Customs Questions

[Skidude]

Recently, after having many successful deliveries from India, I lost a package.
I understand this means a change of address will be required or potentially try again in 3 months.

My question is: If I order from China does the same apply? Am i flagged regardless of origination?

 

[Calm Logic]

I don't think anyone knows for sure about any of it.

Some Chinese vendors have some really long pricelists/inventory for their US warehouse. Like HPT and especially WWB. HPT is $30 for their US warehouses. WWB is $50, using FedEx (ground?).

There are also domestic resellers on TG for Indian pharma. I'm on TG all the time, if you want to DM me there.

 

[Skidude]

Thank you for that!
I will look into those options and likely DM you on TG

 

[Crumplestiltskin]

On this topic, if I order and the US warehouse is out of stock, does that shipment come directly to me from CN? Would that mean i could potentially get flagged?

 

[latviantower]

On this topic, if I order and the US warehouse is out of stock, does that shipment come directly to me from CN? Would that mean i could potentially get flagged?

My understanding is that it’s highly unlikely it would come directly to you from CN. Your order would cross the Pacific bundled with a bunch of others, then post-customs a freight forwarder (drop shipper) would repackage and dispatch individual orders to final destination. So there are undoubtedly suburban moms in Chino or Fontana or Fremont, etc. with a bunch of packing tape and bubble wrap making daily runs to the UPS Store or Kinko’s to send your goodies to you.

 

[Dos-Dox]

I had one order where I ordered from a US warehouse and it was dispatched from CN, shipped directly to me. No reshipper. I think there are no guarantees in this space. All we can do is ask for what we want and try to make it clear that if that warehouse is out of stock, we’d prefer to wait until the supply arrives rather than import through customs to ourselves (if that’s more important to us at the expense of potentially waiting longer).

 

[latviantower]

I had one order where I ordered from a US warehouse and it was dispatched from CN, shipped directly to me. No reshipper. I think there are no guarantees in this space. All we can do is ask for what we want and try to make it clear that if that warehouse is out of stock, we’d prefer to wait until the supply arrives rather than import through customs to ourselves (if that’s more important to us at the expense of potentially waiting longer).

Yeah that would bug me. That would be the higher risk for getting flagged.

Alternately just stick with the vendors we know ship from US warehouse only, like MIX and JTP.

 

[AndyPanda]

Recently, after having many successful deliveries from India, I lost a package.
I understand this means a change of address will be required or potentially try again in 3 months.

My question is: If I order from China does the same apply? Am i flagged regardless of origination?

Was the package seized or lost? I’ve had lost packages arrive after several weeks. If it was seized, yes, they will flag the name and address. I’ve recommended this in previous threads but information gets lost on here like a sock in a dryer sometimes.

Get a mailbox at a UPS store. (Not a USPS PO Box). You can mess with your name a little from the shipper by having them put something like Mr. Skidude or whatever. You can also associate a “business” name at the UPS Store with your box and have your package addressed to it. Just make something up like Skidudes Etsy Beans or an eBay store name.

At least in Virginia and Pennsylvania most of the UPS stores are foreigner owned and they don’t care what name you use, they just want your money and only need your ID for billing. If there were an investigation they would give you up, but we’re not seeing that happen yet. If that address gets burned, just go two miles down the street to another UPS store. I pay in three month increments so if something does go wrong I’m not locked into paying something I have no use for anymore.

 

[mrfat]

It seems if Customs sends you a letter then your address is flagged and they'll inspect any foreign shipments. I've had a handful of orders seized and reshipped to the same address and the reships came through. I was just ordering pde5 inhibitors, retinoids, bp meds and statins so not sure why it would be snagged by customs in the first place. Even had ones where they opened the package and inspected it but it still came through.