Increase in packages shipped to Russia marked "return to sender" with little or no explanation...

[impala66k]

I sell worldwide and have shipped to Russia a thousand of times. For the most part, it hasn't really ever been a problem. Over the last 2 months, I have seen a sharp increase in packages being rejected and sent back to me. I am primarily shipping new and used motorcycle parts and haven't had packages rejected in the past. The reasons for "air carrier rejected mail" has been marked "other: opaque" and "shielded". I package these orders exactly the same as any other package... Cardboard box, packing paper, tape, customs forums. I have asked the post office why these packages were rejected and they have no idea. USPS says "the burden is on the shipper" regardless of whether or not Russian customs had a legitimate reason to reject the package or not. I've probably lost over $300 in shipping and had to refund and cancel orders resulting in the additional loss of sales. According to USPS shipping guidelines, I have not violated any of terms of service and none of my items are considered "restricted items". Does anyone have any insight as to why packages are rejected for "opaque" or "shielded"? The URL on the sticker (www.usps.com/ship/can-you-ship-it-internationally.htm) is an inactive URL and does not give any information on the USPS website. Have other international sellers run into and increase in shipping issues and package rejections from Russian customs in 2019? If you do not ship to Russia, please ignore this thread. I understand many ebay sellers are leery of shipping to Russia and I'd like to keep this thread specific to US sellers who have experienced issues with Russian customs in Fall of 2019.

[anneecakes]

This is a long-shot, but could it be that your return address is a company or PO box or other "opaque"/fuzzy place/entity?  Or are the addressees in these transactions not real people or defined businesses? (I.e., being sent to eBay screen names and not actual names?) Maybe Russian Federation is going through an era of stricter enforcement of various policies and maybe they cannot discern a recipient's Tax ID # from the way items are addressed (?).  

You are far more experienced shipping to Russia than I am, but (for the sake of other people reading this) individuals in Russian Federation can only have $500 or so of foreign merchandise shipped in duty free each month.  +People have been known to have to present their passports, etc. to pick up online shipping that is waiting with taxes/fees due in customs. And apparently some savvy sellers try to discern where their buyer is in terms of his/her monthly allowance before shipping to Russia.

[richard1rst]

I have shipped a bunch of items to Russia with no real problems.

BUT I recently sent a Chinese polyresin reproduction figurine which was described on the custom form by eBay (using my item title) "Figurine Egyptian God Seth" and it was rejected and sent back to me marked "Work of Art".

I resent it but this time I marked the customs form "Polyresin novelty knickknack" and it went through just fine.

In neither case was the box actually opened and physically examined.

I can only guess that somehow the customs decision is made on the presence of some "keyword" ("God" "Egyptian" ???) and making the form as bland as possible may be the answer.

Don't lie. Just don't over describe.

Only an opinion.

[impala66k]

We use real names and addresses in the "to" and "from" sections of the customs form. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be an issue that easy to rectify. I've spoken with my buyer in Russia, and he said the customs are terrible and doesn't know why they'd send it back. It doesn't appear to be anything related to importing too many goods with too much value in a given time either. I've resent the package in USPS flat rate packaging with a single piece of tape to try to minimize any reason for being sent back for "opaque" or "shielded". I've also tried adding a translation in the customs form for the product description to try to make it very easy for Russian customs to see what the package contains. We'll see how it goes, but hopefully the package will make it to the buyer this time.

[recycledcycles1]

We are a powersports salvage yard and have run in to the exact same issue. They have sent back several items. From starter motors, stators, differentials and Arctic cat diamond drives. It's really frustrating and expensive. I like to keep shipping there but we might have to stop. I spent about an hour on the phone with the post office business line and they said that I could open the boxes at the post office and they might be able to refund the shipping cost. Sounded like a waste of time so I never tried it. We have sent a few things that have made it just fine. If you find out any thing let me know. Thanks. 

-Jake

Recycled Cycles Powersports

[impala66k]

We still haven't been able to figure out why some packages have been sent back. We've had some successful shipments and some returned, but no indication as to why one package gets delivered and another package with similar parts gets refused. Several of the returned packages were marked "opaque", which I've come to assume means "unclear". We started using google translate to translate the customs form "item description" into Russian to try to make it very clear to the customs dept. what the contents of the package are.  We leave a line for the description in English and add another line with the Russian translation taped to the label. We've re-shipped returned items with the added translation and changed the packaging to USPS flat rate packaging and rejected items were delivered without issue. I'm not sure why or how it makes a difference, or if it even makes a difference.