Just wanted to make everyone aware of an issue.
Today I had a package returned to me that I sent to ROI on 26th February. It came back with a sticker on it marked ‘Return to Sender Rejected /Failed electronic customs clearance’. I had included all of the required information and this is the 2nd time I’ve had something returned from ROI in this way (the previous time was last year and it appeared to go ok when I resent it).
Last year Royal Mail told me they’d had a few things returned for no reason (I noticed hen they refunded my postage in the form of a book of stamps they included a letter implying I had done something wrong!). When I called today they said they are seeing a lot of post being rejected. They confirmed that it has nothing to do with the sender but rather is due to a bit of an impasse between them and ROI customs. I as told that ROI Customs think they should be sent information electronically by Royal Mail and Royal Mail don’t agree that this is required and don’t send this data. As a result ROI customs are rejecting a large volume of post from the UK.
I do empathise with ROI over having to deal with the fall out from Brexit, however it’s not good if this is going to continue to happen, especially as it is taking so long for them to return things (last time it as over a month and this time even longer) and I hope they sort it out soon.
I’m currently waiting to hear from the customer as to whether or not she wants the item resent - if she does I’ll give it another go.
The other consideration of course is that £4.34 was paid by the customer in VAT, so if she does decide to cancel the order I’m not sure how that works as I only received the purchase price and postage - in that eventuality I’ll need to contact Folksy to find out if it is possible to refund it. I wondered if ROI automatically refund the VAT to Folksy when they reject an item, but I’m guessing not as they’d have no way to recharge it if I resend the item - hmmm.
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Thanks for the heads up. What an absolute pain for you. I hope you’re not out of pocket. X
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Thank you. Very understanding customer answered quickly and wants it resent so I’ve bought the postage at the post office this time to see if it makes a difference. She has said just to refund it if it comes back a second time and I’ve asked her to let me know if she doesn’t receive it in a week or so as it took so long to come back the last time - if I can claim it as a missing item before it boomerangs back it might be better as customer gets her refund more quickly and may even avoid me losing the sale.
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Royal mail does have to transmit some info about the package to ROI customs in advance, not sure if RM is transmitting enough info (although in this case it would seem not). Are you sending via click and drop (so entering the info yourself) or a post office (so the PO staff are entering the info and perhaps missing something out)?
There is a list of tariff codes that ROI customs is rejecting - have you checked to see if what you were sending is on that list? (here’s the link to the list https://www.parcelforce.com/sites/default/files/Restricted-HS-Tariff-Codes-Ireland.pdf) I know that silver and gold jewellery is on the OK list, not sure about copper or titanium jewellery though.
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Nightmare.
I sent a necklace to Finland in January - it took 7 weeks to get there, mostly due to customs delays as far as I can gather. I sent it tracked, so was able to update my customer weekly as to its progress - thankfully she seemed to regard it as normal. It got there eventually, had been opened and re-sealed, but was unharmed. Thank heavens my customer was understanding - and spoke English!
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I did click and drop the first time but also got them to check it at the post office. The tariff codes are find and hanks for highlighting the changes - Interesting to see there’s one for nuclear reactors, wonder what happens if you put that on 
The guy I spoke to on the phone did not sound at all surprised and seemed pretty confident that there’s argy bargy going on in the background related to ROI looking for electronic information that Royal Mail don’t agree they need to provide.
From here I could probably just row across with it and funny thing is that everything I’ve sent further afield seems to get there no bother at all.
Ah well will see what happens next.
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Both my Irish customers have been really understanding and laid back on the subject too which is a blessing.
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Well that’s a complete pain, isn’t it?! Can I just ask what postal method you used when you sent the parcel?
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I bought the postage online via Paypal, ensured all the required info was included and also asked staff to check it when I dropped it off at the post office - the guy from Royal Mail customer service I spoke to seemed to be well aware of the issue and said there is a disagreement behind the scenes regarding what info RM send electronically to ROI customs He could see all of the info I’d input when buying the postage and said it was all correct.
I’ve read online that people in ROI have had all kinds of issues receiving post from outside, which may explain why the customers were so understanding about it… to the extent that neither even reported they’d not received their purchases. I used International Standard post so should have arrived in around 5 days.
Oh this is such a mess. The customer paying VAT too, I have no idea how to handle that. It is surprising that these huge companies still haven’t ironed out the problems after all this time. I have heard of so many people having the same issues. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you that you can get this sorted for you and your customer quickly. x
It seems completely bonkers - the only (sort of) good thing about it is that it sounds as if it’s a widely reported issue in ROI, so customers are being OK about it with the sellers. It’s the stuff of nightmares though, hope it gets sorted for you very soon!
This has happened to me too when sending to ROI. When I resent the order I didn’t do anything different and it was delivered? Another order to France took six weeks to be delivered, that went via Denmark? But orders to USA, Canada and Australia are usually 7 to 10 days. Now when I get an order from Europe I message the buyer warning of possible delays and give them the option to cancel if they can’t risk or don’t want to wait such a long time for their order. It saves me a lot of hassle and anxiety.
I think in all these years i have only lost 3 parcels. One was a vague customer, pretty sure a neigbour took it in, 2nd was stolen from the customer’s safe place. 3rd was a recent ROI package, first I had sent and it just never arrived. I thought maybe it was because I had only just registered for my official ‘exporter’ code but whatever it was it never got there and never came back either. Fortunately the second one did get there but I paid to send it signed for. (and never did get round to claiming for the first… ).
Think I’ve only ever had one Folksy parcel actually lost, but reckon you’ve been able to send a lot more of them than I have 
Reckon your ROI one might boomerang back to you yet as they are taking a very long time to return them. Probably piling them up while they argue back and forth - here’s hoping you get it back soon.
I’ve just had a parcel returned from ROI too today! Same thing, a return CN15b - non compliant to customs regulations.
I sent a parcel to the same address a couple of months ago and used all the same codes and that arrived OK. Weird.
I’m going to take this one in to the post office tomorrow for them to double check all the details.
This is why I’ve stopped taking international orders now. Too many kerfuffles. I know I could be missing out on a few sales but it’s so time consuming sorting out the fallout!
My parcel that I re-sent to ROI has just been marked as returned again!
I even went into the post office and got the manager to make sure I filled out the customs label properly (to be fair she was as clueless as me!)
I’ll have to refund my customer now, it’s a shame as she really wanted the item.
Is anyone else still having problems with ROI?
