USPS/Customs shipping delay (Letters from Europe)
Hello! I'm seller from Serbia. All several hundred letters that I have sent to the USA since March 15th have not been received. They don't even have a USPS scan, and I'm ABSOLUTELY sure they're in the JFK. I have written documents for the search in my Post and am waiting for a response from USPS, but it will be 30 days at least.
I do not know the reasons for the delay and ask community - maybe someone knows what happened and what should I do next? Should I expect help from eBay?
With deep apologies
Alex
11 comments
vesnakojdic
·1 year agoHi Alex and everyone else!
I am also from Serbia. I have the same problem. From the middle of March, there are problems with shipments to the US. Everything works normally with Europe. Some of my packages that I sent in mid-March have still not been delivered in US. Actually, they just change their sending date. For example, the package that I sent on March 17 got a new shipping date of June 3. Some packages have even 3 shipping dates, and it always says "origin post is preparing shipment". I have started an international inquiry for all the packages, but there has been no response for 3 months. At my post office in Banovo Brdo, Belgrade, I found out at the end of May, that the Serbian Post received an official notification from the US Post that the packages will be at customs in the US for more than a month, due to slow transport. Many of the packages I sent in March, April, have not been scanned by the USPS yet, so it looks like they haven't left Serbia yet, and the packages are actually sitting at ISC New York or ISC Chicago, waiting to be scanned.
A big problem arose yesterday, when I received a message that my ACCOUNT is RESTRICTED! Later I will go to HELP AND REQUEST, to try to find out more! There is not a single item in my store since yesterday. My payouts are currently on hold. I don't know how long this restriction will last. So I got a restriction due to undelivered parcels and large delay in parcels. The delays are not due to me, nor to the Serbian Post. This acts like a checkmate position. How to send packages to the US in the future, if they will have to wait for entry into the US, and then wait for months at customs??? I have no answer to this situation! Do you have any additional information? How is the situation with your store? Has anyone else gotten banned from selling on eBay like me? The packages I sent at the beginning of June were scanned after 5 days in the US, but nothing happens after that! Obviously, now the packages will wait for the next month for customs! Please Alex, and anyone else from Serbia, or from Europe, who has a similar situation to write and respond to what I wrote. Thank you all in advance, with the hope that this strange situation will quickly change to the way it was. Greetings to all,
Vesna
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@vesnakojdic
As was mentioned in the earlier responses, this appears to be because some export sellers try to use Registered Mail to ship to the USA. This used to be slow but it usually worked, but since the last few months, Registered Mail is not acceptable for eBay shipping anymore, because it does not qualify as "integrated shipping". Registered mail is not tracked in the USA, and the delivery confirmation (if any) is not automatically uploaded to eBay shipping. Unfortunately, the "fix" would be to use an international shipping service that is equivalent to "first class package" or "priority mail" with full tracking in the USA, instead of registered mail.
I'm sorry, but if your account is restricted and eBay has removed your listings, then I don't think there's any chance of eBay ever ending the restriction. I have seen sellers who reported that their restrictions were removed after they were able to improve their INR numbers while actively selling, but not if their listings had been removed by eBay. The other export sellers on this thread are not selling to the USA any more.
According to the information on the INR help page for export sellers, if eBay removes your listings, then the restriction is permanent. Once they do that, they will not evaluate your account again, so the restriction won't be lifted.
Here are links to the help pages about this policy. It has been in place for several years.
The CBT Seller Dashboard
Service standard policy — bad buyer experience rate
Shipping performance policy — Item Not Received rate
vesnakojdic
·1 year agoThank you very much for your answer and help!
Certainly, I am terribly shaken by the possibility that this means that my store is closed forever! I have been working on eBay for 10 years. Always, even now, Top rated seller. Doesn't eBay see that there are many problems with shipments from Serbia? Is there no other solution than this undeserved punishment? I see that other sellers from Serbia are complaining, and we are all saying the same thing. The problems start from the middle of March. Unfortunately, there are not many possibilities for sending parcels from Serbia. I know the US has many shipping options. DHL, FedEx, UPS have very high prices for transporting the package. I recently sent documents to Canada, 10 papers, less than 100 grams, I paid 67 USD. So, the only thing left for us is to send via the official Serbia Post. In order for the package to have a tracking number, the only possibility is registered mail. And the second possibility, cheaper, is without tracking... A big problem for sure!
Yes, now that I don't have a single item in the store, how do I fix the INR? In the coming days, I can only have a new problem, because I still have a lot of undelivered packages. Some were scanned in the US, and others look like they are still in the Serbian post office, for the last 3 months....
Thank you very much. I'm under a lot of stress. I don't know if there is any possibility to talk to a human on eBay, not correspond with the machine?
kalyoth
·1 year agoCan International Registered Mail be tracked?
No. Registered Mail service items cannot be tracked through the mailstream and will not provide updated scans. However, Registered Mail service does provide information with a scan showing the delivery status or attempted delivery information which can be retrieved in three ways:
USPS Registered Mail International
They are in the process of returning the favor across the globe for the majority of countries that do not provide tracking for outbound registered mail.
jagaux
·1 year agoHi, mate.
I see absolutely same picture on all my shipments from SRB to US.
After March 15th all parcels have last tracking info - departed from Serbia, but not tracked in US.
Have you got any explanations from post or USPS?
alexaftermarket
OP1 year agoNo sorry. Couple letters was sending April 2 is reached the recipient, they wrote to me, BUT THERE IS NO tracking from USPS
You sent letters? Did these letters have tracking on them? If not they wouldn't be scanned.
How do you know they arrived in the US if there is no scans?
eBay has no control over USPS so you can't expect help from eBay. Sorry but it sounds like you will be refunding your buyers for lost letters.
alexaftermarket
OP1 year agoYes letters with trackings - RR.........RS
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@alexaftermarket
Tracking numbers that start with RR are used by the Universal Postal Union to designate Registered Mail. The last two letters designate the country of origin, so that would be Serbia in your case.
Unfortunately, Registered Mail is not tracked in the USA. It is always transferred manually, and stored in a higher security area, which means that it is slower as well. There is supposed to be a delivery scan and signature, but in practice, that is not always done.
Because there is no tracking within the USA, International Registered Mail is not considered to be a tracked service, and sellers who use it are not protected from INR cases. This is not a recommended shipping service for sellers to use. It could result in a high INR level, and restrictions on your account.
You should use a different service, one which provides full tracking, and be sure to fill out and attach a customs declaration form, giving the country of manufacture, to hopefully allow your items to be processed through customs more quickly. Also, you need to provide the Country of Manufacture for each item in the Item Specifics. (I don't recommend trying to ship anything that was or could have been made in China into the USA at the moment, not until the current tariff situation settles down.)
There have been a lot of changes for USPS in the last few months, which are causing severe delays of packages being imported into the USA. Even if your goods are not being targeted, there can be severe delays because of the increased inspections that all international packages have to go through.
jagaux
·1 year agoThank you for your answer, but with all respect, you are wrong about non-trackable RR RS packages.
They are scanned and tracked until delivered.
lacemaker3
·1 year agoYour recent experience, and that of the original poster, demonstrate that is not correct.
Up until a few months ago, it appears that international registered mail was sometimes tracked by the USPS, and usually got delivery scans. However, tracking is not guaranteed by USPS, and there have been reports from the last few months that international registered mail is now unlikely to be scanned by USPS. There have been a lot of changes recently with international packages being imported into the USA, and this is expected to continue.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Registered-Mail-The-Basics#tracking