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Hey guys,

I live in Canada, I’ve had zero problems with customs ever. All my items have been cleared within the week. Then, all of a sudden, one of my friends overseas sends me his Necrons to get painted and built. All of a sudden, it’s been in customs for 3 weeks, and I feel like someone peeled inside and lifted it from the line. Is there any way to ensure Customs does not just “absorb” items? Is yheeee any kind of policy preventing this, or is it just “I hope you don’t steal, but there is no punishment if you do”? Is there any kind of insurance for me when it goes through customs?

Thanks!

Theft in customs? Very very unlikely. I don’t know for sure about Canada, or wherever it came from, but in the UK, no, not going to happen. More likely it’s sat on the shelf of a warehouse somewhere. Best case they are working out what to do about the box of toys, worst case the shipping label has come off or it has been damaged. Insurance will depend on the shipper and will be down to the sender.

Stuff can and will languish in customs, even Canada Customs. It's possible it's stuck in the brokering phase, where they decide your package is valuable enough to tax or not. I've had this happen to me when Mantic decided to send me my KS rewards and labelled $400 (KS value) of stuff as $25 samples.

Also, a big bulky box full of miniatures is probably prime 'put it on the next shipment' material - meaning there's no room on the truck for that big old box of yours, so it gets delayed repeatedly.

Ways to avoid wondering what happened:

Buy shipping with tracking. At least you know where it is.

Insure the contents for the value of the contents. Most shipping companies offer insurance, and it's not expensive, at least compared to replacement costs.

Pack things well and label things well! A damaged label can cause all sorts of problems for shipping.

And yes, theft can happen at any point in shipping, but it's fairly rare overall.

It can depend on the country. I've had stuff go missing in Canada customs, but not with US. I did have Portugal customs impound a miniature and it's accompanying shredded newspaper as a potential bomb. Took them two weeks to determine that it wasn't going to explode or attack then with it's 6 inch metal fists.

A while back I was reading a guy's blog. He (also from Canada) had a custom high performance engine built in Europe for his car. It was based on a rare, yet commercially produced, engine. It did have TONS of custom work done on it though. This means it was a one of a kind.


This engine was obviously expensive, I'm wanting to say well over $30,000. As he was tracking it, it got flagged for a customs inspection, where it sat for over 30 days. When he finally got ahold of someone to tell him what was taking so long it was "lost".

About 6 months later he found the engine on craigslist. It was obviously his, as this was a one of a kind build with totally custom work. Authorities were called, but as it turns out the seller had legally bought it himself. The seller had bought it at an "unclaimed item" auction that is apparently done by Customs once in a while.

They didn't so much "steal" his engine, as much as they were completely incompetent and sold it for profit.

So I’m guessing there’s no repurcussions for an item? So if it were lost in customs they will not do anything about it? So like f it was “lost” there is no recompense just a “too bad”?

lliu wrote:
So I’m guessing there’s no repurcussions for an item? So if it were lost in customs they will not do anything about it? So like f it was “lost” there is no recompense just a “too bad”?

Sure, if you can prove it was stolen. The government doesn't guarantee squat when it comes to your items. The Shipper *might* but not usually unless you pay for it.

I don't get involved with Canadian retailers anymore with just how godawful your postal service is. If its any reflection on the rest of the system then that may be your issue (there's a review on their site from someone sending a package within the on province, for it to show up in Africa months later). That's maybe a irrelevant for orders making it into the country however; I'm not sure things are handled there.

If its anything like US customs it could just be volume and or just a mistake

it happened. especially over seas import.

now the TSA

thats a 3 letter agency you need to look out for.

Wyrmalla wrote:I don't get involved with Canadian retailers anymore with just how godawful your postal service is. If its any reflection on the rest of the system then that may be your issue (there's a review on their site from someone sending a package within the on province, for it to show up in Africa months later). That's maybe a irrelevant for orders making it into the country however; I'm not sure things are handled there.

I may have just been lucky, but in all the time that I've been buying Canadian, I haven't had any issues with Canada Post. But the fact that the States are not an ocean crossing away may have something to do with it.

Desubot wrote:If its anything like US customs it could just be volume and or just a mistake

it happened. especially over seas import.

now the TSA

thats a 3 letter agency you need to look out for.

The TSA can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned. The incompetent bastards.

lliu wrote:
Is yheeee any kind of policy preventing this, or is it just “I hope you don’t steal, but there is no punishment if you do”? Is there any kind of insurance for me when it goes through customs?

Customs are pretty closely monitored. Not so much for stealing but because they have a lot of power to aid smuggling if they're not monitored. Though how tightly this is done would vary from country to country. But it would make stealing pretty hard, so its much more likely to be a screw up.

 Desubot wrote:


now the TSA

thats a 3 letter agency you need to look out for.

LOL, the TSA. The "agency" that is a private contractor who's agents act like they are police when they have as much authority as a mall cop. I think their minimum requirement to be employed is high school education, no felonies on your record. The agency who is supposed to catch terrorists, but has NEVER caught one, ever. They are however #1 in customer groping, saving nude body scans they aren't supposed to store, and luggage theft.

Are you certain that you haven't been sent a bill for import/export tax?
If that hasn't been paid then the item will sit about for X days then be returned to sender at a fairly high cost.
Check any paperwork, emails and junk folders, tracking details, unanswered phone numbers or messages.

Canadian customs mails you a letter. If somehow that letter gets lost in the mail, now there’s a problem.

lliu wrote:
Hey guys,

I live in Canada, I’ve had zero problems with customs ever. All my items have been cleared within the week. Then, all of a sudden, one of my friends overseas sends me his Necrons to get painted and built. All of a sudden, it’s been in customs for 3 weeks, and I feel like someone peeled inside and lifted it from the line. Is there any way to ensure Customs does not just “absorb” items? Is yheeee any kind of policy preventing this, or is it just “I hope you don’t steal, but there is no punishment if you do”? Is there any kind of insurance for me when it goes through customs?

Thanks!

Of course they do. "Fell of a truck" is a thing. But likely not necrons.

I've once had an item get held over in customs for four months. I eventually got so worried about it I called Canada post and while they couldn't confirm the package's location they explained to me that anything coming through Vancouver during the late-fall through winter always sees massive relative delays.

As a result my brother's Christmas present arrived in the spring.