Parcel stuck at Heathrow DC

FujiLove

FujiLove

Messages
3,903
Edit My Images
No
I ordered a couple of camera straps from Portugal before Christmas. They arrived in the UK in a couple of days, but have been stuck at the Heathrow Distribution Centre since 29th December. Twelve days seems to be a long time for something to be stuck in customs particularly as it's from an EU country with no VAT or duty to pay. Is this normal? Anyone else had this happen?

During that same period, I ordered a lens from Japan which arrived, cleared customs, cleared the Parcelforce duty and VAT payment and was delivered three days ago!
 
How do you know they're stuck in customs rather than lost further on?
 
The only way it could be a customs issue is if the person you bought from in Portugal ordered it themselves from a non EU country.
Its stop in Portugal could then be classed as only an "in transit" stop.
 
srichards said:
How do you know they're stuck in customs rather than lost further on?
Click to expand...

I'm just going off what the Royal Mail tracker is telling me. It says:

STATUS: ARRIVED IN THE UK
TRACK POINT: HEATHROW WORLDWIDE DC

The Distribution Centre apparently means the bit before it's passed onto the Royal Mail. Someone on another forum said there's nothing Royal Mail can do until it's released from the DC, so no idea where to go from here. o_O
 
If it's an issue with customs clearance then the Heathrow DC will send you a C87 notice requiring you to complete and return a C88A form. You should receive the C87 within a week or so.

The C88A form is the most incredibly opaque official form I've ever come across. The first time I had one, it took me about the equivalent of three full days of work (internet research, phone calls to various bits of HMRC, tracking down obscure customs tariff documents, etc) spread over about two weeks before I had it ready to send in.

But I didn't get it right. Oh no. I was told there's an error in box 14. More research and calls to HMRC. Resubmit. There's an error in box 27. Research, resubmit. There's an error in box 28. Research, resubmit. There's an error in box 44. And so on. If it hadn't been a £2000 lens in the parcel, I really don't think I'd have bothered.

These days I have a template so that I can get 90% of it right without having to think too much. If you have to complete a C88A, get in touch and I may be able to help you understand it.
 
Wait, until the maximum time for delivery has passed and claim. Your straps will either eventually make it out of the DC or they're stuck to the bottom of some crate on the way to Timbuktu.
 
StewartR said:
If it's an issue with customs clearance then the Heathrow DC will send you a C87 notice requiring you to complete and return a C88A form. You should receive the C87 within a week or so.

The C88A form is the most incredibly opaque official form I've ever come across. The first time I had one, it took me about the equivalent of three full days of work (internet research, phone calls to various bits of HMRC, tracking down obscure customs tariff documents, etc) spread over about two weeks before I had it ready to send in.

But I didn't get it right. Oh no. I was told there's an error in box 14. More research and calls to HMRC. Resubmit. There's an error in box 27. Research, resubmit. There's an error in box 28. Research, resubmit. There's an error in box 44. And so on. If it hadn't been a £2000 lens in the parcel, I really don't think I'd have bothered.

These days I have a template so that I can get 90% of it right without having to think too much. If you have to complete a C88A, get in touch and I may be able to help you understand it.
Click to expand...

Thanks Stewart. I really hope I won't have to tackle that as it's only coming from Portugal, so I wouldn't have thought there would be much of a customs issue. I contacted the sender yesterday and they said the delivery target is up to 15 days - which is today - so they can chase it tomorrow.
 
Steep said:
Wait, until the maximum time for delivery has passed and claim. Your straps will either eventually make it out of the DC or they're stuck to the bottom of some crate on the way to Timbuktu.
Click to expand...

I do have visions of them being squashed under 3 tonnes of heavy boxes somewhere.

I have to add how great Deadcameras (http://shop.deadcameras.com/) have been about the whole thing. Very responsive and instantly offered to send new straps when I told them what was going on.
 
No sign of the parcel being delivered, but the excellent guys at DeadCameras are sending new ones. Hopefully it won't take long. Want to get out and shoot my new Rollei :snaphappy:
 
To my surprise (RM tracking still showed the parcel stuck at Heathrow) the straps finally arrived yesterday. A few days outside of the guaranteed delivery window, but never mind. Thankfully the replacements hadn't made it to the post office!

Happy Rollei:

32199515081_70512eb71b_c.jpg
 
FujiLove said:
To my surprise (RM tracking still showed the parcel stuck at Heathrow) the straps finally arrived yesterday. A few days outside of the guaranteed delivery window, but never mind. Thankfully the replacements hadn't made it to the post office!

Happy Rollei:

32199515081_70512eb71b_c.jpg
Click to expand...

Good news, sometimes I think with international postage the different companies struggle with full systems integration, case in point I has a parcel coming from Australia a few weeks back and the shipping progress updated in the auspost system until it left the country, but then there was no update for a week, then one mass update on delivery, which updated all the tracking progressed between Australia and my door
 
MWHCVT said:
Good news, sometimes I think with international postage the different companies struggle with full systems integration, case in point I has a parcel coming from Australia a few weeks back and the shipping progress updated in the auspost system until it left the country, but then there was no update for a week, then one mass update on delivery, which updated all the tracking progressed between Australia and my door
Click to expand...

The delivery updates are exactly what happened here. And yes, probably a system's integration thing.

To be honest, the straps are so damn good I'd be happy to wait three or four weeks for them again :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top