Taiwangun Shipping Disruption (Brexit Related Content)

[LlamaTheMighty]

1 hour ago, r00k3h said:

Thanks, I will just buy from the UK instead.

Really wish I'd done this a month and a half ago. What I wanted wasn't in stock but I'd have just got an alternative if I'd have known how bad it was. My parcel is still in Stanford Le Hope and I've given up on seeing it. UPS are blaming TaiwanGun now.

 

(Copied reply from UPS) Hi Andy, upon checking your tracking records, I was able to see that a document inspection is required, I would recommend you to contact your direct sender, so they can address this matter directly with us, thanks. -Henry

 

I've sent the firearms form back to UPS weeks ago, resent it recently when emailing them so they aren't waiting for any forms off me. Paid the fees and now it's just sitting and waiting along with all the others. I've emailed TG with the UPS reply to ask if there's any way I can help or anything we can do, I didn't get a reply.

 

Now just keeping everything documented incase I need to involve PayPal at some point.

[alxndrhll]

I've been importing various airsoft things from all over the globe for years, this is absolutely a first. I'm am so wildly confused by both how this is at all necessary, and which stage of import my order is actually at. Tracking seemed to suggest all the customs stuff was out of the way and I'm awaiting it to head to my local depot and out to me, would appear to not be the case. Very much looking forward to receiving what I'll assume at this point is a ravaged parcel with shit all over the place. Wonderful.

 

 

Not that it changes my thoughts on how dumb this is, but the things they wanted to see links for are the RIF itself, an enchanced AK safety lever and some AK midcaps. I can only assume it's been ripped open and they want to get a better idea of what the things in it are. Intrigued to see how this plays out.

Edited March 18, 2021 by alxndrhll

[Asomodai]

Lots of movement on my package. In the last 24 hours it cleared Poland, into Germany and straight back out to Stanford-le-hope. 

 

I now have these two messages with "Awaiting clearance" as the heading. To me it appears the messages are out of sequence. Otherwise, is the clearance agency different to customs agency?

 

In Transit	18/03/2021 14:21	Stanford Le Hope, United Kingdom	Your package may be delayed due to a required document inspection by the clearing agency.
		18/03/2021 14:21	-	Your parcel was released by the customs agency.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Asomodai

[Piman]

Mine has gone through clearing and customs both in Poland and at Stanford Le Hope. Since then it has done nothing for days at SLH. The other was cleared in Poland but awaiting clearance at SLH, again for days. It seems to go through clearance both leaving Poland and entering the UK. This may also require a customs inspection which is usually part of the clearance procedure.

 

James

[Piman]

Well this is great and encouraging news. So my second shipment has not had an update for over a week so I called UPS. They have now suggested I raise a investigation request so they can start looking for it. Why the hell do I need to ask them to look for it.... They should not need me to ask them. I can't imagine how I will feel if they have lost it.

[FreeFrag.UK]

Admittedly there are various bits I'm looking at ordering (a full new set of magazines being one) but given all the Brexit issues I guess I'll be waiting for it all to settle down a bit more.

 

Fingers crossed people get their stuff ASAP.

[Piman]

UPS support really are getting very deceitful. After just speaking to them further I put forward that I wanted to take my issue and complaint further and was given their 'customer support' email.

 

To my surprise (perhaps I should not have been) I got an automated reply stating that this email is "not monitored or received".

 

I have found another contact email address online and will see if that works.

 

[LlamaTheMighty]

18 minutes ago, Piman said:

 

I have found another contact email address online and will see if that works.

 

If you find an address that gets through, I'll happily email and add another voice. I've been trying every avenue I can but not getting anywhere either.

[Piman]

Try this:

 

[email protected]

 

I have had an automated reply to this but it is with a case number and a statement that it they will work to address my request.

 

James

[EvilMonkee]

2 hours ago, Asomodai said:

Lots of movement on my package. In the last 24 hours it cleared Poland, into Germany and straight back out to Stanford-le-hope. 

 

I now have these two messages with "Awaiting clearance" as the heading. To me it appears the messages are out of sequence. Otherwise, is the clearance agency different to customs agency?

 

In Transit	18/03/2021 14:21	Stanford Le Hope, United Kingdom	Your package may be delayed due to a required document inspection by the clearing agency.
		18/03/2021 14:21	-	Your parcel was released by the customs agency.

 

Usually their bullshit Firearms Form.  They are the customs/clearance agency.

[Asomodai]

4 minutes ago, EvilMonkee said:

 

Usually their bullshit Firearms Form.  They are the customs/clearance agency.

Already filled that in and sent it back 2 weeks ago. 

[r00k3h]

5 hours ago, FreeFrag.UK said:

Admittedly there are various bits I'm looking at ordering (a full new set of magazines being one) but given all the Brexit issues I guess I'll be waiting for it all to settle down a bit more.

 

Fingers crossed people get their stuff ASAP.

I just went for UK for my stuff, ordered it this morning for click and collect, picked it up this afternoon after work. Yes I may have spent a bit more on what I was going to get but I don’t have the hassle of UPS and customs 

[RebelScum]

9 hours ago, alxndrhll said:

I've been importing various airsoft things from all over the globe for years, this is absolutely a first. I'm am so wildly confused by both how this is at all necessary, and which stage of import my order is actually at. Tracking seemed to suggest all the customs stuff was out of the way and I'm awaiting it to head to my local depot and out to me, would appear to not be the case. Very much looking forward to receiving what I'll assume at this point is a ravaged parcel with shit all over the place. Wonderful.

 

 

Not that it changes my thoughts on how dumb this is, but the things they wanted to see links for are the RIF itself, an enchanced AK safety lever and some AK midcaps. I can only assume it's been ripped open and they want to get a better idea of what the things in it are. Intrigued to see how this plays out.

I'm sorry, but the way that UPS have phrased this is very misleading.  If Customs (e.g. Border Force) were in any way unsure as to what they were looking during an examination they have two options.  Detain the items, and directly contact the importer (e.g. you), or seize the goods and send you a seizure notice.  I think you need to remember if Border Force conducted an examination and didn't consider it to be a RIF it would either be cleared as a legitimate import (in whatever category they thought it fitted), or seized as a prohibition (e.g. as an unlicenced firearm).  They wouldn't contact the courier company for screenshots and internet links.

 

What this sounds like is that the brokerage department in UPS (e.g. their Customs agents who are clearing this through the border on behalf of TaiwanGun) don't understand the description on the invoice they are looking at, and therefore are struggling to fill in the tariff information.  From comments made elsewhere it apparent that UPS are really struggling with import tariffs rules, applying them when they shouldn't be and making other basic errors.  They operate in a very secretive way and getting a breakdown of how the tariff has been applied is nigh impossible.  Ironically a lot of this work can be done retrospectively, if the brokerage department had a clue what they were doing.

[alxndrhll]

5 minutes ago, RebelScum said:

I'm sorry, but the way that UPS have phrased this is very misleading.  If Customs (e.g. Border Force) were in any way unsure as to what they were looking during an examination they have two options.  Detain the items, and directly contact the importer (e.g. you), or seize the goods and send you a seizure notice.  I think you need to remember if Border Force conducted an examination and didn't consider it to be a RIF it would either be cleared as a legitimate import (in whatever category they thought it fitted), or seized as a prohibition (e.g. as an unlicenced firearm).  They wouldn't contact the courier company for screenshots and internet links.

 

What this sounds like is that the brokerage department in UPS (e.g. their Customs agents who are clearing this through the border on behalf of TaiwanGun) don't understand the description on the invoice they are looking at, and therefore are struggling to fill in the tariff information.  From comments made elsewhere it apparent that UPS are really struggling with import tariffs rules, applying them when they shouldn't be and making other basic errors.  They operate in a very secretive way and getting a breakdown of how the tariff has been applied is nigh impossible.  Ironically a lot of this work can be done retrospectively, if the brokerage department had a clue what they were doing.

 

By tariffs I'm assuming you mean the customs charges? Assuming that's the case it's even more puzzling, given I paid them a week or so ago 🤣.

[RebelScum]

6 hours ago, Piman said:

Well this is great and encouraging news. So my second shipment has not had an update for over a week so I called UPS. They have now suggested I raise a investigation request so they can start looking for it. Why the hell do I need to ask them to look for it.... They should not need me to ask them. I can't imagine how I will feel if they have lost it.

I wouldn't bother.  You are the customer.  TG are the retailer.  Your relationship in this matter is with TG, not with UPS, and let's face it, all the evidence suggests that UPS investigations go nowhere.  You'd be far better off raising this with TG as I did again today.  I have asked what TG are going to do to get this shipment to me given 30+ days have now passed, and this beyond the timescale of what is considered reasonable for distance selling in both the EU and the UK.  I'll give them a week and then if they don't respond I'll simply dispute the payment.  PayPal will then give TG time to respond.  They should be able to prove it was sent, but I can prove that it's not arrived in a reasonable timescale.  Then PayPal will adjudicate.  Then I'll dispute the duty and VAT payment made to UPS, given they've failed to import the parcel through the border.  Given UPS are such a shambles I suspect they won't be capable of responding to this.

 

 

14 minutes ago, alxndrhll said:

 

By tariffs I'm assuming you mean the customs charges? Assuming that's the case it's even more puzzling, given I paid them a week or so ago 🤣.

Yup.  Me too.  I paid two weeks ago.  They will have accepted the value on the invoice and applied VAT and a flat rate of duty, not that you'd actually know what this was because they won't break down the percentages applied in their invoice.  It's very opaque and you won't get anyone in UPS to tell you what the money you paid was for.  Luckily duty rates are quite low for most imports, and it's the VAT that makes up most of the costs.  Anyway now their brokerage department has to apply the tariff codes and I bet they've no idea what they are for some items.

 

Just for information (and to show people what I mean by tariff administration), this is what I was sent by DHL recently.  They simply wanted to confirm the declaration made on the invoice was OK, given it was partially written in Cyrillic.  I confirmed it was clothing by email and they applied the necessary part of the tariff:

 

 

Note the bit about DHL being the agent for submitting the importation declaration.  This took approximately 4 hours to clear, with a 5 minute phone call, just as a comparison.

Edited March 19, 2021 by RebelScum
Additional info

[L3wisD]

Definitely starting to think mine is lost now. No activity for a few days:

 

[Piman]

44 minutes ago, L3wisD said:

Definitely starting to think mine is lost now. No activity for a few days:

 

 

I have had no movement or update on one package at SLH in 8 days and just been told it is just due to a backlog. On my second UPS claim they need the commercial invoice. This was already provided to them 3 weeks ago. Their incompetence is astounding. Both shipments have now been with UPS for over a month.

 

In the meantime I have also been chasing Taiwangun. After my first many weeks ago they just asked me to wait as it was a issue of delays with UPS. Since then I have had no response to my emails to them.

[kasaran]

1 hour ago, L3wisD said:

Definitely starting to think mine is lost now. No activity for a few days:

 

mines the same, but i was told they scan them every 3 days, so i guess we should at somepoint today get another 'import scan'

[Laserhawk]

18 hours ago, Piman said:

Well this is great and encouraging news. So my second shipment has not had an update for over a week so I called UPS. They have now suggested I raise a investigation request so they can start looking for it. Why the hell do I need to ask them to look for it.... They should not need me to ask them. I can't imagine how I will feel if they have lost it.

Same here, had an email this morning saying I can now open a dispute with the shipper.  Its not the shipper I'm blaming, its you incompetent idiots!! SMH 

2 hours ago, L3wisD said:

Definitely starting to think mine is lost now. No activity for a few days:

 

 

Same here

[SilentSparky]

Just had an update alert, something different from the usual Warehouse scan and "Held" status:

 

[Laserhawk]

Oooh the irony.  I lodge a complaint stating that the parcel is lost, and look what happens....interesting.

[FreeFrag.UK]

14 hours ago, r00k3h said:

I just went for UK for my stuff, ordered it this morning for click and collect, picked it up this afternoon after work. Yes I may have spent a bit more on what I was going to get but I don’t have the hassle of UPS and customs 

 

Unfortunately product availability in the UK is hit and miss at the best of times. Let alone inflated prices for many products.

[Piman]

11 minutes ago, FreeFrag.UK said:

 

Unfortunately product availability in the UK is hit and miss at the best of times. Let alone inflated prices for many products.

Agreed. The vast majority of my order is just not available in the UK.

[DRay]

Sounds like it would be easier to hire a van, drive to Poland, load it up with stuff and drive it back to the UK...

[Adolf Hamster]

55 minutes ago, DRay said:

Sounds like it would be easier to hire a van, drive to Poland, load it up with stuff and drive it back to the UK...

 

i heard road trip!