How long do you wait and what do you do if you have a package stuck in customs?

Usually things seem to go through over night. Packages from Europe, Japan, and China not having a problem. I have a toy coming in from Thailand and it's been sitting in customs for one week now. Makes me crazy. Do I just keep waiting? Anyone deal with this before?

Yep!

That's the long short of it.

Be glad that your item doesn't come back from US Customs, where the shipping box was torn open and re-sealed with bright blue tape and US Customs all over it. Then find the content boxes were torn open and finally the "mystery" boxes in the content boxes were also torn open. Oh, and some items missing...

I had that happen once a few years ago. I think the postal clerk said to follow up with Customs after a week w/ no movement. I didn't get to find out how that works, since the package was released shortly after the week passed.

Maybe ask the people at the post office what you should do?

Finally went through after finding the correct number for ISC. But they told me that "sorting" means customs has it and neither I nor them can call them. They also said a week was a short time and I should wait a month.

I thought this was what dogs and scanners were for. Fingers crossed on an un-torn open box with no blue tape.

A month sounds crazy, but it is a bureaucratic organization. That means it is completely inefficient, devoid of ethics and morals, and completely self serving.

Also, I think you actually can call and inquire by simply giving them the tracking number. Drug dealers and other people trying to import illegal shit don't tend to bring attention to themselves, so it may speed things up if you can get through. Assuming it's sitting in that compound off, I think Hawthorne Blvd. just East of LAX.

Either way, good luck, but stranded for a week isn't too bad.

I once had a box shipped from China with several Anraku toys take a month and a half to go through customs. It was opened in customs, repacked, and the box literally looked as if it had been run over by a mail truck.

Astoundingly, there was not a rub or scuff to be seen.

Really!? I ran that box over at least a dozen times... We're going to need a bigger truck

I was told to wait a month as well. Pretty lame. That being said, the one time a package took a month, I called up to open a case, and the next day it cleared customs.

Goddammit John, do your job! Do your f**king job!!

I've had 1 package stuck in limbo for 6 weeks. Sometimes you at the mercy of the USPS. It's really not fun.

Hope it arrives safe and sound.

I had a package from Russia recently take three weeks. It usually goes through quickly. Sometimes you are not that lucky.

Go onto USPS.com and do everything you can do with the tracking number to be difficult. Schedule a redelivery, file a lost package claim, etc. Getting the number in the system should prod them.

I've been waiting for a few weeks too. Just got an update this morning that it's finally in its way. Usually never takes this long.

I just had a package get stuck in customs for almost 3 weeks! First time having that issue....and USPS was NO HELP AT ALL!

I had an international package stuck at a sorting facility in NY for a few weeks. I called to complain which helped get the parcel routed.

It arrived empty.

I contacted the postmaster general and pursued it for about a year. The only response I received was a confirmation that there was an investigation, & the investigation was completed.

I just got off the phone with USPS (twice) and US Customs concerning a package that has seemingly been stuck in JFK ISC for three weeks. Basically the post office reps ( not sure why I was escalated to another rep who told me the same exact thing) will always blame customs but DO NOT buy into that bs. Customs rarely holds things up. If you can track an entry point with your tracking and it says ISC ( International Service Center) it means 100% the post office has it not customs.

In fact customs told me normal registered mail rarely goes through customs. What happens is if requires a signature- it slows the processing down because it needs to be signed for or accounted for every step of the way. Express mail is different. So never buy into a USPS rep blaming customs.

Btw to get around the USPS automated system hit 0 when asked what your calling about. When she says sorry customer service is not available hit 0 then 5 then 6 then 4. Fuck waiting in automated.

It always confused. The custom sometimes very fast, but sometimes very slow. Zzzz

And the same for USPS too!

From my experience, that's bs - registering mail has always significantly sped up intnl delivery for me. Besides, I don't see how express for example would NOT need to be accounted for every step of the way (and it's definitely not how EMS works for me)...

That was my line of thinking as well- if anything it speeds it up I thought. But no when it's normal registered (non express- meaning not EMS) it's significantly slower according to both USPS and Customs (here in the US) and both used the same sentence today when I spoke to them.

"Just shoot them all, Morty! They're robots!!!"

If they were robots, that would mean some expectation of efficiency. The USPS is a circus of bumbling idiots and a cavalcade of entitled dunderheads

^^
Which is why it would be totally okay to coax a twelve-year-old-ish kid into shooting them all under the pretense that THEY'RE ALL ROBOTS.

Jeez, what's a couch when you haven't even watched Rick & Morty..??

Tracking shows that my Ummikko gorliia was fianally released from customs after 1 week. Gotta be careful about Swedish monkey toys. Hopefully he is not damaged from being waterboarded.

I dare you to smell it when it arrives

I gave up calling USPS. Talked to two idiots again yesterday who tried the same ol "customs has it, it's not us" routine. I actually would not even let the second guy talk and he was supposedly a supervisor (but more than likely another rep as they play hot potato with the call!).

Here's what I said and I quote: "Don't try the customs BS routine on me, because I've spoken to customs- they ran the tracking number and it was never processed through them, you do know ISC means International Service Center and it's a USPS facility not Customs right? So basically you're telling me once you process it through there you have no way of knowing where it is with a tracking number? I live 6 hours from where it entered the US and it's been 3 weeks! Is it on a turnup truck? You can't call ISC to see what happened, what can you do? because it seems I'm wasting my time calling and you give me the same info I can read online. Your fail safe blame is always customs and this has nothing to do with customs."

He then said you seem to have all the answers preceded to put me on hold for the next level (basically for another rep to pick up) and after 5 minutes I hung up.

I'm heading to the local PO today to put in a NDC postal inquiry. I've read online that means your local PO manager has to officially inquire as where the parcel might be. I'll be damned if I'm not going to make the PO do their fucking job. Christ I could have driven back an forth to NYC a dozen times already and got it myself. This was a pricey rare record not a toy BTW.....