figured out anything. Worst case they'll even send you a snail mail with a form asking about details, invoices or if you reject the parcel, which you have to send back by snail mail.
The status is nothing is happening - it is sitting the queue waiting from the customs officer to examine it and when it's turn comes up they will take a look at it. If they are a happy it will be handed over for delivery. If not then you will hear from them. And no it's not possible to speed it up, you just have to wait your turn.
You should also not be surprised if there are additional fees to be paid, even if there are no duties due on the items.
It is random, you could order a 100 items over a couple of years and not one will get stopped for review and then the next five could be reviewed.
Parcels from Companies that regularly understate the value of the shipment are more likely to be delayed.
For a few years I ordered a device, from the manufacturer, to aid me in controlling my diabetes. Something that cost more than f100.00 was documented as $20.
The third or fourth time I ordered from them they began to get delayed by customs, followed by a request from customs for invoices and ultimately requests for VAT and other charges.
I alerted the manufacturer but nothing changed. Fortunately I no longer need the product.
Ordering from the UK and Germany, I've also had the same happen to me. Sometimes it just arrives, and sometimes I'm asked to go to a portal (it's genuine) to pay the duty and clearance costs. parcel then arrives the next day.
Swiss Post are awful in this respect, and charge all sort of fees, including advancing the money to pay the VAT, which usually amount to about 10 cents! So petty.
If not being sent by courier, on EU (not UK) purchases, I have the goods sent to Italy and pick them up there, though I realise for many this may not be an option.
I waited 4 months for a (non valuable) painting to come out of customs . When it finally arrived, customs added a note saying it was delayed because the painting had no name. So customs do delay for weird things.
Just for the record, there is a happy ending, my parcel was delivered today, without any extra charges. At the end of the day I had to wait less than 2 weeks for it to arrive, so can't really complain.
ON a similar subject, has anyone had any problem receiving packages from the USA? Some glasses that I bought in the USA will be sent to me shortly. Would anyone know the 'best practices' if any to avoid scrutiny? It seems that customs inspection is random.
Also, the total cost of the items to be shipped is 250 USD. Would anyone know what, if any, fees or duty charges are likely to be added?
If there are any alternative shipping strategies to suggest that would be great!
Obviously, depending on which courier company you are using, their admin charges can vary, too.
Not sure if there is a way of avoiding these costs. We always look at it as having purchased something for a fraction of the price in Switzerland, the extra shipping charges still make it worthwhile.
With Borderfree you pre-pay customs so clearance seems to go smoothly, I've not had any unusual delays. And I've not been hit with the usual add-on fees from the Swiss side. I pay once through Borderfree, done and dusted.
It used to be to the postman but I've had emails a few times now where I paid directly to the post online. This meant the package could be delivered without me needing to be home.