Customs Wait

[dgrueber]

Hey everyone!

I ordered a Huky from Mr. Li about 4 weeks ago and he shipped it out about 2 weeks ago with tracking information through EMS.  I tracked the progress until it hit the USPS ISC facility at O'hare (Chicago) where it is now stuck and has shown no movement for days.  I called USPS and they said "oh yea, it arrived but it's stuck in customs".  US customs office will not offer and help so basically I'm sitting here at my work (which happens to be less than 10 miles from the site of the ISC) not knowing anything about my $1,600 roaster.

Anyone else experience this long customs wait?  How long did it take for yours to arrive?  I'm hoping it comes soon or else it was a waste of money on my end.

-Dan

[jeffdt]

Mine shipped out on August 3rd and it arrived August 8th. I think I got pretty lucky with the total time, pretty amazing turnaround time considering the distance it traveled. I attached my tracking info just for the hell of it so you can compare to yours.

I think you need to keep calling and hounding customs until they figure out what's going on and get it moving again. That's way too much money to be tied up in bureaucracy! I'm sure Mr. Li would be very sympathetic but there's not much he can do on his end 

Good luck dude, keep us posted!

[dgrueber]

So update on this.  USPS is of absolutely ZERO help.  I called again this morning and the answer was "Oh yea, it's in customs, they can have it for 30-45 days".  I explain based on jeffdt's tracking info that the same exact package that was shipped Taiwan to LA went through customs in under a day and it shows being scanned in and scanned out of customs.  Her response "well sir it's a different facility".  Seriously?  Government bureaucracy at it's finest ladies and gentlemen.  It's a fricking coffee roaster for crying out loud.  Why is it taking days on end to pass customs? 

I hope no one else goes through this.  I did contact Mr. Li and there is absolutely nothing he can do since its not even in his country anymore.  PS, postal workers that deliver my mail are the nicest people, however, postal workers you get on the phone hate their lives and are seriously of no use to anyone.

PS, called customs, yea they don't even track any packages in their possession, all tracking and scanning is supposed to be done by USPS.  Someone get them a better budget and hire a Lean Consultant to boost their efficiency.  They operate like it's the 1960's still.

[jeffdt]

I always hesitate to generalize, but in my experience government workers are usually either the happiest or rudest people around. I guess some of them appreciate the cushy job + benefits while others hate dealing with annoyed "customers" and doing such boring work    Try not to let it get to you, even if you're courteous and patient, they might have just gotten off the phone with someone that was being loud and rude.

Unfortunately I don't have much advice since I got pretty lucky with my order. This was the first thing I've ever ordered that had to go through customs. Hopefully someone else here can give you some direction. My only idea is to keep calling again at different times and hope that you get a different person. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting someone with their head screwed on right that is more interested in helping you than getting you off the phone.

I'm rooting for you, I just completed my first roast on the Huky last night and had a blast. I had to have a few extra parts delivered from Mr. Li and the wait has been killing me but now that I finally got it all assembled and fired up the wait was well worth it. Hopefully it won't be long before you get to try it out yourself. Just remember that this probably won't clear itself up without some more intervention from you, bureaucracy tends to jam itself up as often as it possibly can.

[PabloElFlamenco]

According to Mr. Li's EMS airwaybill tracking, my roaster's been in Customs store, here in Brussels, since 31 October.  We are now 9 November, perhaps it will show up tomorrow, Friday is 11 November holiday and then two days weekend.  Oh well...I'm excercising virtue!