Parcel stuck at CBCU -customs

[joker08]

Hi, a parcel was sent to me from india through a logistics company. It was almost 10kgs so we used a non standard logistics company who sends parcels at R100 a kilo.
But now it's more than a month and whenever I call the contact person in SA he says its stuck at CBCU.

What can be done in this case? The contact in SA seems to be a one man company. http://buloque.co.za.

Is there any escalation procedure that can be followed or the customs like SAPO is useless and I should wait another 6 months.

 

[The_Traveller]

It can get stuck at customs for several reasons.

So what reason did he give ?

 

[joker08]

It can get stuck at customs for several reasons.

So what reason did he give ?

Nothing yet. When I called he just said it's at CBCU and they have a backlog.

 

[HibiscusTunes]

CBCU can inspect any shipment randomly. When they do it is usually everything in a landed shipment, so not just your individual package, but 100's of them. They then inspect any parcels they think they need to. They might be looking for counterfeit PPE and vaccines, so they probably checking more than normal.

Under normal times this took about 2 weeks with my packages in the past.

There is nothing you can do but wait.

 

[The_Traveller]

Nothing yet. When I called he just said it's at CBCU and they have a backlog.

Well they need to tell you what's the reason they held it back.

If they moved it under a consol service and that perhaps got stopped, but they will inspect quickly, they dont take time with this.

Where they do take time is when the person who did the clearance for your parcel ( did you even send a clearing instruction ? ) declared the wrong tariff code and then they (customs) don't agree with that tariff, then you you need submit a VOC to issue the correct tariff.

So do this, call that agent again and ask for the EDI document showing the reason they stopped your shipment.

See below sample:

 

[The_Traveller]

Here's another example where my domkops of partners submitted a tariff which attracted a duty and i had to do the VOC for duty refund.

They want literature to prove that the import was for product zero rated.

 

[Snyper564]

@TheTraveler fyi you did a pretty poor job at redacting rather remove text altogether. You also left many other identifiers on document...

 

[The_Traveller]

@TheTraveler fyi you did a pretty poor job at redacting rather remove text altogether. You also left many other identifiers on document...

nothing else is confidential.