An Post returning packages from outside the EU-See 1st post

RollingSun2000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863449#Comment_117863449

I had three packages sent during June from Japan. The first one arrived into Dublin June 30th, I had it the next day, July 1. The second packages (same seller) arrived into Dublin July 28, I received that the next day too, July 29. No extra fees. They both had the CN22 label, but didn't have the Taric numbers.

The third package was from a different seller. It didn't have tracking, but that arrived in good time in July too. That had CN22 and a HS code (I think that is Taric).

I only noticed something was wrong when a pack of dice I ordered from Wish was delayed and I had to pay €0.33 VAT and €3.50 fee. That still took a bit of time after paying to arrive, but I wasn't paying attention. Everything from Wish is slow.

But then there was a package from the UK I bought on Ebay, sent Aug 2nd. That took nearly a month, I can't remember when I got it, but it was the last week of August (estimated delivery was Aug 12 - 16). The tracking number was useless (people left negative reviews about that). That was an odd one. It had the IOSS number, but the seller plonked it in the middle of my delivery address. It had a CN22 label, but it doesn't seem to have a box for the HS / Taric number.

whiterebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863449#Comment_117863449

The only date that matters to Revenue is the date it lands in the state, not the date it was sent. Same for all cargo.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863896#Comment_117863896

Yes true but how was a sender supposed to do something that wasn't even required at the time.

rf4c

dxhound 2005

Yet again this is unhelpful.

The issue is not that Irish recipients have to pay Vat/Duty. That is not in question.

What is at issue is the shameful behaviour of An Post. They ignore all mails, they cite incorrect documentation even when it is correct, the fail to inform

customers when parcel are returned and are themselves clueless as to the correct documentation. To add salt to the wound, their CEO and Head Of Parcels have both left the crisis while they go away until late September.

I'm old enough to remember how it was done pre-EU. There was no question of ignoring customers or arbitrarily re-exporting goods.

The customer would be informed of the deficiency in the documentation and the reason for holding it. You would be given a certain number of days to supply the correct information from the sender after which you would have to pay a small storage fee which would be ongoing until you corrected the fault or asked for the return of

the shipment. Nowadays, this method would be even easier due to the instant nature of electronic mail, and not having to reply on "snail mail" documents.

For my money, there is a hidden agenda being played by An Post, et al.

andrewfaulk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864036#Comment_117864036

The change in rules was flagged well in advance of it being implemented..

dxhound2005

The relevant part is the warning that the rules apply even to stuff sent before 01 July, if it does not reach Ireland in time.

whiterebel

MOD - The issue in this thread is goods being returned. The 1st of July change has its own thread. Use that thread for any further discussion of the change to the €22 rule. I have already moved posts across to there.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864305#Comment_117864305

How sure are you of your previous claim that An Post are the only carrier across all of the EU who are doing this? (If it wasn't you, others made that claim).

andrewfaulk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864357#Comment_117864357

@dxhound2005 , logged off for a few days there.. Can see you are still banging your head against the wall trying to speak with reason, fair play you have more patience than I do!

rf4c

Royal Mail have conducted investigations across Europe and report back that everything is working normally.

They placed an excellent guide to shipping into the EU on their website and have been very helpful to its customers.

As a result, only very genuinely messed up parcels are being stopped.

They also report having tried to engage in discussions with An Post.............................................wouldn't you know it?........only to be ignored!!

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864357#Comment_117864357

Sweden's national carrier, like An Post are also doing their bit to combat climate change by returning packages wholesale. Private carriers like DHL and FedEx appear to be more CO2 aware.

Here is RTE bemoaning the carbon footprint of online buying: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0323/1205657-next-day-delivery-online-shopping-carbon-footprint-climate-change-logistics/

"In 2018, a host of major Irish companies signed up to Business in the Community Ireland’s Low Carbon Pledge — a commitment to reducing emissions by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 in line with government commitments.An Post signed up to the pledge in 2019.

The state-owned company has since committed to an accelerated target of 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025 with a view to being 100% “net carbon neutral” by 2030, says Nicola Woods, An Post’s chief transformation officer.

“Carbon Emission reduction has been a key focus for An Post since 2009 and became core to our strategy in 2017 when we took big steps in transforming our whole business in order to make it sustainable in the new world of eCommerce and financial services,” she explains." https://www.thejournal.ie/smurfit-carbon-emissions-business-5329294-Jan2021/

Excuse my for a minute while I throw up.

My package from Japan is to be returned there. I used Buyee to purchase from an auction so there is no retailer who can refund the purchase. If Buyee do eventually resend it, the package will have needlessly circled the planet once and 1.5 times in total. And An Post are concerned about climate change - in a pigs eye they are. The Swedish postal service are worse on account of this:

Aw, Greta Thunberg on a stamp, how touching. Now change those swallows into jets or ships returning hundreds of thousands of packages to senders to make it 3 trips instead of one.

rf4c

What makes the Swedish example "easier to swallow" is that Swedish citizens are opting to refuse their parcels given the charges payable,

while us poor rif raf of Europe are given no choice, only treated with contempt by our own yet again!

georgewickstaff

So if my daughters grandparents send her a birthday present valued at £20 from England, declare it as a present and attach that form it could be liable for Vat etc or return to sender?

WTF is going on?

innuendo141

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864523#Comment_117864523

I've refused 3 packages that required VAT payments with An Post in the past 2 weeks. I'd rather do without than pay then wait in dread for the packages to be returned to sender like my first experience with this new procedure.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Had another UK parcel arrive without issue, including it incase it's any help

No fees or customs charges

Flaccus

Got a reply from AnPost. My parcel is gone back to sender as could not be presented to customs for assessment due to inadequate information on forms.

Last Tuesday it was in AnPost mail centre, and I paid my VAT and revenue shows item is released. Even got email from AnPost to say it would be delivered.

So An Post are LYING. How can they say the parcel could not be sent forward to customs but yet still take the payment ? Why are customs saying it is released ?

The sender will refund me but is perplexed regarding the custom forms. I have sent email for a VAT refund to ecommchargequery@anpost.ie

I just won't buy from anyone that uses An Post as a delivery partner from now on.

innuendo141

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865055#Comment_117865055

Unfortunately this was my issue and since 24th August I have received no response regarding my request for a refund. I expect many other posters here waiting for their status to update post payment will find themselves in the same boat.

Hippodrome Song Owl

I finally received a response from An Post to my query about what specifically was missing or incorrect on my parcel's customs declaration. I explicitly asked them not to tell me it was "an insufficient customs declaration", but rather to provide the relevant specific information on my parcel.

Their response was to state that there was an insufficient electronic customs declaration and to advise I read the information linked in the banner message on their website.

An absolute disgrace.

Flaccus

Presumably for those that paid VAT and had their item returned, they can simply contact their credit card company to initiate a chargeback on the basis that An Post have taken money on behalf of Revenue, returned item to sender and are ignoring requests for a VAT refund.

"If your goods were delivered by An Post, you must contact An Post directly."

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/buying-of-goods-online-for-personal-use/how-to-claim-a-refund-of-customs-duty-and-value-added-tax-vat.aspx

dave1982

Can anyone tell me why customs clear a package but a post refuses it and just says we will try to return to sender?

Yes I've tried contacting AnPost but not surprisingly no response

dashdoll

How do I explain to a Chinese retailer where to get cn22 cn23 form....can they be printed off online or what's the story? I'm €300 down with my parcel winging it's way back to China. Not sure what to do as don't want him to resend it and same thing to happen again. Wonder would DHL or FedEx etc be any better....an absolute joke. Have we just gone back 50 years.

topnotch

Funny story from America, might be worth a try 😜

https://www.nprillinois.org/generationlisten/2018-05-10/man-allegedly-used-change-of-address-form-to-move-ups-headquarters-to-his-apartment

Hippodrome Song Owl

An Post replying to people up to 8.30 pm on twitter this evening. Maybe there is finally some realisation of the absolute chaos they have created with their shambolic handling of this issue. No chance of them taking any responsibility for trying to solve it though. Still cut and paste and totally unhelpful.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865387#Comment_117865387

I'm not sure myself but might be a good idea, I have have a big Taobao order so asked my shopping service to hold onto to it for a while til I figured stuff out, best I could do, too expensive to go back and forth with

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Was showing this thread to a friend would maybe this help, requesting GDPR requests from An Post about parcels?

https://www.anpost.com/Privacy/Access-Request-Policy

Irlandczyk

For those having these issues (I've now had 2 packages sent back in the space of a week): I'd advise writing to your local counsellor about the issue. Your local counsellor may be able to get this issue in front of Eamon Ryan and David McRedmond and at least have some enquiries made into this.

CollyFlower

An Post has been awarded Company of the Year at the Business & Finance Awards. Only in Ireland could this happen. What a joke... It reminds me of Irish Water when all the bosses were getting bonuses for being incompent!

innuendo141

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865491#Comment_117865491

I noticed a complete change of tone from around 4pm yesterday. The copy and paste "I hope you are safe!" etc messages were gone, and someone else had taken over. I think they realised that the copy and paste responses were adding fuel to the fire so they took a more direct tone and approach yesterday evening.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Pretty sure there was a revenue email shared here gave it a go last night and had a reply this morning. Passed onto An Post even though I showed all my replies from them.

In Response to your email query below, please note that a new importation procedure was introduced at the start of 2021 for non-EU importations.

 

This new system requires the postal carriers to lodge electronic importation declarations on behalf of all non-EU importations. As An Post are the declarant, they are fully responsible for inputting the correct data. Based on the information entered by them into the importation system, a charge, where due, is calculated. An Post then collect the charges.

 

In the event of any missing data or unpaid charges, it is the responsibility of the declarant / An Post to contact you regarding any issues.

 

Customs will only have interaction with parcels if they are selected for inspection. In these cases we contact the consignees directly, should we need further information or issue detention/seizure notices.

 

I have therefore passed your query onto An Post to respond.

PhilHill69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117866301#Comment_117866301

Definitely, I received and can see others received also a much more human response on twitter, A much better approach on their part.

So, apparently the answer I was given regarding their "needs electronic CN23" sticker on parcels that are quite obviously CN22 criteria, is it is not a a matter of whether it is a CN22 or CN23, the electronic data is at fault. Not convinced here. I have had CN22's also returned with stickers saying "Rejected/ failed electronic customs clearance" . Some other seller posted a picture of his returned package yesterday on Twitter with this label attached.

If you post via Royal Mail business account, the electronic data with Taric Codes, prices, weights etc are provided electronically-I asked if there is / has been and breakdown of communication between mailing systems and An Post. I got the reply, not a breakdown but we are all, ourselves and Royal Mail, working under a different set of rules for items coming from outside the EU than we did before July 1

I am currently auditing all parcels that I sent to Ireland from 26 July, to the end of August . I can see approx 50% were delivered successfully, Approx 25% returned and 25% still stuck in Dublin. All parcels were sent using the same Royal Mail system, and many would have had the exact same taric codes, eg. many of my parcels would have contained a "baby hat" . So if the data is incorrect on returned packages, why have other parcels arrived without issue?

Lots of questions on this forum regarding issues from Far East sellers. I busily was looking through my kitchen drawers yesterday looking for any envelopes that I might have bought off ebay, led lights etc that probably came from China. These arrived, when the UK was in EU, in envelopes with usually a white customs form, or their equivalent of one. Sure they never had Taric codes on them. And I am sure the the majority of other EU countries are letting these parcels in, I quickly looked at La Poste twitter page yesterday, to see if it was in the melt down that An Post is, with my limited French I didn't think so. Maybe looking at An Post equivalents in other EU countries is a good idea. But the word seems to be this is only happening at An Post.

Also interesting to see the news spreading on Amazon Seller Forums, I knew it would only be a matter of time.