Customs clearance

dutchselect said:
Yeah, im US and a number of suppliers talk about and offer promotions from US warehouses yet so many forum threads have posts from people that purchased from domestic warehouses and they consistently say that the package they ordered got shipped from China.
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That's concerning. Do we know which companies have been known to do this?

I'm sure the CBP letters are harmless but I don't want to be on their radar...
 
dutchselect said:
I cant say I remember off the top.of my head and which forum but I have read it atleast a half dozen times
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I've been doing this a while, and while it does happen occasionally it's almost always the result of a US warehouse's inventory being off, and most of the time customers are notified when the shipping origin changes to China. Because most Chinese vendors aren't going to give your money back you just accept it as the best solution, although some will offer additional product or other "compensation" as a gesture in such situations.

Frankly, I would be more concerned about the implications of having things shipped from a vendor's US warehouse than from overseas. If a US govt agency raids a domestic warehouse they have free and open access to the names, addresses, and order contents via a search warrant, where a single CBP letter to a single US citizen while "scary" for some is an individual issue and CBP, FBI, DEA, and FDA agents aren't going to be no-knock raiding facilities in China.
 
ZippityDooDah said:
I've been doing this a while, and while it does happen occasionally it's almost always the result of a US warehouse's inventory being off, and most of the time customers are notified when the shipping origin changes to China. Because most Chinese vendors aren't going to give your money back you just accept it as the best solution, although some will offer additional product or other "compensation" as a gesture in such situations.

Frankly, I would be more concerned about the implications of having things shipped from a vendor's US warehouse than from overseas. If a US govt agency raids a domestic warehouse they have free and open access to the names, addresses, and order contents via a search warrant, where a single CBP letter to a single US citizen while "scary" for some is an individual issue and CBP, FBI, DEA, and FDA agents aren't going to be no-knock raiding facilities in China.
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Yeah because correct me if im wrong but you would be in less trouble with customs then you would be from domestic alphabet?
 
ZippityDooDah said:
I've been doing this a while, and while it does happen occasionally it's almost always the result of a US warehouse's inventory being off, and most of the time customers are notified when the shipping origin changes to China. Because most Chinese vendors aren't going to give your money back you just accept it as the best solution, although some will offer additional product or other "compensation" as a gesture in such situations.

Frankly, I would be more concerned about the implications of having things shipped from a vendor's US warehouse than from overseas. If a US govt agency raids a domestic warehouse they have free and open access to the names, addresses, and order contents via a search warrant, where a single CBP letter to a single US citizen while "scary" for some is an individual issue and CBP, FBI, DEA, and FDA agents aren't going to be no-knock raiding facilities in China.
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Thanks, I hadn't thought about it from that perspective.

I came across a post from a member saying they were concerned about their Global Entry pass and I travel a lot between US and Canada so that was one reason I was leaning domestic.

I guess when Palantir connects every agency, we're screwed either way lol.
 
skyfall said:
I'm sure the CBP letters are harmless but I don't want to be on their radar...
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They are not harmless, in that they can mess up your known traveler membership and make you subject to secondary screening when coming back into the country from abroad. I went through this about 6 years ago, and then it took me two years to fall off their "radar".

Now a unneeded purchase through Indiamart has put me back on the radar. So till I get a AndyPanda approved private mailbox looks like no more overseas purchases for me.

No one to blame but myself. I knew this was a possibility.
 
tncc_rn said:
They are not harmless, in that they can mess up your known traveler membership and make you subject to secondary screening when coming back into the country from abroad. I went through this about 6 years ago, and then it took me two years to fall off their "radar".

Now a unneeded purchase through Indiamart has put me back on the radar. So till I get a AndyPanda approved private mailbox looks like no more overseas purchases for me.

No one to blame but myself. I knew this was a possibility.
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Thanks for sharing that. Given the current administration, I wouldn't expect anything border related to loosen up any time soon so I'm going to stick to domestic.

Out of curiosity, what's an "AndyPanda approved private mailbox"? Is this similar to a PO Box service?
 
skyfall said:
Out of curiosity, what's an "AndyPanda approved private mailbox"? Is this similar to a PO Box service?
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Yes. PO Box service in a business name. Dirt cheap when a CBP letter is sent to one.... I was already committed to these purchases when I started looking into one. And of course I get seized....

My own fault.
 
skyfall said:
Thanks for sharing that. Given the current administration, I wouldn't expect anything border related to loosen up any time soon so I'm going to stick to domestic.

Out of curiosity, what's an "AndyPanda approved private mailbox"? Is this similar to a PO Box service?
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Not a PO box. Those are government run and directly associated with your identity. Go to a UPS store. Get a box and put it in a business name or a moniker.
 
AndyPanda said:
Not a PO box. Those are government run and directly associated with your identity. Go to a UPS store. Get a box and put it in a business name or a moniker.
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Thanks for the clarification! Do you know if UPS asks to see business registration docs to open it in a business name? Or can you just put any business name down?
 
skyfall said:
Thanks for the clarification! Do you know if UPS asks to see business registration docs to open it in a business name? Or can you just put any business name down?
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They will ask for ID, but without an actual investigation and warrants, when customs sends a letter it wont have your personal information. It will just be sent to the recipient of the package that was seized. They are not going to waste resources on it.
 
I'm in the UK. The six orders I've received from China have been sent to some sort of reshipping centre where a new address label is added. I like this because the orders go through customs without my details on them. Of course, this may change in the future given the nature of the market.
 
Bunny said:
I'm in the UK. The six orders I've received from China have been sent to some sort of reshipping centre where a new address label is added. I like this because the orders go through customs without my details on them. Of course, this may change in the future given the nature of the market.
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Yah I purposefully chose vendors that send via a system like that. I live in the EU, and I prefer the ones that go through Germany (not where I live) via directly to my place. It takes longer, but if it were to be confiscated, it happens somewhere else which to me is ideal.
 
Bunny said:
I'm in the UK. The six orders I've received from China have been sent to some sort of reshipping centre where a new address label is added. I like this because the orders go through customs without my details on them. Of course, this may change in the future given the nature of the market.
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I like it that you gave us enough details to describe what's happening but you were general enough to not help any customs people who might be reading these pages. Are customs officials reading these pages? It would not surprise me if customs officials never read stuff on this site. It also wouldn't surprise me if they have people reading here regularly.
 
tncc_rn said:
Well, not to worry. It's gonna get worse in a couple of weeks.

Suspending De Minimis Exemption Next Week Will Cause "Ripple Effect" Across Global Postal Supply Lines | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com www.zerohedge.com
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We'll see how it plays out. Despite increased customs enforcement, peptides from China are cheaper now than when Trump took office. I suspect that the vendors would simply mislabel what they're sending us so that they result in only small amounts of tariff or that the products would be exempt.

I do have years of peptides in my freezer. That makes me less worried. Folks using GLP-1 drugs should maintain a three month reserve in case things temporarily get tough.
 
keangkong said:
We'll see how it plays out. Despite increased customs enforcement, peptides from China are cheaper now than when Trump took office. I suspect that the vendors would simply mislabel what they're sending us so that they result in only small amounts of tariff or that the products would be exempt.

I do have years of peptides in my freezer. That makes me less worried. Folks using GLP-1 drugs should maintain a three month reserve in case things temporarily get tough.
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This guy works either with CBP or is a contractor with HSI/CBP connections. This was his response to me.

"It's getting tighter every day and will continue.

By Feb '26, the agency's goal is 100% digital human review of all De Minimis package contents prior to final delivery. The purpose is three-fold, to detect contraband, eliminate shipment structuring for tariff avoidance and also to train AI models for future automated interdiction. Many of the digital reviewers will be transitioned into physical inspection roles in late-26/early-27.

A package clearing an ISC is called the "exped" or "interim" clearance, (primarily intended to intercept packages that are leaking, buzzing or glowing), but it's not actually 100% cleared at that point and digital review of the original X-Ray & sniffer data continues throughout the parcel's journey. Packages can be stopped & recalled for human inspection, return or destruction anytime afterwards while still in transit, which is now happening very frequently. For "dangerous" contraband, like Glock "buttons" and Chynesium suppressors, they are also actively pursuing recipients after delivery with warrants executed by HSI.

As for your letter, if you had Global Entry, now you don't. And you're ineligible to apply/re-apply for the next 10 years, and after that, it still requires a waiver. Same goes for S and TS clearances; however, public trust clearances are waiver eligible without a waiting period. (Those waivers likely require endorsement by a Senator or House Rep). You're also marked lifetime illegible for any SCI clearance.

If you're involved in any CI (continuous monitoring) program like Rap Back or Full Spectrum, CBP pings those as well. If you'd been covered under one of them, your Federal BI or State DOJ would've called long before the letter arrived. Depending on the type of contraband, those with an active clearance are able to keep it with a senior/executive agency waiver or (unlikely) positive review board outcome; however, any federal clearance cannot be renewed without the White House getting involved."

We'll see what happens.
 
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