USPS Priority Mail Tracking Help

[Dumars2001 | 164]

I often buy things from the states and have them shipped to Taiwan without a problem. I check the tracking number once in awhile to see the parcel's progress (USPS Priority Airmail with full tracking), but it has said the following below since July 9th (I know not a long time) but I am perplexed by the last update saying Customs Clearance. Mind you, that this is for an outbound package and in all the years of buying stuff from the states (literally hundreds of packages), I have never seen the words "Held in Customs" or Customs Clearance when I check the tracking number for an outbound package. Does this mean that it is still being held in customs or it has been cleared? And if it has been cleared, why no more updates since July 9th?

Has anyone else ever experienced this? Do you think that it is currently being held in Customs and if yes, why? Is thus normal? Any past experience or information would be greatly appreciated. thanks. Anyways, here is what the tracking says below:

Tracking History

July 9, 2021, 10:24 am 
Customs Clearance 
ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)  
Your item is being processed through a facility in ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) at 10:24 am on July 9, 2021. 

---

Held in US Customs 

---

July 8, 2021 
In Transit to Next Facility 

---

July 7, 2021, 6:03 pm 
Departed Post Office 
WESTWOOD, NJ 07675  

---

July 7, 2021, 12:43 pm 
USPS in possession of item 
WESTWOOD, NJ 07675  

---

July 3, 2021, 3:50 pm 
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item 
WESTWOOD, NJ 07675  

Edited July 13, 2021 by Dumars2001

[a3quit4s | 4,126]

It's normal for stuff to get hung up there for a couple days to a couple weeks. I have had a few things get stuck there and at the other one where things from Canada come from.

Edit: skimmed and missed the held in customs part, no experience there, sorry! 

Edited July 13, 2021 by a3quit4s

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

You'll get another tracking update when it clears customs (something like Customs Outbound).

I haven't seen "Held in Customs" before personally, but they may have recently added that so people aren't expecting it to move within a day or so.

[Tulpa | 3,537]

15 hours ago, Dumars2001 said:

Has anyone else ever experienced this? Do you think that it is currently being held in Customs and if yes, why? Is thus normal?

It's still being held. Customs Clearance is the process.

As to why, it could be any number of reasons. It could be just slow, or it could be something about the package made them take a harder look.

[twiztor | 855]

I've noticed it a lot more in the last 6mo-1year than previously. I'm seeing it on incoming, as i don't ship internationally, but i imagine the same thing is happening for outgoing. 

When i see customs involved, i add 1-2 weeks before delivery. Nothing you can do but wait. I haven't had anything damaged but it has always eventually delivered.

[Scrobins | 1,729]

USPS lawyer here, if after a month has passed (just a recommended timeline) and it hasn’t moved, go onto the website and open an investigation into the tracking number. If no progress is made after a couple of weeks look up the customer service phone number and call them to follow up.

I know it’s frustrating and I’m not in a hurry to defend my agency, but I had an incoming package to the States get stuck in customs and this is what I did to successfully dislodge it.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

After having a package from Taiwan hit the dumpster fire of an office at Chicago O'Hare for customs maybe I should have tried to call that in as it was rotting there for nearly a month.   Yet a couple weeks later, got something in from Europe, from day of handoff there to my box here was a week for standard mail, but it went through another customs location.

 

Both packages for from Taiwan went through the one, each just rotted for 3-4 weeks.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

ok guys, first of all, thank you all so much for taking your time to post here and let me know about your past experiences and suggestions.

Here is the latest information that I was able to gather by calling the USPS hot line (from here in Taiwan). in the past 2 days, I have made a total of 4 calls to the hotline.

Call #1: The lady checks the tracking number and tells me that it is being held in customs and she is seeing something that says Taiwan is the reason it is being held up, because it is valued at over $1,000 USD and I need to obtain some kind of license for them to release it. Mind you, I am in Taiwan and this package is being held in a New York Customs facility!! So, I am like what?! How can this be? but she says that is the information she has, so I politely thank her and tell my Taiwanese wife about what was said, so she calls Taiwan Customs and they tell her that is impossible, that they have never heard of something like that happening and I would only possibly run into an issue of this nature, when/if it arrived into Taiwan and its customs.

(so I decide to call USPS again) Every time you have to go through a long process/time to finally reach a live person to talk with.

Call #2: I call and this time the agent tells me that the package has cleared customs and that sometimes workers forget to scan it, or it could still be waiting to be moved to its next destination, or it could possibly just show up in Taiwan in a few days. Now, I am thinking Ok, that is great news to hear that it is at least out of customs. Just to be sure, I asked her about it clearing customs a few times, and she told me 100% that it is out of customs.

(After reading stuff about this issue online/forums, I decided that I neeed to call again for my own peace of mind)

Call #3:  I call again and don't tell the lady/agent that I had previously called and go through the whole process again with her. Now I kid you not, she once again says that it is being held in customs. I ask are you sure and she says, 100% yes, it is showing that it is being held in customs still! 

(I always ask each agent questions, like why is it being held? when might it be released?  How long? etc, but every time they tell me that they are a different agency (USPS) than US Customs and that I would need to call them to ask, so I get the International Customs phone number for the International Mail department at JFK airport and call them. They promptly tell me that they don't have any information and that I need to contact USPS! Just getting misinformation and the run-arounds!)

So, I wake up early this morning and think, what the heck, I m going t call USPS again, because all the misinformation is really bugging me.

Call #4 (Just a few minutes ago) I call, wait forever and once again a lady picks up. This time I tell the lady, that  that I have already called them (I only said 2 times though) and informed her that I have been told that my package was in customs and have been told that it is out of customs. Well, she takes a look, even puts me on hold for awhile and finally comes back and tells me that she doesn't know if the package is in or out of Customs! Sigh...... I will say that every agent was extremely polite and patient, but I am more confused/dumbfounded than ever now and don't know what to do.

It is so frustrating not knowing. I did contact the vendor and he is looking into it also. The item that I bought was a vintage Starwars toy priced at $3,000 USD. I don't know if the value makes any difference, but I do know that the full value was declared and that I have bought things for more then $3,000 in the past without an issue. any more suggestions on this matter would be greatly appreciated. 

I am very sorry for the word salad and once again thank you guys for your help/suggestions.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Dumars2001

[Dumars2001 | 164]

On 7/14/2021 at 12:36 AM, Scrobins said:

USPS lawyer here, if after a month has passed (just a recommended timeline) and it hasn’t moved, go onto the website and open an investigation into the tracking number. If no progress is made after a couple of weeks look up the customer service phone number and call them to follow up.

I know it’s frustrating and I’m not in a hurry to defend my agency, but I had an incoming package to the States get stuck in customs and this is what I did to successfully dislodge it.

hi, great to know that we have a USPS lawyer on this forum. The difference here, is that the package in question is leaving the Untied States, so why would customs hold it for so long? from your experiences, have you heard of a case similar to mine? like I said, it was valued at $3000 USD, could this be the problem? but like I said, I have bought a ton of things from the states for an amount more than $3000 and never had an issue, especially when using USPS. I have had to pay big customs taxes for expensive items I purchased when using Fedex, DHL, etc, but never had one single problem with USPS and I have literally had hundreds of packages sent to me from the states over the years. Thanks again for your suggestions and taking your time to chime in here. I greatly appreciate it.

[twiztor | 855]

20 minutes ago, Dumars2001 said:

Here is the latest information that I was able to gather by calling the USPS hot line. Every time you have to go through a long process/time to finally reach a live person to talk with.

from my experience,  the phone agents never have any more information than you can get by using their website. in the past 6 months, i have opened multiple missing package claims and never received a single update, response, or solution. beyond frustrating, especially after being on hold for an hour plus.

you may try contacting the actual post office where the last scan took place. i've had slightly more success there, but once customs get involved it's unlikely you'll be able to get a solid answer.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

5 minutes ago, twiztor said:

from my experience,  the phone agents never have any more information than you can get by using their website. in the past 6 months, i have opened multiple missing package claims and never received a single update, response, or solution. beyond frustrating, especially after being on hold for an hour plus.

you may try contacting the actual post office where the last scan took place. i've had slightly more success there, but once customs get involved it's unlikely you'll be able to get a solid answer.

thanks. yeah, maybe I could try to figure out the actual number to the post office that it is being held at in New York (assuming it is out of Customs). just so frustrating and then not knowing if it is or isn't in Customs!

[Dumars2001 | 164]

Does anyone know a worst case scenario here? I paid by credit card and not through PayPal or Ebay, so if I never receive it, and the vendor wouldn't refund, could I do a credit card chargeback for something like this?

 

[Tulpa | 3,537]

11 minutes ago, Dumars2001 said:

Does anyone know a worst case scenario here?

If the seller put actual contraband in the package, it's gone forever, but you probably wouldn't want it anyway.

Absent that, they'll send it on its way eventually. When that will be is pretty much anyone's guess. They're not beholden to any timetable I'm aware of, and short of spending money on legal counsel to look into it, I don't know of any way to grease the wheels.

edit: They could also lose the package as well, but that can happen with any shipping situation.

Was there any insurance on the package?

Edited July 15, 2021 by Tulpa

[Scrobins | 1,729]

2 hours ago, Dumars2001 said:

hi, great to know that we have a USPS lawyer on this forum. The difference here, is that the package in question is leaving the Untied States, so why would customs hold it for so long? from your experiences, have you heard of a case similar to mine? like I said, it was valued at $3000 USD, could this be the problem? but like I said, I have bought a ton of things from the states for an amount more than $3000 and never had an issue, especially when using USPS. I have had to pay big customs taxes for expensive items I purchased when using Fedex, DHL, etc, but never had one single problem with USPS and I have literally had hundreds of packages sent to me from the states over the years. Thanks again for your suggestions and taking your time to chime in here. I greatly appreciate it.

My day to day work for the USPS doesn’t touch on these sorts of issues so my ability to weigh in is somewhat limited. However, and this isn’t news to anyone, but it has affected us more than people realize, the pandemic and the ensuing employee unavailability has made processing difficult across the board. I recently had my own issue with a package stuck in customs in Chicago after it arrived for Sweden. It was definitely there, just forgotten. Sometimes it’s just hectic and people move the most recent packages that come in, meaning something that was forgotten before will not be prioritized again and again. What worked for me was opening an investigation, which was closed without telling me anything, then calling the hotline and asking for an update. The person I spoke with said it was weird the investigation was closed without any notes, reopened it for me, and that seemed to dislodge it.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

6 minutes ago, Scrobins said:

My day to day work for the USPS doesn’t touch on these sorts of issues so my ability to weigh in is somewhat limited. However, and this isn’t news to anyone, but it has affected us more than people realize, the pandemic and the ensuing employee unavailability has made processing difficult across the board. I recently had my own issue with a package stuck in customs in Chicago after it arrived for Sweden. It was definitely there, just forgotten. Sometimes it’s just hectic and people move the most recent packages that come in, meaning something that was forgotten before will not be prioritized again and again. What worked for me was opening an investigation, which was closed without telling me anything, then calling the hotline and asking for an update. The person I spoke with said it was weird the investigation was closed without any notes, reopened it for me, and that seemed to dislodge it.

Thank you for sharing your insight and experiences.

Ok, I think that I will go ahead and open an investigation or contact the seller to open one. It is strange, that I am much more worried than the seller (I have contacted the seller already and he is also looking into it, but he doesn't seem stressed about this at all, just judging from our back and fourth email communication), but we all deal with things differently and have different levels of anxiety. 

Thanks again for taking your time to try to help and offer your suggestions. I really do appreciate it.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

I wouldn't be particularly troubled, it'll likely show up at some point. Of the hundreds or thousands of parcels I've ordered from abroad whilst living in Taiwan, only one was lost, ever, and it's likely it was held up in customs (on the sender's side) due to Covid-19 and would have eventually been sent back to the sender, though with all of the rioting and stuff going on in South Africa, it honestly could be gone for good

i had a parcel that my parents sent me, it was either for Christmas or for my birthday. It was shown to be delivered on the USPS side, the Chunghwa Post side showed that it was in customs up north. My mother and I both spoke with people at the respective post offices, well the guys at Chunghwa were right, the USPS was wrong.

If I've learned anything while living here, it's that if there's an issue, it's ALWAYS going to be on the USPS side, period. Generally, at worst, it will cause delays but eventually things should sort themselves out.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

6 hours ago, fcgamer said:

I wouldn't be particularly troubled, it'll likely show up at some point. Of the hundreds or thousands of parcels I've ordered from abroad whilst living in Taiwan, only one was lost, ever, and it's likely it was held up in customs (on the sender's side) due to Covid-19 and would have eventually been sent back to the sender, though with all of the rioting and stuff going on in South Africa, it honestly could be gone for good

i had a parcel that my parents sent me, it was either for Christmas or for my birthday. It was shown to be delivered on the USPS side, the Chunghwa Post side showed that it was in customs up north. My mother and I both spoke with people at the respective post offices, well the guys at Chunghwa were right, the USPS was wrong.

If I've learned anything while living here, it's that if there's an issue, it's ALWAYS going to be on the USPS side, period. Generally, at worst, it will cause delays but eventually things should sort themselves out.

Thanks fcgamer for sharing your experiences. Hopefully it does still come through, just perplexed as why it isn't moving out of US Customs for so long, but like you said, patience is the key. Much appreciation to my Taiwan Brother!