Problem with shipping?

I ordered a smart doll a few days ago and I'm tracking it on USPS. It says "Your item is being processed by United States Customs."

 

Did anyone else have this problem when ordering one? I've heard that when something is in customs, it can stay there for months...

 

I didn't pay $45 shipping to have it stay there for weeks or months. Help please.

At this point, there's no need to worry at all. I guess some see it as a "problem", but I must just be used to it. Every single package I order internationally with tracking gets marked with "inbound into customs" at a point. The time it'll take to release depends on where it came into though. Some facilities are slower than others. For example, if my items go through San Francisco, it clears in a day, but if it goes through LA or rarely even New York, it often takes 2-4 days to clear and leave.

 

I wouldn't actually worry about it unless it hasn't moved for a week or more. At that stage, you may want to call or email USPS. Unfortunately, it is possible though to pay that much for shipping and then having to wait a long time. Customs moves at their own pace, but waiting months is rare. I've personally never had an issue. 5 days is the longest I've ever waited for a clearance if that helps put your mind at ease.

Out of hundreds of packages I have ordered, only 1 has stayed in customs for a month. Unfortunately it was "marked for inspection" and contained an item which was not allowed to be imported to the US (In this case it was a free gift from a Taobao vendor I got which was some unknown flowers). Dolls don't stay long in customs. They take 2-4 days(work days) to clear. As long as there's no items considered to be "illegal" or "banned for imports" you will have no problem.

 

This is just to regulate the inflow of imported products as well to have an inspection to make sure there is no illegal material inside of them.(Drugs, banned products, plants/seeds, fake Dollfie dreams/recasts of DDs etc.)

There is very rare cirbleepstances which your package be marked for random inspection. This is like 1 in 100 chance, but they will only take a few extra days for this if they find no problem.

 

 

TL;DR Every package you will order from outside your country will always go into customs and it will take you 2-4 days to clear, rare chances for it to be selected for random inspection is little to none. Worst they can do is hold it hostage for a few extra days. This serves as a form of protection for the country and the import regulation.

Just about every one of my 30+ girls (including Kizuna and Chitose) has come from Japan and gone through customs at O'Hare International. By the posted tracking times normal Inbound to Outbound through customs there has been 2-6 HOURS. Normal EMS shipping time from Tokyo to my door in Chicago is about 3-4 days. Sounds like on the coasts customs can be a bit slower probably due to volume.

As long as you didn't have them pack ammo for your Glock with your doll it should be fine.

For my girls, Miku spent like 3 days in customs, and Yaya was at my door 3 days after I ordered her. Like K-2 said, some customs are faster. And like Mario said, everything ordered from outside the USA will spend time in customs. The longest thing I had was a box full of outfits that took a week and a half.

 

It's that sorting center in China when I order outfits from ebay that is the worst, things sit there for a month...

It's normal. I've only had one experience where a package got hung up in customs for a long time. I can't recall what it was. It got hung up for a couple of weeks. I think it was some processing facility in New England. Sorry, I wish I remembered more.

 

Most of the time I see the tracking information show a Chicago facility. Tracking shows that for a day or two and then it's on it's way.

It's normal. I've only had one experience where a package got hung up in customs for a long time. I can't recall what it was. It got hung up for a couple of weeks. I think it was some processing facility in New England. Sorry, I wish I remembered more.

 

Most of the time I see the tracking information show a Chicago facility. Tracking shows that for a day or two and then it's on it's way.

 

 

I had Fate get stuck in New Jersey's facility for over THREE WEEKS. Would not be surprised if New Jersey was the facility that you got stuck with in your laggy case too.

 

Frankly, I'm just kind of surprised that USPS remembered the customs scan on your SMD; on Fate it just said "Origin Post Preparing Shipment" until she hit the NJ sort facility.

Frankly, I'm just kind of surprised that USPS remembered the customs scan on your SMD; on Fate it just said "Origin Post Preparing Shipment" until she hit the NJ sort facility.

 

USPS is hit or miss when it comes to scanning. Most of my stuff has come via the west coast, and most will get scanned once in customs, either into or out of. It's not uncommon for stuff I've ordered from Asia to take a couple days for the tracking number to even show up. When I ordered Yaya I was given a number and next thing I know she's at my doorstep, fastest I've ever got anything from Asia, and nothing ever did show up with the tracking number. I'm not sure USPS even bothered to scan it once.

Sometimes things can get held up/checked for inspection due to the state of the country at the time the item was sent.

 

Example, a few years back Thailand had a spree of bombings occur, and I had bought a couple of things from someone within Bangkok. They got marked for inspection even though it was the tiniest box, and I had other friends report that all their items were also checked no matter where it came from in Thailand.

 

The USA just has the customs as a way of making sure that we not only keep things legal, but also safe for us.

Oh, yeah, Customs has some pretty important jobs to do--but that just makes it extra frustrating when your carrier sends something through the more beleaguered facilities like NJ instead of a quieter one like Chicago. It's like, dude, it both holds up my stuff AND makes some poor Customs employee's job harder, not cool.

Also, a lot of the typical "horror stories" about things being stuck in customs for more than a month tend to come from countries that aren't the US. Being in the resin side of the doll hobby, you hear all sorts of things about long customs and stupidly high fees just to get their dolls (typically from European collectors), but this kind of thing just isn't common here.

 

All of my overseas packages come in via Chicago, so it's never taken long for my stuff to come in. I have had issues with USPS not updating their tracking, though. I've had some items say that they're still in Chicago, only to get a text from my dad saying they arrived!

Oh, yeah, USPS tracking is a mess. Actually, the USPS as a whole is kind of a mess, and frankly I suspect that if there wasn't a federal law on the books allowing court orders to end postal strikes, every freakin' carrier in the USPS would have gone on strike a hundred times over by now.

 

Seriously, when I was waiting on Fate, I found out the USPS has its own subreddit, reddit.com/r/usps, and a lot of the people on there are USPS employees. The hours they talk about working were enough to give me nightmares.

Thanks for the help, guys.

 

Chitose is currently inbound out of customs.