Item to Austria stuck in Customs 5 Days - Is this usual?

[rose-dee]

Hello all, 

I don't often sell to Europe (outside the U.K.), but I recently sold and shipped a somewhat expensive item (ca. $200) to Austria via Tracked Packet.  It got there within an amazing 4 days, but the tracking has since been showing it stuck in Austrian customs for 5 full days now.  

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has sold and shipped recently to Austria on whether this is normal.  I don't want to alarm my buyer by raising the subject with them directly, at least not yet.  I'm sure my buyer (if they're checking the online tracking) can see the same thing, and for all I know this may be the usual expectation.  

The other explanation, which I really don't want to contemplate at this juncture, is that the buyer is balking at paying the duty/taxes/VAT and has decided not to pick up his parcel.  

I sell mostly to the U.S. and U.K., where Customs transit times are usually less than 2 days, so a 5-day customs delay seems unreasonable.  Have other sellers experienced this in shipping to Austria in particular?

Thanks! 

P.S. I should add that the shipment happened prior to the Paris attacks, so border closures, airport delays, etc. shouldn't have been an issue.  

[momcqueen]

Really! 

I had this exact same scenario play out with an item stuck in German Customs two years ago and while Canada Post opened a ticket for me over the phone, they subsequently closed it about two days later, saying there was nothing to be done until it was 45 days past and please try again.

I would love if this has changed. 

[zee-chan]

Sounds like your buyer is a collector. Hopefully he doesn't mind heading to the customs office himself and sort it out in person. That might be the quickest way to get it.

Good luck!

[rose-dee]

Wooo-hooo!!!  At last, this morning the needle on the Canada Post tracking page has moved!  After being stuck in Austrian Customs for 15 days, it appears my parcel is finally going to be delivered, according to Canada Post: 

"International item is in transit to the delivery office."

Oddly, the Austrian Post site does not yet have this update.  I have to wonder whether this sudden progress was the result of my having started an online "ticket" with Canada Post on Friday, or my buyer's inquiries at his own Post Office.  Whatever -- it's the best news I've had in a week. 

Now I can only hope that the item will arrive in the state in which I packed it, and that the buyer will still be happy with the purchase.  

Then there is that question of "on-time" arrival, which in this case was seriously past the Tracked Packet delivery estimate... 

[momcqueen]

This is where the acceptance scan is so important. If your order got its acceptance scan within your stated handling time, nothing after that matters to ebay as far as on-time metrics are concerned. 

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

This is where the acceptance scan is so important. If your order got its acceptance scan within your stated handling time, nothing after that matters to ebay as far as on-time metrics are concerned. 

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Quite true, 'mj', but you know how much it cost me to send that parcel to Austria?  Holy cow, $53.00 Cdn (for an 800gm parcel).  I lost over $6.00 by upgrading to a tracked service out of my own pocket, and although I'm glad now that I decided to do so at the last minute, I can't afford that very often. 

This is the dilemma of Canadian sellers, who don't have a huge domestic market to rely on, with fast and relatively cheap tracked delivery services, as do our U.S. cousins.  The irony is that we are much better at handling international sales than U.S. sellers are for the most part.  In my view, that should be worth a couple of concessions from eBay on the "on-time delivery" policy from.  (Pie in the sky, I know...)

[momcqueen]

I frequently spend $20 - $30 CAD out-of-pocket to upgrade to Tracked Packet from Small Packet when it looks like there might be trouble with either the destination, timing, or member. On those transactions, I most certainly do not break even, and even lose money, but gain peace of mind. I value my mental health over my bottom-line any day of the year.

I have a Tracked Packet now stuck at Heathrow now for six days and counting. It's not even registering with Royal Mail yet. The delivery standard is tomorrow. I wonder if the acknowledged backlog with parcels getting into France from the UK has a spill-over effect.

At some point later today, tomorrow, or Friday, I am revising all my listings to offer only Tracked Packet outside of Canada until the holidays and/or this political unrest is concluded. I don't want to be worried about the state of my buyer's untraced Christmas toys being hung-up in the mail system. Unfortunately, revising  shipping service also automatically ends all my 874 individual Markdowns which then needs to be manually re-instated and I am just NOT up for that today: I have a massive, throbbing migraine. If I do it today, I will absolutely mess stuff up.