Beijing Airport Customs Broker’s Note: A Stuck DHL Containing 50 Pieces of Soaps.
Seahog is an experienced customs broker in China for imported goods since 1997. We help enterprises clear various trading goods shipped by air and by sea, we also help individuals and companies clear a wide range of personal use items, gifts, samples, and trading goods shipped by international courier services like DHL, Fedex, UPS, TNT, SF, etc. We have rich experience in assist clearing stuck courier parcels/packages/shipment and our services are available at Shanghai airport, Shenzhen airport, Guangzhou airport airport, Beijing airport, and Chengdu airport. We help clear lots of stuck parcels each year. Yet, there are not a few parcels that we can not clear for different reasons. Hereunder, we share a recent case to explain one of the possible reasons.
On Sep.23, 2021, a client added my wechat and told me he had a DHL parcel stuck in Beijing airport. Inside the parcel, there were a package of documents and a bottle of hair moisturizer(see pictured). The parcel value exceeded China customs’ limitation, DHL advised him either get the parcel returned to where it was sent from or find a China customs broker to clear the parcel as company goods.
We knew the customs clearance in China was not possible when we got above info. If the parcel just contained documents, it would be OK to proceed. But sadly the parcel also had a bottle of hair moisturizer and it made it impossible to clear as it needed certificate of origin and registration certificate for imported cosmetics to clear. It was hardly possible for an individual to provide the two certificates. Registration for imported cosmetics, in particular, is quite time consuming and costly to obtain, which is not easy for enterprise, not to mention an individual. Previously, China customs actually allowed people do partial customs clearance and abandon items not possible to clear. But it does not allow it anymore. I had to suggest the client send back the parcel and resend the documents separately from the moisturizer.
A few days later, the client contacted me again and asked me can he return the parcel to Africa where his home was located instead of to USA where the parcel was shipped from. But unfortunately, DHL could only return it back to the sending address. On Oct 12, the return procedures were done and the parcel was shipped back. And the client had to pay again for the shipping fee.
Lesson learned: when one has multiple items to ship to China via courier services, better ship cosmetics separately from other items to avoid situation like above case.
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