Has the parcel you shipped been sitting... and sitting... and sitting in Customs?  Let me guess, your buyer is demanding a refund or insisting that you tell them WHEN it will be delivered?  Well here's the 15 reasons why you are in this nightmare... and surprisingly, most are not your fault! 

1. The buyer has not paid Duties / VAT / Taxes. Many countries will MAIL (snail mail / standard mail / a literal piece of paper sent by actual mail) a bill with the taxes due. If the recipient does not respond to the mail they will not be able to get their parcel. Therefore it will sit, and sit, and sit until it might be eventually returned
2. Customs is just VERY, VERY, VERY slow. Yes, this absolutely happens. Specifically Mexico. It is not uncommon for a package to sit for weeks or even months
3. Buyer purchased ILLEGAL IMPORTS. As a seller, it is impossible for us to know every importing regulation in all 195 countries in the world. Yes, your buyer *should* know what they are legally allowed to import however they rarely ever check and they care even less. So, unfortunately, when your buyer purchases stuff from you that is against THEIR LAWS for them to import, Customs siezes and destroys the parcel. Your buyer never receives their inventory and they want you to refund them, even though the issue is 100% their own fault. In most countries Customs will NOT contact the buyer to tell them the merchandise will never be delivered.
4. Poor packaging = leaking. If you shipped ANYTHING that can leak, in any way, the parcel will be thrown out. The mail carriers and Customs have no way of knowing if the leaking ooze is body mist, lighter fluid or a dangerous drug. They cannot risk their safety or health opening the parcel to try to figure it out. 100% of these parcels never arrive.
5. Your Good Packaging BUT Someone Else's Bad Packaging = Chaos. You may have packaged your order like gold, but the next seller packaged their shampoo terribly, which caused it to leak all over your parcel. Both boxes are marked as trash and discarded. Yes, this royally sucks. Trust me, we have dealt with this many times in the past 15 years.
6. The buyer refuses to cooperate with Customs. Every country is different. Some countries have requirements that state the buyer must come pick up the parcel. Others require taxes / duties / VAT be paid via email. Some require paperwork be filed. Again, every country is different. If your buyer refuses to cooperate they will never get their parcel if their country requires some form of work on their end.
7. FALSIFIED CUSTOMS FORMS!!!!!!! If the buyer asked you to mark their order as a “gift” when it is clearly an inventory purchase, YOU and the buyer have both committed FRAUD. However, most countries in the world do not prosecute Customs Fraud, but the USA does. So if you lied on Customs Forms to save your buyer a few bucks on importing, this is probably why it isn’t being delivered. It may be wise for you to contact a lawyer. This is a FEDERAL CRIME.
8. ALSO FALSIFIED FORMS: If you outright lied on the Customs Forms and said there were only 10 items in the parcel and you know there were 30, this is a major problem. Or if you claimed the merchandise was 1-penny Calvin Klein Tees; Again, you are defrauding the government and this is a serious crime.
9. Incorrect Customs Forms. If the forms are incomplete or flat our wrong, this will stop delivery once the parcel reaches the country of the destination.
10. Dishonesty at Customs. Sad but true. Go ahead and google it. Some countries have parcels “disappear” at record numbers. This is why many companies simply do not ship to specific destinations…. The merchandise never arrives.
11. COVID-19: This was a totally unforeseen circumstance that changed the world. Countries began completely blocking imports from other countries while some territories limited imports to ONLY “essential goods”, meaning your sparkly Gucci coat was going to sit. On top of that, some of these places started placing massive taxes / duties on anyone who attempted to import “non essential goods”, so if you really wanted to get your Gucci from Customs you had to pay a hefty fine of $300 for your audacity to purchase something other than face masks.
12. Address Errors. This is always interesting. If you’re a USA seller and your buyer is from a different country, they likely speak darn google English even though you can’t speak a lick of their language (yes, I am one of you who feels ashamed every time a buyer from another Continent can speak my language with perfection while I struggle to use Google Translate to respond to them in their language). With that being said, the only place the international buyer struggles is with the Address format. Then, we print the address they provide using our shipping program and it ends up being a jumbled mess that was somehow lost in translation. Clearly, if the address provided to send-to is not an actual address the parcel cannot be delivered.
13. Incomplete Documentation. This isn't “fraud” and it’s not “Wrong info”, it’s just missing information that is needed.
14. Buyer gave a bogus, or incorrect name. In some instances they even [provide an incorrect address with the hopes of re-routing the parcel. We have seen this happen more than once in Brazil. The buyer provided incorrect information regarding their identity and the parcel could never leave customs. Thankfully, they were all ultimately returned to us because the buyers even up being scammers (but we fixed this issue by using Signifyd Fraud Detection)
15. IT'S ACTUALLY NOT SITTING IN CUSTOMS!!!  If you shipped the parcel and USPS (or whatever carrier) stopped updating the tracking after it left the USA, this does NOT mean the parcel is "lost".  Unfortunately many carriers tracking information does not correctly communicate with the tracking number through their websites, HOWEVER, you can use this incredible site to see REAL-TIME tracking data on most parcels after they have left the USA.  So before you do any additional work at all to try to solve your buyers problems for them, first look at 17Track and see what the CORRECT data is.  You may discover the parcel cleared customs a week ago and has been at the buyers local post office!