irishmail

Has anyone had any orders or delivery's from Hatton's this year?   If so did you encounter any problems or delays?    Ordered an item on 5th January, posted 6th January, Royal Mail 3-5 day delivery, as yet 20th January nothing.   

Pity Hatton's don't use DPD to ship to Ireland. Ordered an item from Screwfix.ie on Monday, it being shipped from England and will be delivered today.  If DPD can deliver why can't Anpost?

Don't know if An Post have sorted their issues with incoming parcels yet,  I ordered an item from Hatton's on Tuesday 26th Oct and it was delivered today Friday 29th with out any issues.       

Hopefully a sign of things to come??

What's the matter with people these days!

https://westernpeople.ie/2021/10/18/anti-social-behaviour-causes-two-hour-delay-on-mayo-train/?fbclid=IwAR2KPtxBUlWdn8HxhGF6j6MJvTVxtF3IIeo-MO6qW5_ukOiHf_WBseO3C7M

13 hours ago, amdaley said:

There's one common denominator in the above, well actually there's two, British & Chaos but the first one definitely caused the second on both occasions 

You mean Boris & Chaos....     

32 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Report to follow, but it was great to have a fellow Sligo fan operating for the day, as well as providing lots of new info. Enniskillen every bit as good as it looks in the photos while the little single was a treat.

 Electrical problems (eventually traced to the controller plug/socket plagued much of the morning, but things settled down pm. All to do again today!

Up the Rovers! 

Just been looking at the Anpost FB page and came across this posting from a few days ago. 

"Sent a birthday card to my Niece in August from the UK, literally just found it in my postbox,
customs/An Post went to the bother of returning it to me here because I don’t have a declaration form attached to it, stating that it’s a “greetings card” & it’s value.
It’s just a l.o.l suprise birthday card nothing else! World is gone mad! Saying as it was in the country already they may as well have just delivered it! Cost more money for them sending it back to England."

Latest on the parcel for SHMBO,  it was eventually returned to the supplier, we asked them to resend it, they amended codes that An post asked them for, it is now in Dublin and we just got text and email again for VAT which we have already paid!!   So will be onto customer services tomorrow if we can get through to talk to a human (That if Anpost have any  ) .

Interesting article in the Irish sun that was mentioned on the Anpost facebook page.  Going to be a great Christmas if sending and receiving parcels with An post. 

https://www.thesun.ie/news/7717274/uk-ebay-traders-business-ireland-post/

You could just not make this up! What a bunch of cowboys in Dublin 12 sorting office. They obviously do not know their left hand from their right hand.  Just had two emails/text messages to pay customs charge. thought it strange as not got anything on order apart from two items previously mentioned that are supposed to be sent back. Out of curiosity I put the details in Anpost web site and the items are going to be returned to Hattons, which  I would like to see how they are going to do that as I have the items here which were delivered with no issues at all back in August. 

This Customs Charge has expired on 29 Aug 2021
The time period for paying the Customs Charge for the below item has lapsed and the item has been returned to HATTONS MODEL RAILWAYS. There is no longer a charge due for this item.

Customs reference number:

21IEDUB500274QFHR3

Description:

BLUE CIRCLE PCA WAGON - PRE-OW

I no longer trust An Post.  Latest saga on the packet from my brother - in law.   This is what it now says on the Royal Mail tracking.  I have never refused to accept it as Anpost never made an effort to deliver.

"Sorry, we were unable to deliver this item at 11-10-2021 as the recipient refused to accept it. It will now be returned to the sender."

On 5/10/2021 at 1:58 PM, Bumble_Bee said:

Fair play folks its hard these days to decide what carrier to use since they are all so hit and miss sometimes. 

 

 

Although I will say....

 

 

...thank god you's aren't sending with Hermes 

Slightly off topic I know, but so far we have not had any issues with Hermes/Fastway for deliveries from UK to Ireland unlike the RM/Anpost fiasco.

22 minutes ago, mphoey said:

they stop eu stuff too i had stuff sent from the netherlands stopped for vat untill i emailed asking when did the netherlands leave the eu

That just about sums up Anpost!

16 minutes ago, Blaine said:

I am now in the same quandary. Items from Scotland doing several laps of the D12 sorting facility. They say that its not marked correctly and the onus is on the sender who I've been in contact with to classify it correctly. If the seller does this does it need to go back to its country of origin or can an post go on the information they can be given. I'm thinking the former only.........

Apparently if An Post can not read it, in other word their scanners do no work, it will be sent back.  We have just had an email from a supplier that one of our orders has been returned to them.  No communication from An Post what so ever in relation to this. The following is a quote from the web chat I had with one on their service agents.   If its like ours it will be in Dublin 12  for at least two weeks before they decide to send it back.

"This item has been processed to be returned to the sender. The customs declaration which was provided electronically
was insufficient. As we cannot amend or rectify any electronic customs data, the item must be returned as a result. Please
refer to the sender to arrange for the item to be re-issued with the correct customs information (as per the changes
introduced on 1st July) once it arrives back in the country of origin. Please find more info here http://anpost.com/Customs.
I am sorry I cannot offer you a more favourable reply today."

Looking forward to seeing the MK 2's in the flesh next year, especially the blue/grey & NSE livery ones 

18 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Because if we say “this week is the week” an post will go on strike 

Don't ship out with An post or they will never get out of Dublin 

33 minutes ago, amdaley said:

Dublin Mails Center is the black hole of the Postal System.

In fact the whole An Post system is a black hole with zero responsibility & zero accountability

Had to put  a like, could do with an agree button. 

Well, managed to chat again to An post customer services via webchat,  it appears that both our packages are still in Dublin!   One since 10th September, the other since 20th September.  Just got a feeble excuse that there is a delay of retuning items.   

Part quote from the web chat.

"Chris 16:02
This item has been processed to be returned to the sender. The customs declaration which was provided electronically
was insufficient. As we cannot amend or rectify any electronic customs data, the item must be returned as a result. Please
refer to the sender to arrange for the item to be re-issued with the correct customs information (as per the changes
introduced on 1st July) once it arrives back in the country of origin. Please find more info here http://anpost.com/Customs.
I am sorry I cannot offer you a more favourable reply today.

john 16:03 when is it going to be sent back? no update on tracking since 23rd sept.

Chris 16:06 all details will update as this is dispatched and received back to Royal mail

john 16:06  so is it still in Dublin or has it been sent back?
 

Chris 16:07 it is being processed for return

john 16:08 so when will it be sent back. tracking says return to sender on 23rd?
it was received in Ireland 10 days ago

This parcel we paid additional VAT and then found out it was due to be returned, I contacted ecomcharge but had not
reply. The retailer has not received this back yet.

Chris 16:18
there is a slight delay with returns t the moment , The tracking will update soon to reflect its most recent status. as soon
as this is received back to UK our tricking will update , I will raise this with our ecomm team in regards to the VAT paid

john 16:20
So as yet it had not been sent back? Originally we were told this one was mis scanned to be sent back and ecomm would stop it and get it delivered, but this seems not to be the case.

Chris 16:23
The status appears to be the same for this , they are in the process of being returned"
 

This is a post from a UK supplier taken from the An Post Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/AnPost

"Same here. My customer's item arrived in Dublin, got through customs, got to the sorting office then disappeared. It's now showing as 'couldn't be delivered, being returned' but my customer never received a thing to say it was awaiting collection or whatever. Seems to be a common occurrence at the moment. I've sent items to Ireland from the UK before, not a problem. Everything was done through Royal Mail click and drop and all IOSS numbers were on the parcel. There seems to be huge problems with AN post at the moment." 

4 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I reckon that a lot of blame lies with An Post. They are not capable of dealing with the logistics industry as it is today, not capable of training their staff, not capable of dealing with changes, and are generally still living in the eighties.

As an anecdote, shipping from Ireland to Las Canarias was suspended in March 2020 due to Coronavirus. Shipping resumed three months later when we came out of lockdown and the flights started arriving. (Yes, we've been out of lockdown since June 2020).

However, since then, the An Post website says that no shipping is available to Las Canarias. Yet if you walk into an actual An Post office, and they will send the stuff down here no problem.

That's a year and a half that their website is out of date, and they have been contacted numerous times by various senders. If they can't get something that simple correct, how on earth will they survive BrExit, customs, VAT etc???

18 minutes ago, amdaley said:

I have spoken to a customs officer 0n 01 7383685 picking the An Post option which I think is number 6.

They told me that anything to do scanning & collecting Duty or VAT on incoming mail is purely down to An Post & they (Customs) wouldn't be involved at all.

They said that An Post have been contracted to do this & receive a fee for each item.

So we know who to blame 

That just about sums it all up. An post just do not have a clue on how to deal with this.  I have two items which were supposed to be sent back, but I believe they are still sitting somewhere in Dublin.  

Still not had any response to my emails I sent to Anpost.

22 hours ago, murphaph said:

For generic stuff like craft supplies it makes little sense to gamble with a UK supplier these days and a lot of sense investing some time trying to find a reliable supplier in Ireland or failing that somewhere else in the EU. I can recommend https://www.architekturbedarf.de/versand as a satisfied customer. Shipping to Ireland is a flat €30 it seems so you'd want to get a decent order together to make it worthwhile. The good thing with hobby supplies like this is that you can always find more stuff that you will eventually need to make up a decent order. I am generally easily able to hit an €80 order to get the free shipping inside Germany, just by ordering a second of this or that.

 

The retailer we ordered from is registered for Irish VAT and the invoices show VAT at 23%  and not UK 20%.  Despite this we were asked for additional VAT from Anpost which we paid (the retailer did refund this additional payment straight away) then they decided to send it back.  It may well be still sitting somewhere in Dublin as retailer has now had any return of our package yet!

Quote from the web chat we had with Anpost on 20th September.

"This item was scanned as send for delivery on the 10th however it was then =scanned to be processed for return to
sender on the 16th, I would advise that you contact the Ecomm team on ecommchargequery@anpost.com and
they will be able to clarify what is happening with this item."

Also could you please tell me why additional VAT & customs charges had to be paid as the company concerned is
registered for Irish VAT.

According to customs there was Vat owed of €6.62 and the €3.50 An Post processing fee, you can query these charges
with the Ecomm team also."

Email was sent to this Ecomm and as yet still had no reply!!!

Seven weeks!!!   

Well that just confirms what our local postie has told us then.   Wonder if anything can be done about this via Royal Mail, as the two items we have somewhere in the Anpost system where posted Royal Mail 'air mail' 3-5 working days delivery.   One is crafting items for SHMBO which have previously been delivered before with no issues, this time we had to pay extra VAT and its being sent back, this was on 10th September!  The other as mentioned previously is a gift from family (international signed for) which  has been sitting in Dublin 12 for the last week.  

2 minutes ago, amdaley said:

The usual blah blah so.

I've emailed so many Td's & Ministers at this point I feel I know them personally.

Too lazy to do the job properly. My local post office clerk reckons they are just taking the easy way out.

Tony.

 

More or less what out local postie has said.  Apparently anything that does not fit the customs description is put into a crate to be sent back only when it is full!! So our parcels may well be sitting in Dublin 12!   Just checked for updates on mine and the tracking shows mine is still there.

Regards,  John

This is an email I had from Anpsot in response to the email that I sent them on 10th September!   They have not even made any effort to resolve any issues or reply to my enquiries.  It seems from others who have been in contact with them they have been trained/programmed to just say the same excuse to everyone!

One on my local TD's is looking into this, so will see what happens.

"Dear Customer

We apologise that that due to high volume of enquiries in recent weeks, we have been unable to respond within the normal timeframe.  We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you. 

If your query has since been resolved to your satisfaction, there is no need to respond to this email. If we don’t hear back from you, we will close your enquiry.

If your query has not been resolved and relates to Customs or Customs Payments, please see below for further information.

If your query does not concern Customs, please reply by email so that we can answer your enquiry directly.

Customs/Customs Payments: 

• If your enquiry relates to an item coming from a country outside of the European Union(EU), including the United Kingdom, the following information may help:
  Due to EU Customs rules, charges apply when you buy goods outside of the EU. The EU Customs regulations have been expanded since July 1^st this year. Customs charges are collected by An Post on behalf of Irish Revenue once Irish Customs have determined what tariffs are to be paid.
• If you have checked the status of an inbound item using our online Track & Trace facility, and your item is shown to have been ‘Returned to Sender’, this is due to one of the following reasons:
  • The customs charge wasn't paid on time. Customers are notified of EU customs charges by text/email/post and given 16 days to pay securely online or at their local post office. The required customs declaration made by the Sender was insufficient or invalid according to Customs regulations.  Under EU Customs regulations, retailers (or other senders) must provide electronic customs declaration data for every items being posted into the EU.  More information on these requirements can be found under the  ‘Sending to Ireland from non-EU countries’ section on anpost.com/sending. Unfortunately, An Post cannot amend customs declaration data, so items arriving into Ireland with incomplete data have to be returned.
  • The item (or some of the goods) being sent to you are prohibited or restricted under EU Customs rules.  Restricted goods require detailed advance electronic declarations for each item.  Prohibited goods are not allowed into the EU. For more information, visit the Revenue website
  • If your item is shown to have been ‘Returned to Sender’ despite you having already paid the  requested customs charge through An Post, please email ecommchargequery@anpost.ie to request a refund of your payment.  

If your customs query remains unresolved, and you need further information, please respond to this email and let us know.

Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused and we hope that this information is useful. Please see anpost.com/customs for further information.
Kind regards,

An Post Customer Contact Centre"

4 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

Perhaps a parcel Motel type option that delivers to Northern Ireland then rouges to the south?

Not sure if that would work now.  I used to have deliveries by DPD parcel wizard, but they finished this service in December last year due to Brexit!!   This was handy for ebay purchases from sellers who do not post to Ireland.

I have previously used address pal in the past which was fine when you could collect from your local post office, but that service is now 'from' €6.50 plus any possible customs/VAT.

If Anpost and custom's got there act together they could maybe adopt a system that murphaph says operates in Germany.  Surely this would be a logical way forward and would also create employment for the local economy.

47 minutes ago, murphaph said:

I know it sounds cliched but really the media need to be involved. The likes of Pat Kenny on Newstalk would surely be interested in doing a piece on this in the run up to xmas. There will be tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of gifts arriving into Ireland from outside the EU soon and the vast majority will have no HS codes as they are not required on non-commercial parcels and those that do will almost certainly be of the common or garden 8 digit variety. Are An Post going to basically send all these parcels back??

Well the way they seem to be operating at the moment it could well be the case.  With my packet (only a small jiffy bag type) from my Brother in law, only last night I found out it failed 'customs' clearance'.  This I only found out by the tracking information.  Not all parcels are sent registered so God knows what happens to them!  The wife's parcel which was sent early September ( which we paid additional VAT on) still no response on that one. I emailed the ecommchargequery@anpost  and still not had a even an automated reply! .

Like amdaley I sent a polite email to all the TD's in my county, so will see what happens from there.