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

O'Prez

I'm in the same boat. Item being returned to sender. This is the second time but this second one included a customs charge which I paid straight away and got the thank you response from An Post saying my package will be now be delivered. Of course it won't. So I emailed Revenue who unlike An Post, actually responded:

"Thanks you for bringing this to our attention, we are aware of ongoing issues a number of people are having regarding parcels being returned to sender by An Post and have been in contact with them relating it.

Regarding your parcel I can see in our system that it the declaration was accepted by customs and the parcel was released into free circulation on the 6th of September. After that though unfortunately I can provide no further information. The parcel is with An Post and customs have no involvement in their processes once an item is cleared by us. You will need to engage with them to get them to deliver your parcel.

Should they fail to deliver your parcel and instead return it to the sender you will need to apply to An Post to get a refund on the Import VAT paid. Only An Post, as the declarant, may amend/invalidate a declaration in order for a refund to be issued. Customs cannot legally change a declaration."

So today I went on to the An Post webchat and actually got through! Behold the response:

"Checking the tracking on the item it seems that due to an electronic error during processing, your item was incorrectly identified as having an unpaid customs charge and as a result has been processed for return to sender. I’m very sorry for the error that has caused this!

Unfortunately, we cannot intercept the item in the returns process and I would advise to contact the sender of the item to arrange that it be forwarded to you again. If you contact ecommchargequery@anpost.ie with your tracking number they will be able to process a refund on the customs charge you have paid for the item.

I’m very sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused you but I hope this information is of some assistance."

So this lengthy response was immediate which leads me to believe it was a copy and paste job and hasn't a ring of truth to it.

hi5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886017#Comment_117886017

Press 'return' after the last digit.

Sparkling Gamorreans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886030#Comment_117886030

Their explanation might actually be correct. It couldn't have had a charge applied to it in the first instance if it wasn't deemed to contain sufficient information to categorise it. What other explanation is there for it being turned back following release? Appalling none the less. Sorry to hear about it.

rf4c

I'm going all out on this now Not just An Post, but the CEO himself.

I need An Post to do their job just like all the other EU Postal Services, but I won't rest until McRedmond himself is held to account.

Currently I'm just finishing submissions to The Dail Committee for Transport and Communications.

I'm also preparing a report to the Gardai for interference of mail. That one will be uphill, but let's see!

I'm also mailing the Irish Times reporter to point out the many omissions mistakes and assumptions he's making. Clearly

he only interviewed An Post, not it's many victims

I'll be looking at a few others when I can wade through the daunting EU websites, but in the meantime here's a list of people I've emailed

with a fair and factual account of the problem, some in Ireland others in the UK. JOIN ME AND ADD WEIGHT TO THE ISSUE:

stories@inews.co.uk

newsdesk@independent.co.uk

tips@dailymail.com

exclusive@the-sun.co.uk

mirrornews@mirror.co.uk

news@dailystar.co.uk

webnews@metro.co.uk

c4investigations@itn.co.uk

itvplanning@itn.co.uk

haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

news@skynews.com

news@examiner.ie

contact@independent.ie

newsdesk@irishtimes.com

info@rte.ie

formula: firstname.surname@rte.ie

info@98fm.com

info@fm104.ie

admin@dublincityfm.ie

info@q102.ie

news@virginmedia.ie

irelandam@virginmedia.ie

grainne.mcguinness@theecho.ie

mark.kavanagh@reachplc.com

editor@businesspost.ie

news@sundayworld.com

live@todayfm.com

patricia@newstalk.com

john.keogh@communicorpmedia.com

louise.denvir@newstalk.com

news@thejournal.ie

maito:editorial@joe.ie

serena@joe.co

news@dublinlive.ie

DAIL COMMITTEES

Gardai

CNN News in the U.S.

Wanderer2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886056#Comment_117886056

Thank you! That worked perfectly.

labrik

I think there should be an amnesty or at least they hold thepackages/parcels for at least a few months until the backlow is sorted out. I offered to to on Joe Duffy. Rang them ater emailing them with no responce. I then listened to programme about silage. They really don't give a **** as they're in the An Post golf club pay master regime. But Irish Times, Irish Mirror. That's where it's at. An Post seem to think they're invincible. I'll be contacting more media as I think it's the only way this is going to be sorted out. BTW, my two cds are back in O hare airport Chicago at the moment. I wonder if they'll be delivere? The seller in the US doesn't know anything about taric codes. This is his second attempt.

Sparkling Gamorreans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886200#Comment_117886200

Tweet the articles with some challenge to Eamon Ryan from a communications and environmental perspective and Leo Varadkar from a trade/business perspective.

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117885981#Comment_117885981

Couldn’t find any that said that, I have the receipt confirming payment and saying they will now deliver. It’s a week ago now and impossible to get in touch with them. 200€ item, 50€ customs. They better put some effort in soon.

rf4c

Worth a shot. I'm not on Twitter but about to chance that! In the meantime I'll try Facebook!

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886901#Comment_117886901

See post from innuendo141 (page 12) and post from O'Prez (page 18). Sorry, can't manage to link to a post on this new site.

I think that's probably the worst possible outcome in this whole debacle - getting as far as being 'allowed' to pay the VAT and still having it returned to sender! I hope it works out for you and it's just delayed.

Sparkling Gamorreans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117886946#Comment_117886946

I'm not even sure how that's possible as they're saying they need the TARIC to categorise the item and ensure the appropriate VAT has been paid for the category.

bottlebrush

I emailed an post customer services this morning and surprisingly got a reply in the afternoon, as follows:

"Thank you for your email, please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your email and for any inconvenience caused by this matter.

 It appears this item will be returned to sender as the declaration made by the sender is insufficient for Customs.

Request the sender to generate a new electronic declaration, complete it fully and return it along with your item to Ireland for delivery."

So I have emailed the supplier to generate a new electronic declaration and will see what happens!

rf4c

I'm still unsure of the safest procedure, particularly this "electronic" declaration.

Does anybody out there know what do I do if I buy from some seller not used to this.

If I could get a form of words to say to the seller "YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE IN ORDER TO SEND THIS ORDER" I'm sure that

would solve a lot. I think most of us would be happy if we could give the seller clear instructions (unlike the whole CN22/CN23 messing An Post is doing!).

Another point is this, and I intend to query the Irish Times about it: An Post gave the IT the idea that the parcels are being delayed and some were being send back. They're trying to cover the fact that they are turning around container loads with no processing whatsoever!

I'm also going to get something going to ask the Irish Times to withdraw their Businessman of the Year Award to An Post CEO David McRedmond. If we could make this message load enough, maybe that would worry him enough to come home from the beach and do something!

deezell

Here's what the new rules require.

The customs form must be filled out electronically at the sending end, that means an electronic captured version of the label is created at the point of despatch, and this is sent in advance to the customs service of the receiving country, so they have all the info in advance to presumably match up to the actual packet tracking code when it arrives. Only commercial goods require a Taric or HS code. I presume commercial means anything purchased, but not gifts, returns, or warranty replacement. There is a €44 exemption value for gifts, but they must still be electronically custom labeled when sent to here, also from here to UK afaik.

I assume items are being returned because the customs labels have not been scanned and sent in advance, or because all the fields required have not been filled in advance, and on the actual label. This data varies by country. Here's non EU into Ireland requirements;

"When sending an item to Ireland you will need to supply complete electronic customs data according to Irish Customs regulations.

The minimum mandatory electronic data that is required is: 

• A valid HS/Tariff Code 
• A valid item description 
• Country of origin 
• Item value 
• Postage, insurance, freight paid 
• Sender name, address details 
• Addressee name, address 
• Packet/parcel weight"

The postage one is tricky, I've not seen this declared separately too often, usually a single value. Previously when buying from non EU I've been requested to pay VAT, but they never accepted the value on the customs label, I always had to submit Ebay or other record of purchase and delivery costs, which they would hit for 23% plus an extra tenner admin fee. I've never paid duty on any packets that were stopped though, but never had anything sent back.

It's not very clear how one achieves this electronic declaration, does it occur when the goods are labelled at the sending end? Is it just a scan of the label? Do you have to do this in the post office of the country of origin? Or buy labels online, filling in the fields which are then sent on once you pay for the label? There doesn't seem to be a system of flagging to a supplier that the info he's filled in is insufficient for the jurisdiction sent to. I presume DHL had sent this info in advance to AnPost/Customs, so it should have been available online when the tracking bar code was scanned. Was it only at that point they declared the info insufficient, though they should have had it electronically on the day of despatch, and could have flagged to the sender that their label had blank or incorrect entries in the label fields. Maybe the goods being returned have no electronic counterpart at all. This electronic thing is a worldwide new requirement since January, so it's not like even the smallest operator would have been ignorant of these requirements. The Thick Plottens as they say.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Some businesses have only returns from Ireland or someone mentioned Spain a few pages back, so the data, tarics ect are enough for the other EU countries but not us, I think that's why most don't think that's the full story.

I was asking towards the start of the thread how the electronic declaration is done like if I have to tell future sellers I need to understand myself.

I'd a notification from a UK based seller that an item was returned to sender and she just processed a refund and told me she's returned item to stock and unfortunately isn't in a position to send it again or accept a fresh order as she was reviewing her situation regarding international shipping.

So, I guess the outcome will be businesses unwilling to ship to Irish addresses, by post anyway.

Danno

Same difficulty with An Post last week. Purchased a £12 on ebay, 15 postage. An Post sent it back. Rang An Post who blamed the sender for not filling out the customs declaration form correctly. Contacted seller, first time they encountered this issue sending stuff to "Eire".

Sickening.

Jayd0g

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117887773#Comment_117887773

This is really useful, thank you for taking the time to put it together.

Can you share your source for the guidance?

I'd like to share it with some non EU sellers when I make a purchase.

Sparkling Gamorreans

FYI people are tweeting about this under #NoPostAnPost . It doesn't have a significant head of steam right now so it's difficult to ascertain how wide an issue it is. I'd recommend anyone disgruntled tweet about it, retweet others and tweet at Eamon Ryan and Leo Varadkar at a minimum.

Pablo_Flox

3 weeks ago I was told on webchat that my package had been returned to the sender in the US. Then today I was emailing them because the sender is getting anxious after not receiving it back and I was told that it was actually still sitting in a warehouse in Greenogue. Apparently they don't even have the capacity to return the volume of stuff that needs to be sent back, so it is just sitting there in purgatory waiting for An Post to get around to returning it!

This is very irritating as the sender has agreed to give me a refund once he receives it back, but An Post have done nothing to get it back to him. It is very annoying that they are returning it, but what is even worse is leave it sitting around for 3 weeks with no timeframe as to when they might actually get around to sending it back. If you are going to return it then just return it so that I can get on with my life!

Sparkling Gamorreans

I actually received a package from China bought on aliexpress today. It didn't have a CN22 or TARIC, just a post NL label stuck over something underneath in Chinese script. I notice I haven't had any Ali packages returned. Are the ones that land in Liege first automatically fine?

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117888507#Comment_117888507

My friend set up the tag, been asking people on here, my IG and FB to post on there using it hoping we'd have a lot of posts together. I'm messaging An Post since August 21st I'm running out of energy on this

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117888845#Comment_117888845

Posts 263 and 264 on Page 9 suggest that returns could be made by surface mail (ships). Probably understandable since the sender only paid for delivery to Ireland, not for return, and An Post would use the cheapest service for returns. This is not a comment on the rights or wrongs of what An Post are doing, just for your information.

cnocbui

Perhaps if a hundred or so people drove to the largest mail sorting facility in the country and parked their cars so the road was totally blocked, locked them, and went away for a day, something might be done to fix this.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117888480#Comment_117888480

https://www.anpost.com/customs-information

New ploy on behalf of An Post today.

Last week they told me my package was being returned to Japan, awaiting availability of space on either a plane or freight.

Okay, I thought. At least I can get it reshipping with FEDEX once it gets returned to Japan.

In the interim, my package has been scanned SIX times by An Post, but no change in the tracking.

Today they've backtracked and told me the same package is "still with customs I'm afraid, and we are waiting for them to hand it back to us for it to be processed depending on if they were able to successfully clear the item or not".

But hold on - you told me last week, it was not cleared by customs and awaiting return. ' So where the hell is my package?

But there's more!!

Now they want me to contact the seller "as the contract of posting is with them and have them open a formal enquiry with the service that they used to send the item, and this will have an investigation opened and sent to us to carry out on your behalf"

I CALL BULLSHIT.

This is their new ploy, claim the item is LOST so they don't have to go to the bother of returning it. Its probably been tossed in a skip somewhere.

Absolutely furious, doesn't describe the rage I feel today - and now they want me to waste the seller and Japan Post's time to open some bullshit "investigation" when we already know the package got here and they HAVE it. They've scanned it six times in the last **** week!

deezell

Or how about this email alert, if you set up an alert on AnPost tracking.

" Dear Customer,

Thank you for using the An Post email notification service.

Further to your request for email notification on the following item of mail: RX 17######5 DE

We can confirm that the item was delivered on 06-Sep-2021 09:45."

The absolute gall of this message, when the item was returned weeks earlier. If you just accepted the AnPost tracking, you wouldn't even know your item had be returned, you'd assume it had been nicked by the postman. The delivery they're referring to of course is the successful return of the item, not to your supplier, but to the last carrier before AnPost. DHL warehouse in Germany, forwarding service in Sweden, who knows. You might never get a refund.

Jayd0g

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117889427#Comment_117889427

Thanks!

For others, it's right down the botyom, under heading "What do I need to do when sending an item to Ireland? "

deliriousmoonbeam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117889483#Comment_117889483

My sender in Japan has received one parcel back - enough to leave them scratching their heads as all the forms and declarations are present and correct despite a sticker saying it isn't.

My other two are stuck waiting to be returned as they've no space currently available. AN POST WILL NOT DEAL WITH THE SENDER. They have sent in queries and been given the same copy/paste that I have, with links to the website. I gave them every email from ecommerce to revenue support just in case. They are now trying to go through Japan Post for clarification, hoping they make more progress navigating the madness.

I actually screamed.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117890027#Comment_117890027

I just gave in on my Buyee parcel that was returned and sent it with FedEx instead since the last one was grand was €31.08 for 1520g if that's any help.

Fees after it arrive will be killer but just can't see this clearing up soon and want my stuff