I know shipments from England to the US usually arrive in a week. However, a whistle I sent to England has been stuck in customs for almost two weeks. Is this normal?
Depends on why it’s “stuck”. has it been enquired about?
It took me several weeks, possibly months, to get a package of two concertinas once. Mostly because the company handling the shipment was staffed by morons.
Not to scare you, but…
I sent a shipment to Scotland using the United States Postal Service. It sat is US Customs for three weeks before it even left the country.
When it arrived in the UK it sat in Customs in Coventry for three months!
I contacted the USPS immediately and they said they could only track the shipment after it left the USA and then they had no idea where it was.
I filed a complaint and an insurance document with them to get my insured costs back.
They said it would take up to 6 months before they could issue me a check and be sure that the shipment was lost!
Then, all of a sudden it ends up on my porch 4 months after I shipped it, never having arrived in Scotland at all!
The addressee never even received it in Scotland or was contacted by UK Customs regarding it.
Needless to say, I will NEVER use the USPS for an overseas shipment again.
I could have taken it by barge by myself quicker!
MAKE SURE that you take out insurance and send it via a service that can track it’s whereabouts all the way and possibly pay the ridiculous price to have it shipped overnight so as to be sure it gets there quickly. Also register the shipment to be sure that it got there.
I have had even worse luck with UPS. They have damaged shipments that I have sent through them twice.
Cheers! Richard
It also depends how you labelled and valued the item for customs.
For goods valued at over £18, the recipient is required to pay VAT at 17.5%. VAT should be paid before the item will be delivered.
Even items labelled as Gifts are liable to VAT is valued at over £36.
If the item was not clearly labelled, it will be opened and examined, and probably damaged, by the hamfisted customs officers, to determine its value. They will then repackage it badly so it’ll get lost or damaged on its final journey within the UK.
There is also a customs duty.
You can look all this up on the interweb, but even the official sites confirm it’s a nightmare of confusion.
It was a return (and I labeled it as such) to a well known whistle shop there. That wouldn’t create problems with duties, etc., would it?
I just got a music book from the UK. It took approximately two weeks through the post office.
I’ve had packages to England take as long as two and a half months, Airmail Letter Post. However, I’ve never had a single whistle take more than about two weeks. I use mailing tubes for one or two whistles at a time, so maybe they’re treated more like letters and less like packages.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Hi cowtime
Books are one thing that gets through no problem, even from the US, as books incur neither duty or VAT here.
David