Shipping issue
My latest order from Yunnan Sourcing cleared customs in Kunming on the 5th of this month, and was flagged as en route to Sweden from Guangzhou on the 7th.
On the 21st it was then flagged as going back to Kunming, and has been there since. Its latest status is “Kunming, returned to vote properly”, or 昆明市, 退回 妥投 in Mandarin.
Any ideas? It was shipped “Express Small Parcel (e-packet)”.
Having looked again at YS’s shipping page, it seems as though orders are in fact shipped from Kunming, so maybe it being there isn’t so bad after all!
YS say that for this shipping type you should contact them after 40 days if it hasn’t turned up, which will be the middle of February in this case. I’ll just have to cross my fingers and dig a little deeper into my stash in the meantime!
Still, it would be nice to know exactly what that status update actually means… :)
Sounds like the package was rejected by Swedish customs and returned to Kunming from your description. “Returned to vote properly” is probably a bad translation. I would ask Scott to look into whether the package has been sent back to Kunming. He may not have it back yet to confirm this. Or I may be misreading what you wrote and be completely wrong.
I think you may be right – that would explain the 14 day gap between it leaving Guangzhou flagged as bound for Stockholm and then re-appearing in Guangzhou.
We’ve never had a problem with Swedish customs before though…
While Scott will resend for free if the package was lost, if it was rejected by customs I believe he would require you to pay for shipping again. I vaguely remember something about that on the Yunnan Sourcing shipping page. A package can be rejected by customs for any number of reasons. I have had packages returned to the sender in China but before they left China, they have been returned by Chinese customs.
Based on what information we can glean from the Swedish customs web-site, it seems as though it might be an issue with the postal services up here, which given their reputation elevates this to an “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” job.
My best hope seems to be that it makes it back to YS in 1 piece and I can pay for another crack at shipping…
I don’t think you will be charged twice for shipping. If you need me to I can get Scott in touch with you if need be.
On the Yunnan Sourcing shipping page it looks like he would have to pay the shipping cost back to China and then again back to Sweden if the package was rejected by Swedish customs. Maybe I read the shipping cost policy wrong but that is what it looks like. Also something about a restocking fee if you want a refund.
I don’t think there will be a Sweden —> China charge since Customs sent it back (return to sender).
@mrmopar Thanks for the offer of contacting Scott for me. I do feel a bit awkward about interrupting Scott’s Chinese New Year celebrations for my beeng and brick, though… :)
I guess I can’t really move forward with this until I can figure out where the order actually is. Even if it did make it back to Kunming in 1 piece, I suppose it’s now stuck in Chinese New Year holiday downtime limbo… :)
Unfortunately it’s not uncommon that parcels get sent to Guangzhou or Shanghai for forwarding to their destination country only to be rejected by airport security. If the security scan reveals anything suspicious it gets sent back to destination. They cannot open the parcel (only China Customs can do that), so they can only send it back. Assuming it never made it out of China that is. In such cases we send again without any charge as no additional postage fee is incurred from our side. I have heard airport security people that scan the parcels have a quota to fill (for rejected parcels). Perhaps this is true or just a new urban myth.
Send me an email with your parcel tracking number and I can tell you more definitively. I appreciate your polite concern about not wanting to bug me during Chinese New Year, but I am working through the holidays. If Chinese New Year was a day or two I’d just take them off, but it’s 10+ days!!! ;-)
Hi Scott.
My wife pounced on the mail delivery person this afternoon, and gave them a thorough interrogation! They were under the impression that if it had been a customs issue in Sweden then the parcel would simply have been binned, not returned.
That extended New Year Holiday sounds remarkably like Sweden during the summer! When the fine weather arrives, everybody wants to down tools and enjoy it while it’s there. 2 weeks is the norm for many businesses, with some closing down for longer than that. The bicycle shop near our summer house used to close for half of July and all of August!
I’ve mailed relevant info regarding the order and tracking number to you.
Thanks again for the help.
@Kitan – Got your email and replied. Indeed it was returned to Kunming and we’ve already re-sent it the very last day before big holiday! Chinese New Year is pretty crazy. I mean where in the modern western world does a whole country take off 2 weeks at the same time?
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