Item hung up in Customs

[ezlisting]

Does anyone know how long customs will hold on to a package until they send it back?  I sold some glass birds that went to England.  The box arrived in customs over a month ago.  I have reached out to the buyer, but he is not answering my email.   I wouldn't be so worried about the sale, but it was for $1250 and I'd really like to access that money.  I don't want to touch it in fear the buyer will suddenly decide to cancel.  But I'm at a loss on what else I can do.  Suggestions?????

[ms.rodriguez*]

Bump.   Hopefully someone can answer this.

[titipeo]

How was the packaged sent? Was it sent via eBay GSP program, if so, then VAT/duties and all that should have been collected separately by Ebay from buyer and should have gone smoothly without any hick up, hopefully. If sent separately via international mail, buyer needs to pay VAT/Duties. This is where hick ups occur. Unfortunately, is not easy for seller to verify if the local customs authorities have notified the buyer regarding is VAT/duties responsibilities. 

Separately, and just to make you aware, there is a scam where foreign buyers claim item not received, are refunded and then go ahead and pay for the VAT/duties and receive item. 

From your part, can you try and contact the foreign authorities and see what has been happening with the parcel? I know, easier said than done, but if buyer has not responded, your hands are tied. 

As for how long foreign customs takes before returning/abandoning packages, it depends locally. Here in the US, you have 15 days to act on after arrival, once that is past, either the goods are returned to sender, but someone needs to pay for the return shipping, and I can assure you that no one waste their time in finding out who will pay for it. The other option is that US Customs seize the item and it goes into a warehouse under a General Order, where the warehouse authority tries contacting receiver to see if they want their item and make arrangements for clearance. 

Good luck. 

[pjcdn2005]

Does tracking say that the customer has been notified that money is owing?  I would be concerned about a transaction worth that much as well but it is possible that the package has left customs and been delivered already without any scans.  I think that most customer would have already notified you or opened a claim if their package still haven't arrived.  If so, it's not a good idea to contact them and point out there is no delivery confirmation. 

It looks like you sent it Priority Mail. I don't think that there it is possible to get signature confirmation with that service so that could cause a problem as well.

Did you check tracking on the Royal Mail and/or Parcel Force sites? Sometimes tracking will be updated there but not on the US site.