If you're in the US and haven't been contacted directly by customs and you haven't received your order?
I am in the US and I have never been contacted directly by customs in my life.
Do they send you a post card or something?
That's actually a
really excellent question that nobody's brought up yet, which I can answer. My former neighbor was ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement,) specifically customs inspections and investigation for enforcement.
Generally, ICE (now part of DHS) will
not contact you unless customs fees are owed or there is a discrepancy with the paperwork or similar issue. For example, if the customs form said it was "scrap metal" with a value of $50 and they found it was gold bars? Uh, yeah. You're gonna have DHS at your door investigating customs fraud. Like, literally coming to your house.
For "other" errors, they usually rely on the
information provided by the shipper in order to contact the intended recipient. So that means if the shipper provided your phone number, they'll try to call you first. If they can't reach you by phone, they'll usually send a postcard or letter to the address on the package when available. This letter will tell you in very general terms what the issue is - either improper declaration, duty owed, or package damaged (rare.) Depending on the issue, they may tell you that they are seizing the merchandise (most common with counterfeited items) or to make your money order payable to US CBP. (NO CHECKS. Cash, money order, cashier's check, or credit card ONLY.)
Customs fee fraud isn't unheard of. If you get a letter saying you owe customs fees, it will come on official letterhead from a licensed importation agent or US Customs and Border Patrol. In most cases, you can go directly to the location where the items are held, pay the fees, and they will be immediately released to you.
For example, the declaration said "$500 worth of neat stuff" and it was shipped via DHL. DHL would then call you to let you know they had your package and duties were owed. They'd also send a letter on company letterhead, telling you the package number, what you owed, and why. You would then either pay DHL the owed duties online and they would complete shipment; or you would go to the local DHL office, pay the duties, and take the item home (if it was there - in many cases, it may be held at the port of entry.)
For US citizens,
you are responsible for all owed duty charges and fees - not the shipper. You can also be held legally liable for certain civil and criminal charges. Also note that what it's
actually worth is irrelevant; a customs declaration is a legal document swearing to the value of goods exchanged. If it says $500 and only contains $5 of junk, you owe the $500 duty.
If there is nothing wrong with your package as far as CBP is concerned,
they will not contact you at any time in the process. The majority of small packages like these will clear customs extremely quickly - usually less than 5 business days. They don't have the time, money, or manpower to inspect 50,000 individual boxes in a bulk container. They're looking for red flags in the electronically filed forms, missing seals, known bad actors, and other issues they can spot at a glance.
This of course does not rule out individual ****weeds within CBP who hold the process up and insist on checking everything, or the possibility of your item being held up because somebody
else broke the law. In those cases, you will not be contacted in most cases unless there is an excessive delay (more than 4 weeks.)
