Got a watch from Seiya last month that got stuck in customs for 10 days from start to delivery.
It's just customs being slow, then you receiving a request for payment by snail mail, which is slow.
Ordered an £80 citizen diver a few days ago which is now 'stuck in customs at Heathrow for a lengthy period - they will write to you -is it a fake watch?' - all very odd, bearing in mind I've ordered from them in the past and never had any problems. Ok even if I have to pay 20% import its not going to break the bank but annoying. Any suggestions to speed the process, anyone else had this with Creation?
Got a watch from Seiya last month that got stuck in customs for 10 days from start to delivery.
It's just customs being slow, then you receiving a request for payment by snail mail, which is slow.
I've ordered from creation ,mine came from Singapore into Leeds/Bradford with no hold ups,it probably depends on the airports
You appear to be quoting someone. Who said that to you?
These things happen. If the Border Force (who are the actual customs agency on the ground) have randomly decided to open your package and find that there's a watch inside whereas the description on the outside is something else then they could take their time.
Just wait patiently. :-)
I think it unlikely that Border Force will bother to contact you but it will be interesting to see if they do. Most likely the only contact will be from the carrier, either when they deliver the watch or when they demand the VAT and their fee.
I've had two orders come through from Creation Watches in the past month with no problems. Sounds like your order got picked up for a random inspection by customs.
The Dhl customer service guy was who I was quoting. I imagine it's just a random check, creation label their items as'measurement devices' which I actually think I'd rather clever! Thank goodness it's just an £80 cheapo not an mm300 or similar!
It's more than likely HMRC being a bit bloody minded. Normally orders from Creation just sail through customs but I had heard that every so often they pick a parcel out for closer inspection. It sounds as if you just got unlucky.
I'd have to find the paperwork, but I'm sure when my Monster arrived from them, the paperwork stated to all intents and purposes that the value of the package was circa <$20. I can only assume that this is to circumnavigate customs and that across the board, valuing items this way on the whole worked out in their favour. No one else experienced this?
Interestingly I've had an email from creation advising that I contact DHL, when I replied saying I already have I had another email acknowledgement from them. I've read a few stories about poor customer service from them in the past, fortunately I've never had an issue before but they seem to be doing everything they can to keep me informed.
When an item from Creation to a TZ-UK buyer in the UK was stopped by French customs (yes, French customs) on the pretext that the watch was a fake, I recall that Creation were very helpful. Needless to say, the watch was genuine and French customs eventually released it to complete its journey to the UK.
I suppose the goods, if insured, can't be insured for their full value if a false value has been declared to the shipper. So if it goes astray, the sender would have to eat the difference between the $20 and the real value.
Also, if Customs does inspect the package, it will be clear that the value is incorrect and you may have to pay the tax on the true value anyway.
Just had to prove what I paid (which in this instance means I owe £18) but it sounds like they are wise to 'a number of organisations from that area ubdervalueing goods' which they are now looking into 😔
Glad it got sorted. Will be interesting to see if more of Creation's watches get stopped in future.
It makes no direct difference. The value declared on the customs declaration need not in practice have any association with the insured value.
This is what I wrote on the subject back in 2013:
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...=1#post2970312
I find it interesting that people conflate the value stated on the customs declaration with the insured value. They are not necessarily the same (even if they perhaps should be in most cases).
The insured value is what you state to the insurer, be it the postal service or a third party. The value on the customs declaration is... the value on the customs declaration.
When I send stuff by Royal Mail Airsure, for example, I state the required compensation/insurance value to the Post Office clerk. What I write on the customs declaration can be entirely different. No one cares that they are different. No one checks. I recognise that the policies of other national postal services may be different: Some national postal services may ensure that the customs declaration value matches the stated insurance amount, but there can be no general expectation of this. Furthermore, if you obtain third party insurance (e.g. ParcelPro) then there is no way whatsoever for anyone to know that the value on the customs declaration might not match the insured value.
In short, the value on the customs declaration says nothing in general about what can be claimed in the event of loss or damage of the package. Indeed, if the package is lost then whatever is written on the customs declaration is moot!
Yes, indeed.
<chortle> It's pretty much every small exporter in those countries.
Nevertheless, I bet certain companies like Creation come up again and again and, as seems to be the case, are therefore more likely to be noticed. I expect that they will find way round it if the get hit often enough to upset customers who have become used to not getting hit.
P.S. Glad it got sorted out, albeit with some money to pay.
Last edited by markrlondon; 16th September 2014 at 19:36.
Well I'm saying it's sorted but not for the watch yet! Apparently I should have it in a couple of days and an £18 bill 3 weeks later. But a disaster but not the bargain buy I'd hoped for with an extra 10 days wait and an extra 20% to pay!
I can't work out the HTC keyboard as you can probably tell!
Just been told by DHL my order may be delayed up to 30 more days because customs have delayed a huge number of shipments. Lucky it's an auto not a quartz as the battery might have gone flat by the time I get it!
I think I will be buying my watches within the UK in future, they're are a few decent bargains on Amazon for instance. As you say it takes the gloss off the experience!
Well, I've emailed DHL all the documents I was asked for and my watch is still stuck at Heathrow - where it has been for 10 days now!!! Fantastic customer service ask round .......
I have to say that being stuck for 10 days in customs is not unusual. That's happened to incoming shipments of mine on more than one occasion. The problem is entirely down to customs taking their time, as far as I can see.
As a matter of interest, what document did customs require? That's the first time I've heard of them asking for documents, even for a package that they randomly checked and discovered was under-declared.
Last edited by markrlondon; 23rd September 2014 at 11:01.
10 days is on the high side but not unheard of. However, if documents are being requested that sounds like a longer process.
TBH you might get your goods quicker from a vendor that simply declares the correct value on the parcel.
The original supplier emailed a correct valuation which I sent to DHL last week. Not the end of the world but I would never consider ordering anything of high value from the vendor now, too much hassle and a lack of communication all round. Oh well, lesson learned!
Well, 15 days and still no sign of HMRC releasing my £88 citizen diver. According to DHL they are really cracking down on undervalued goods and 'there are lots of watches and camera lenses all in the same situation'. Glad I didn't order the MM300!
Must be worrying. :-(
It certainly worries me, considering how often I have enjoyed the combination of economically truthful far eastern customs declaration descriptions and the (historically) seemingly more lax attention paid by Border Force (Border Agency as was) to imports from certain Asian countries.
If Border Force really are clamping down on imports from that part of the world then I'm not surprised it's taking a long time since the volume coming in from the likes of China, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. must be incredible and almost all of it in my experience is under-declared and/or mis-declared. On the upside, it is unlikely that Border Force have the resources to keep up the pressure for very long. Also, if they are focussing on the far east then perhaps their attention will lapse for a bit from the USA (does anyone remember how American packages once used to come through untaxed sometimes).
Ironically this might not have been a problem. As I understand it, the higher value Seikos from Creation are not shipped from Singapore but are shipped directly from a partner company in Japan, and so they have accurate customs declarations. A second hand Seiko from Japan has just gone through Customs fairly quickly for me with a £25 VAT bill and no doubt an honest customs declaration.
I spoke to DHL last week who said it would be on its way - 5 days later it's still stuck in customs. I've kind of given up on it now!
That's nuts. I think we all accept that duty will sometimes have to be paid, but I'd imagine this delay really must be taking the joy out of the purchase.
Be interesting to see how easily my €98 citizen diver gets through German customs! I gather there's a prepayment of duty thing which if I do it and my parcel is picked up, avoids also charging me a handling fee...
...but as I haven't yet figured out how to do this I'm wondering whether to chance it or not!
To be honest I have stopped even thinking about it! I seem to have a habit of buying Seiko divers and similar, keeping for a few months then selling - this will be the last one I imagine as it's too much hassle. Might go straight to sales corner on arrival unless it blows my socks off! - at some point in 2015.......
I'd be grateful for an update on this when all is done. I always get things sent to the UK that might incur any kind of special attention - I don't trust German officialdom and the same goes for evetybody else I know, expat or local. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of choice.
Interesting. As an aside, I understand that the the replica watch community prefers to use the UK as an entry point into the EU for replicas since seizures of one or two watch shipments are virtually unknown. That way the watches can be more easily re-sent from the UK to other EU countries which have customs authorities with a less liberal view on fakes but which pay less attention to intra-EU shipments.
(In case anyone is wondering how I know what happens in the replica watch community it is because I pay attention. Knowing something of replicas (fakes by another name, of course) is conducive to not unwittingly buying one!)
Well for some reason it's still sitting with Creation - there was one small question mark over my billing/delivery address (HSBC form doesn't like ä turning it into an o with ~ on top for some reason) and they seemed satisfied by my fast reply, but I ordered on Sunday and have still received no shipping notice.
Hope RobDad's comes through without too much stress in the end! Really does kill the joy of the impulse purchase when it takes a while...
Update: Seems they are sending it by standard registered mail despite them offering DHL Express free to Germany. I don't know if I somehow missed clicking the correct option or what - but hoping an email asking them to ship by DHL and sending a request via their order tracking will sort it!
Last edited by Sara; 10th October 2014 at 15:12.
Just an update - now a whole calendar month has passed since customs seized my humble citizen watch and DHL have no idea when it will be released. I'm not even going to bother checking the tracking number for another fortnight!
Well I'm hoping "Clearance processing complete" means it's through! Might even get it tomorrow at this rate, maybe Tuesday - Creation agreed to send DHL Express when I asked for it (I guess I forgot to hit the right option in the order form):
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That sucks...! Must be tons of people with goods in that backlog if it's taking so long :(
Apparently they have impounded a couple of 'enormous shipments' that have been undervalued - mostly camera equipment, lenses etc. If it was a higher value item I'd be furious quite frankly, but it isn't so I'm not. But I will definitely think very carefully before ordering from overseas in future. It's not as if the duty will break the bank either, I just don't get why it's taking so long.
So mine's not arrived yet but my missed delivery card says I owe them €31.28. I haven't yet had access to a receipt for this or how it was calculated but suspect it tallies with VAT + handling.
It still comes in only just over £100 (if not €100), so still not too unhappy :)