Have my Brita Filter Bottles been seized?

britafilter · Post by **britafilter** » 18 Jan 2018, 19:56

Hi

I run a medium sized business through eBay and recently a customer purchased 100 individual brita water bottles which all include their own filter along with 200 replacement filters. I filled in the customs deceleration, stating the items contained within the box and the total value of those items. Customer contacted me to first inform they were concerned the items have been seized - when I asked for more information and checked the tracking results myself on Parcelforce and 17track I see all the tracking details in relation to it being exported out of Canada leaving Toronto on the 11th followed by it being processed at Reykjavik Iceland on the 12th and again being processed in the UK at Heathrow (which looking at a prior post means customs) - and today on the 18th it states "Your parcel has now been examined by HM Customs and charges may have been raised by them. Please check the tracking details below for further details. A letter will be sent to the recipient if charges are due." and tracking information says International Hub - Arrived in UK 18th 14:51, (although it had been at Heathrow on the 12th?) followed by International Hub - Released from customs at 15:08. I paid for guaranteed delivery by Monday 22nd and as far as I understand it seems it's gone through customs, it's been inspected for possible charges (but no mention of custom charges in tracking history) and subsequently released from customs. What confuses me is why the customer feels it's been seized? If it's been seized surely it would of stopped at being processed in the UK at Heathrow and not carried onto International Hub - Arrived in the UK on parcelforce followed by international hub - released from customs. To me released by customs means they're happy with the inspection and have released it to Parcelforce for delivery with a possible customs charge vs being stopped and seized at customs. From speaking to the customer they've only been following tracking details via eBay and have not made any contact to be told such a thing - I get the impression they've misunderstood released from customs and are getting worried over nothing.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 19 Jan 2018, 14:34

Without a tracking number to be able to see the tracking personally its difficult to advise, but ny gut feeling is that there is a Charge to pay and the customer will either receive a grey card from Royal Mail, or a letter from Parcel Force detailing the charge.