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

Hold on! WE didn't put the onus on An Post, we don't know who did! In any event, Customs are the barrier that importers must cross to receive their shipments.

How the division of responsibilites is met is between them both. Personally I think it's asinine for An Post to even play a part in making decisions about complex customs rules? how that happened is the question!

Pre-EU there was a simple system that would work today and even more efficiently due to advances in emails and such like.

The documentation was sent by the shipper (nowadays by email) in advance to the importer. The importer then filled out customs forms

(nowadays by email) giving all the details of the shipment including tariff codes (free to look up on the web). If you had everything correct, your shipment was released and if not it was a rejected declaration which triggered a fee and a few days notice of extra fees for storage. That was your incentive to get it right!

I still believe there is a hidden / unknown factor in play.

An Post is handling the Customs declarations which it's making a complete thrash of, and when queried, either ignore the query or give a useless and unhelpful answer after several days to several weeks if answered at all.

Customs, at least in my experience have answered helpfully and promptly, but always end with a comment that implies that their hands are tied.

We need to know by whom and why!

And DPD Parcel Wizard and also parcel motel( I think) stopped doing UK deliveries.

I guess because they couldn't, or didn't want to deal with the clusterf*ck.

An post seem to have got landed with it.

Likewise with all the tat that was Freepost from China.

Didn't seem to be too many complaining about carbon footprint then.

I doubt the volume has changed recently. what has changed is that all parcels are now liable to vat instead of only those over €26 as previously. Plus the fee that An Post receive for processing customs has been reduced from €10 to €3.50.

That's a situation I didn't realise!

I read a lot of people suggesting buying within the EU.

That's all well and good. My own shopping habit is to start with Irish companies and at least try to buy here. Afterall it's our kids and grandkids who

will need these businesses to give them jobs! It can be hard sometimes though!

Having said that the EU is great unless the product you want is specifically British, as it is in my case being an expat Brit looking for the

stuff I used to know!!

I sent mine there, bit busy tomorrow.

Thats part of the problem - Royal Mail are indicating that a CN22/23 label is sufficient when its not.

A message on the An Post site 06 Oct. I note the phrase "must be returned". They also say they are working their way through a backlog.

My item has been returned to sender

If your item has been returned to sender or you are awaiting an update on your item, it is likely that the electronic customs declaration made by the retailer/sender for your item may have been insufficient or invalid according to Customs regulations. An Post cannot amend customs declaration so items with incomplete data must be returned. 

My item which cos me €220 has arrived back to the sender in China after initially arriving in the An Post sorting centre in Portlaoise on August 10th. Does anyone know how the hell to get this to me without it being rejected again? I've been following the thread but totally confused as to how to get it though or maybe I should just pay up and go DHL? Any advice would be very welcomed.

There's no certain way to get non EU packets past AnPost. The only alternative is to use door to door couriers, like FedEx, at great cost.

AnPost state this on that previous link;

An Post cannot amend customs declaration so items with incomplete data must be returned

If they can't amend, who can? Surely it's possible to amend something online or by email? They had no problem accepting screen grabs of invoices from ebay when determining value for VAT, it would be trivial to request a change of Taric no. Here's the joke. They have a web tool to convert 6 digit to 10! They could do it automatically. It's insane, electronic data use brings with it the opportunity to interactively amend and correct. AnPost are acting like it's the 18th century, and even back then you would probably get your goods eventually.

I've since had a response

Hi Deck, thank you for your response. according to the customs system, it has since been update that it contains failed electronic data, meaning it will begin the process of being returned to sender. I sincerely apologise for providing conflicting information, the customs status of this item has only updated after my previous DM and will completely understand the frustration of this. So I would advise that you do not pay the customs charge attached, and to contact the sender of this item to organise a reissue of this item or a refund. Apologies again.

-Megan

I received the payment notice a week ago, and after several messages confirming the item wouldnt be returned I get this (as I expected).

Welp, the parcel I ordered in August from Japan finally arrived back in Japan yesterday. An Post never contacted me or attempted delivery at any point. It got to Portloaise, the last stop before it gets delivered to me the next day, but instead was in Heathrow the next day on it's way back to Japan.

Japanese company is refusing to refund the €30 I paid for shipping, they said An Post put a "unclaimed" sticker on the parcel, meaning "the shipment remained unclaimed by me past its retention period" which it didn't. An Post no help, giving me the same stock answer as everyone else, claiming sender sent with parcel with "missing electronic data".

I'm ab-so-****ing-lutely FUMING.

My package shows a similar state to yours, almost down to the dates and times. Here's hoping they make it through 🙄