Parcel stuck in langley since 06 September 2021

[myshela3]

Hello,

I am coming to you as my last hope, I am not having luck with a parcel that I ordered.

I placed this order in AliExpress in august and was sent by the seller the 30th, it arrived to Langley the 6th, since, then the following message is appearing:

This item has been received at LANGLEY HWDC, United Kingdom. More information will be available as it travels through our UK network.

The tracking number is LT899575906NL

I contacted the royal mail and the lovely woman told me that it may be lost, however the tracking is not changing meaning I am not having my refund from AliExpress. On the meantime AliExpress tells me that I need to contact customs to pay taxes (which I don't mind) however customs is not picking the phone nor updating the tracking. I told AliExpress that they have to contact customs and raise a claim, but they just keep telling me that it must be me or that I must provide some paperwork stating that the order is lost.

I just realised that many people is having the same issue and that it also appears to happens with phones (mine is also a phone).

Do you please have any ideas how can I fix this situation?

Thanks in advance.

[Snaggletooth]

I believe that the system is now that the seller is supposed to pay the tax before it leaves the Netherlands. So if they haven't done what they are supposed to, it is probably now in the customs lane for people who haven't sent it properly, which is likely to be deprioritised versus the lane for people who have done it properly.

I don't know that is the case, it is an educated guess.

As for speeding up the customs process, they don't do that, customs are a law enforcement agency.

This seller sounds very dodgy. I would recommend contacting your credit card company and asking about the chargeback procedure.

[myshela3]

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your answer it does help me a lot.

what is the tax the seller is supposed to pay, is there a name for it?

asking the bank to refund me sounds like getting banned from the whole aliexpress as is them the ones that sent the item. Thats why I preffer to do it in a different way at least now.

Kind regards

Myshela

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Normally its VAT but there is something called UK Tariff (AKA UK Duty) that may apply in some circumstances

[myshela3]

Hello!

And in this case for the UK tariff is the seller the one that has to pay for it?

Thanks!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Hello!

And in this case for the UK tariff is the seller the one that has to pay for it?

Thanks!

I believe so but I am no expert. I do know that if VAT is due that will cause delays, but if RM is handling it they will normally send you a grey card. I think its customs that may insist on VAT being paid by the sender now, but its not an area of expertise for me.

[myshela3]

Thank you very much indeed for your help :)

kind regards

[Jimbojim]

I have had the exact same issue occur a month later than you tracking LT907687478NL. What did you end up doing?

[myshela3]

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do but wait, AliExpress will probably make me a refund if it doesn't arrive by the 13 of November as is how it was advertised. My issue now is that cainao shows one information in the tracking and royal mail another one... Cainao says its been process in the country of destination and royalmail says is in Langley

I don't understand what is going on, I have another more parcel that is not moving either... this is just a nightmare. I don't mind paying I just want my parcels

[NickRMCustomer]

I think I might have an idea what could have delayed this.

In general, when you recieve a parcel direct from a Country outside of the EU (such as the US or China), providing the declaration included isn't a million miles off, Customs will assess it and either levy a charge or not. It seems possible to pay the Customs charge for the sender if it's coming from outside of the EU.

However, the rules around the EU trade agreement appear to require all customs fees to be paid before they arrive in the UK through an incredibly complicated procedure. If your parcel has originated outside of the EU but transitted through the EU, I have seen situations where Customs consider it as an import into the EU, that has then been exported to the UK, even though it has only transited through an EU locaton en route to the UK.

[myshela3]

That was my though exactly, however that means that the people at customs is untrained and so making people lives miserable especially now that Christmas is around the corner...

Not very nice... as absolutely everything is gonna come trough EU as is the closest land to UK because UK is still in the European continent

Not very happy about the situation, now I cannot order from Europe or china or basically anywhere fearing this may happen again