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baantiques · ‎10-25-2019

In 7 years, I have never had an international package be rejected by US customs and returned to me, until this week. So far I've had two, and there were two others that I sent out at the same time.

I've always used a generic "auto parts" or "auto part" in the description, and have never had a problem. But apparently it's a problem now. I don't know if this is a rule change of some kind or just some employee in a perceived position of power. But that's neither here nor there, because I have two packages that have to be resent.

The question is, do I have to eat the first postage or can I just amend the description and send it back out? It would be nice if I could - it's $90 total.

richard1rst · ‎10-25-2019

@baantiques wrote:

The question is, do I have to eat the first postage or can I just amend the description and send it back out? It would be nice if I could - it's $90 total.

That probably depends on your post office. I had a package returned, brought it into my post office, got the most senior most knowledgeable clerk, explained why it should NOT have been returned and he marked it up (and removed any secret codes I would have overlooked) and sent it back out.

But I am guessing it depends on how well you make your case and the willingness of the clerk to work with you.

Couldn't hurt to ask.

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

nocoolnamejane · ‎10-25-2019

Maybe in case of auto parts it’s not specific enough since some parts may have come in contact with flammable material and therefore get rejected? For example, headlight components would pass, but injector wouldn’t? And now I’ve used up ALL of my car parts knowledge...

She ❤︎ Her ❤︎ Hers

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-25-2019

I'm surprised that US customs were the ones that are concerned...I would think that it would be customs in the country that it was going to that would be concerned about the contents.

dabunk2000 · ‎10-25-2019

Depends on the goober who looked at the package at Customs.

yuzuha · ‎10-25-2019

@nocoolnamejane wrote:
Maybe in case of auto parts it’s not specific enough since some parts may have come in contact with flammable material and therefore get rejected? For example, headlight components would pass, but injector wouldn’t? And now I’ve used up ALL of my car parts knowledge...

My guess is that it's likely something like this. All of my crane game prize packages from Japan are very careful to state that what's inside contains no batteries or glue, as I guess there are certain restrictions on that sort of thing.

oz_in_ohio · ‎10-25-2019

You have to pay for another lot of postage as the first package was accepted over the counter....

Maybe next time write down hobby item instead of the parts as with parts it was made out of metal....

femmefan1946 · ‎10-25-2019

Are you using the Harmonized System (HS) codes yet?

This is the Canadian one, but since this is an international system the codes will be correct.

I found the US site once, and it was actually a little easier to use, but being in Canada, this is the one I have bookmarked.

I keep a written record of the codes I use constantly in back of my daybook. Faster than searching online.

With the use of computers and barcodes, there is less physical handling of parcels.

One effect is the introduction of numerical codes, which can be read even if the words are meaningless to the reader . I dunno about you but I only can recognize three Chinese characters - China, people/popular, and beans.

Another is the crackdown on sending goods as letters.