Chicago Customs - Recent Experiences?

[Miket55]

Even simple domestic items have been ridiculous. Ordered a case for my new phone this year. Didn't receive in three weeks. Contact seller, they ship out a replacement to make good. And then both cases show up two days later, on the same day... I threw one back in my mailbox to send it back to them.

It has to do with a lot of things. I need to do some research on this "Quantum Solutions" outfit. Either way I'm waiting a couple months before ordering anything abroad. Let the Holiday shipping chill down. Then see how it goes with ordinary items domestic and overseas. Then go ahead and try for a full package. Luckily I stock up, so I only order every once in a long while.

It is absurd.
I happen to work with domestic and intl cargo going on 7 years.
I’ve never seen delays like this in my life.
I’ve even done Kustoms clearance etc and it is beyond crazy.
A lot of shipments are being moved via a commercial carrier, normally a 53’ van.
Guess what, we have so many drivers that quit , and it causes major delays.
For people like myself waiting for over a month, and others- the shipments come in a container.
They strip the container and then place them into bins, your bin may have had a misscan.
I see it daily, what happens is the volume coming in keeps piling up, they work on the current inbound cargo, and yours could be sitting behind 50+ bins, each day the overflow gets worse as yours keeps being pushed back, imagine a warehouse at 2000% capacity and the old shipments keep getting pushed back farther and farther.
With the overload, I doubt they are scanning 25% of the cargo after it heads out of kustoms.
Kustoms is understaffed, they do not have enough capacity to do their job on time.
They do not have the time to look at it even 1% of the cargo for extreme scrutiny. If the declaration or as we call it “waybill , HAWB, AWB” matches up, there should be no reason for examination any further.
Add in the holidays with people taking off (as I am now) and you have yourself a nightmare of misrouted, un scanned and bins that have been cleared but keep getting pushed back due to new shipments every second.
Honestly with the online demand, there can be packs at that hub for 90+ days before updating.
I work with a Ch! terminal , and it is one of the most delayed areas in the country.
The #1 most delayed would be anything coming in from the port sections of [email protected]

Hey @Miket55. I certainly appreciate all this information! But it doesn’t explain why CHI DOES seem to be snagging damn near everything in the IOP department? And sending out LL’s fairly rapidly to boot. They do seem to’ve stepped up their inspection game from some angle. Any idea how or why that is? If it were just delays wouldn’t folks still finally get them, but I haven’t seen that here at all.

Any more insight is greatly appreciated! You’re as close to a customs agent as we’ve ever had here. 👏😃

I’m no agent just an expert in logistics lol.
I would assume
1. There is a lot of paperwork and effort to write up that many LL’s. It has to be filed just like how the PO accepts freight, they are backlogged and sometimes delay confirmation.
2. The current admin is cracking down on anything to treat COVID, so they are checking much more than usual. If you read the funding, they increased it to some of the agencies.
3. There very well is a major delay, things sitting in bins, no scans etc.
If you get a LL it will not be quick, it will take some time due to how delayed things are.
I guarantee whoever is writing the clearance on the packs that are seized did not adjust and update because- you always need a declaration, and if it looks like something that could be a vitamin, food, anything of that nature or even let’s say latex gloves, they’ll flag it and confiscate it.
Yes trucks are very very backed up, but I smell something strange.
I had to clear a pump sent back to the US, the shippers value for the pump was about 20K short of it what the true value is. It was flagged and the shipper had to pay extra duties to allow it to proceed.
If the numbers are off, they’ll see it.
They can’t look at everything, and there may be lost packs as well. I see it all the time

 

[Miket55]

I believe it. But, it's nice hearing it directly from someone in that field of work. No wonder it took them ages to get the LL out to me. From the date it was shipped, it probably hit that area the end of June, beginning of July the latest. Took 5 months for me to get the LL. I was holding out hope until I saw that waiting for me haha. Exactly why I'm going to do everything in my power to wait several months before I place an order from overseas @Miket55.

Hopefully once the Holiday season cools down, and people start getting back in for jobs, things will be routed through NY like always for the East Coast. At least in my experience, it's always been that way. I've noticed a lot of random package delivery folks for USPS, Amazon, UPS, etc, in my area lately. Not unusual for most to hire contractors for the Holiday season, but this year I've noticed it more often. There is one dude, I recognize his car when he's pulling into the driveway. I always smile and say, "Well, someone has been busy".

I'm not sure what happened with that whole idea of forced vaccination? But, wasn't there a ton of people leaving the postal service, because the government was basically forcing the vaccine on all their employees? A vaccine cannot be forced by a medical professional, never mind your employer. I'm not surprised, that didn't go over too well

Exactly, they are so overwhelmed that it took that long for an LL.
Many truckers and logistics personnel have quit due to the mandate.
I see some are also concerned- “my pack never got a LL and maybe they are going to set me up.”
It is very detail oriented and expensive as well as many resources need to be pulled by a
@gencies. Unless you have strange activity be it inbound or outbound, as well as have had many items taken over the years, the ratio is very very unlikely. These normally happen after months or years of monitoring. What is BIG to you, might not be BIG to them. Obviously the schedule and med can be a factor in this.
As someone who is an operations manager ( I will go to businesses to check their cargo and small package to see what it is under the NMFTA so we can make sure the insurance covers for it etc if they ship often) I have so many shipments that were sent to the Consignee and what they sent is not even close to what the Consignee ordered, or they ship to the wrong place, truck delivers to the wrong place and sometimes the wrong cargo is accepted and signed for, sometimes the receiver says “ I don’t want that freight, it is not for us.”
They are so overwhelmed they can’t even get LL’s out. Do you think they are going to come after someone unless they are 150% sure?
Maybe, but this is more of a political move with the items being taken. They are saying “ F you, you pay U$ Pharma dollars.”
That’s what it is, a power grab.

 

[jaders]

I believe it. But, it's nice hearing it directly from someone in that field of work. No wonder it took them ages to get the LL out to me. From the date it was shipped, it probably hit that area the end of June, beginning of July the latest. Took 5 months for me to get the LL. I was holding out hope until I saw that waiting for me haha. Exactly why I'm going to do everything in my power to wait several months before I place an order from overseas @Miket55.

Hopefully once the Holiday season cools down, and people start getting back in for jobs, things will be routed through NY like always for the East Coast. At least in my experience, it's always been that way. I've noticed a lot of random package delivery folks for USPS, Amazon, UPS, etc, in my area lately. Not unusual for most to hire contractors for the Holiday season, but this year I've noticed it more often. There is one dude, I recognize his car when he's pulling into the driveway. I always smile and say, "Well, someone has been busy".

I'm not sure what happened with that whole idea of forced vaccination? But, wasn't there a ton of people leaving the postal service, because the government was basically forcing the vaccine on all their employees? A vaccine cannot be forced by a medical professional, never mind your employer. I'm not surprised, that didn't go over too well

Exactly, they are so overwhelmed that it took that long for an LL.
Many truckers and logistics personnel have quit due to the mandate.
I see some are also concerned- “my pack never got a LL and maybe they are going to set me up.”
It is very detail oriented and expensive as well as many resources need to be pulled by a
@gencies. Unless you have strange activity be it inbound or outbound, as well as have had many items taken over the years, the ratio is very very unlikely. These normally happen after months or years of monitoring. What is BIG to you, might not be BIG to them. Obviously the schedule and med can be a factor in this.
As someone who is an operations manager ( I will go to businesses to check their cargo and small package to see what it is under the NMFTA so we can make sure the insurance covers for it etc if they ship often) I have so many shipments that were sent to the Consignee and what they sent is not even close to what the Consignee ordered, or they ship to the wrong place, truck delivers to the wrong place and sometimes the wrong cargo is accepted and signed for, sometimes the receiver says “ I don’t want that freight, it is not for us.”
They are so overwhelmed they can’t even get LL’s out. Do you think they are going to come after someone unless they are 150% sure?
Maybe, but this is more of a political move with the items being taken. They are saying “ F you, you pay U$ Pharma dollars.”
That’s what it is, a power grab.

I think a lot of us feel that that new "STOP Act" was a possible game changer for the IOP business, unfortunately. Do you feel like that is playing a bigger part in items being seized? For myself, every single time I have had an item seized I have received a LL, and the only time I didn't I was the unlucky recipient of a knock and talk (at least 3 years ago.) It was the year that the Operation Pangea was about "information gathering," and it was also at the time LA became so locked down and I had had 4 items seized in a very short period. They claimed to be investigating a particular vendor but it's never made any sense to me because I didn't know any more information about the vendor than they certainly could find out. However I'm definitely aware of many folks losing packs that never result in LL's and also never result in visits either. For anyone else worrying - the visits are extremely rare and I have never ever made any real sense of their purpose, myself.

All I know is that it feels much more difficult to get items thru any port lately, but LA and CHI are by far the worst. I'm sure we're all wondering if this is a permanent shift or is just being caused by a lot of unusual factors combined. Also, I do expect the good vendors to somehow step up their stealth or ability to "declare" items in a way that gets them to pass thru. Without doing so, they're going to not get patronized any longer. Can't just keep throwing money at this without a large percentage of success, that's for sure...

I certainly appreciate any and all info you can and already have been providing, @Miket55!

 

[Miket55]

I believe it. But, it's nice hearing it directly from someone in that field of work. No wonder it took them ages to get the LL out to me. From the date it was shipped, it probably hit that area the end of June, beginning of July the latest. Took 5 months for me to get the LL. I was holding out hope until I saw that waiting for me haha. Exactly why I'm going to do everything in my power to wait several months before I place an order from overseas @Miket55.

Hopefully once the Holiday season cools down, and people start getting back in for jobs, things will be routed through NY like always for the East Coast. At least in my experience, it's always been that way. I've noticed a lot of random package delivery folks for USPS, Amazon, UPS, etc, in my area lately. Not unusual for most to hire contractors for the Holiday season, but this year I've noticed it more often. There is one dude, I recognize his car when he's pulling into the driveway. I always smile and say, "Well, someone has been busy".

I'm not sure what happened with that whole idea of forced vaccination? But, wasn't there a ton of people leaving the postal service, because the government was basically forcing the vaccine on all their employees? A vaccine cannot be forced by a medical professional, never mind your employer. I'm not surprised, that didn't go over too well

Exactly, they are so overwhelmed that it took that long for an LL.
Many truckers and logistics personnel have quit due to the mandate.
I see some are also concerned- “my pack never got a LL and maybe they are going to set me up.”
It is very detail oriented and expensive as well as many resources need to be pulled by a
@gencies. Unless you have strange activity be it inbound or outbound, as well as have had many items taken over the years, the ratio is very very unlikely. These normally happen after months or years of monitoring. What is BIG to you, might not be BIG to them. Obviously the schedule and med can be a factor in this.
As someone who is an operations manager ( I will go to businesses to check their cargo and small package to see what it is under the NMFTA so we can make sure the insurance covers for it etc if they ship often) I have so many shipments that were sent to the Consignee and what they sent is not even close to what the Consignee ordered, or they ship to the wrong place, truck delivers to the wrong place and sometimes the wrong cargo is accepted and signed for, sometimes the receiver says “ I don’t want that freight, it is not for us.”
They are so overwhelmed they can’t even get LL’s out. Do you think they are going to come after someone unless they are 150% sure?
Maybe, but this is more of a political move with the items being taken. They are saying “ F you, you pay U$ Pharma dollars.”
That’s what it is, a power grab.

I think a lot of us feel that that new "STOP Act" was a possible game changer for the IOP business, unfortunately. Do you feel like that is playing a bigger part in items being seized? For myself, every single time I have had an item seized I have received a LL, and the only time I didn't I was the unlucky recipient of a knock and talk (at least 3 years ago.) It was the year that the Operation Pangea was about "information gathering," and it was also at the time LA became so locked down and I had had 4 items seized in a very short period. They claimed to be investigating a particular vendor but it's never made any sense to me because I didn't know any more information about the vendor than they certainly could find out. However I'm definitely aware of many folks losing packs that never result in LL's and also never result in visits either. For anyone else worrying - the visits are extremely rare and I have never ever made any real sense of their purpose, myself.

All I know is that it feels much more difficult to get items thru any port lately, but LA and CHI are by far the worst. I'm sure we're all wondering if this is a permanent shift or is just being caused by a lot of unusual factors combined. Also, I do expect the good vendors to somehow step up their stealth or ability to "declare" items in a way that gets them to pass thru. Without doing so, they're going to not get patronized any longer. Can't just keep throwing money at this without a large percentage of success, that's for sure...

I certainly appreciate any and all info you can and already have been providing, @Miket55!

From what I know on why there are more packs taken, it is: 1. COVID Supplies/Meds, the g0v does not want them to be purchased unless they are from big [email protected] here. 2. The f3tnly issue keeps hitting news (go watch Fox) and they bring it up every fricking day, so the admin wants to prevent that risk.
3. If your paperwork on the customs declaration looks funky, they will check the pack. You can’t put worth $30 when the method to move it costs more than then declared value… major red flag.
They are actually doing a crackdown as we speak, it isn’t really in the news but it is to prevent [email protected] meds to keep people safe.

I am just a logistics expert and certified for kustoms clearance( I do the PARS, or other documents when shipments arrive at the borders, help with commercial invoices , dispatch trucks and monitor them etc.)
The U$ actually has some of the easier kustoms for the most part.
It will fade away, vendors will need to adjust.

Deal with it all day everyday for commercial things, it’s a pain in the @ss.

 

[jaders]

I believe it. But, it's nice hearing it directly from someone in that field of work. No wonder it took them ages to get the LL out to me. From the date it was shipped, it probably hit that area the end of June, beginning of July the latest. Took 5 months for me to get the LL. I was holding out hope until I saw that waiting for me haha. Exactly why I'm going to do everything in my power to wait several months before I place an order from overseas @Miket55.

Hopefully once the Holiday season cools down, and people start getting back in for jobs, things will be routed through NY like always for the East Coast. At least in my experience, it's always been that way. I've noticed a lot of random package delivery folks for USPS, Amazon, UPS, etc, in my area lately. Not unusual for most to hire contractors for the Holiday season, but this year I've noticed it more often. There is one dude, I recognize his car when he's pulling into the driveway. I always smile and say, "Well, someone has been busy".

I'm not sure what happened with that whole idea of forced vaccination? But, wasn't there a ton of people leaving the postal service, because the government was basically forcing the vaccine on all their employees? A vaccine cannot be forced by a medical professional, never mind your employer. I'm not surprised, that didn't go over too well

Exactly, they are so overwhelmed that it took that long for an LL.
Many truckers and logistics personnel have quit due to the mandate.
I see some are also concerned- “my pack never got a LL and maybe they are going to set me up.”
It is very detail oriented and expensive as well as many resources need to be pulled by a
@gencies. Unless you have strange activity be it inbound or outbound, as well as have had many items taken over the years, the ratio is very very unlikely. These normally happen after months or years of monitoring. What is BIG to you, might not be BIG to them. Obviously the schedule and med can be a factor in this.
As someone who is an operations manager ( I will go to businesses to check their cargo and small package to see what it is under the NMFTA so we can make sure the insurance covers for it etc if they ship often) I have so many shipments that were sent to the Consignee and what they sent is not even close to what the Consignee ordered, or they ship to the wrong place, truck delivers to the wrong place and sometimes the wrong cargo is accepted and signed for, sometimes the receiver says “ I don’t want that freight, it is not for us.”
They are so overwhelmed they can’t even get LL’s out. Do you think they are going to come after someone unless they are 150% sure?
Maybe, but this is more of a political move with the items being taken. They are saying “ F you, you pay U$ Pharma dollars.”
That’s what it is, a power grab.

I think a lot of us feel that that new "STOP Act" was a possible game changer for the IOP business, unfortunately. Do you feel like that is playing a bigger part in items being seized? For myself, every single time I have had an item seized I have received a LL, and the only time I didn't I was the unlucky recipient of a knock and talk (at least 3 years ago.) It was the year that the Operation Pangea was about "information gathering," and it was also at the time LA became so locked down and I had had 4 items seized in a very short period. They claimed to be investigating a particular vendor but it's never made any sense to me because I didn't know any more information about the vendor than they certainly could find out. However I'm definitely aware of many folks losing packs that never result in LL's and also never result in visits either. For anyone else worrying - the visits are extremely rare and I have never ever made any real sense of their purpose, myself.

All I know is that it feels much more difficult to get items thru any port lately, but LA and CHI are by far the worst. I'm sure we're all wondering if this is a permanent shift or is just being caused by a lot of unusual factors combined. Also, I do expect the good vendors to somehow step up their stealth or ability to "declare" items in a way that gets them to pass thru. Without doing so, they're going to not get patronized any longer. Can't just keep throwing money at this without a large percentage of success, that's for sure...

I certainly appreciate any and all info you can and already have been providing, @Miket55!

From what I know on why there are more packs taken, it is: 1. COVID Supplies/Meds, the g0v does not want them to be purchased unless they are from big [email protected] here. 2. The f3tnly issue keeps hitting news (go watch Fox) and they bring it up every fricking day, so the admin wants to prevent that risk.
3. If your paperwork on the customs declaration looks funky, they will check the pack. You can’t put worth $30 when the method to move it costs more than then declared value… major red flag.
They are actually doing a crackdown as we speak, it isn’t really in the news but it is to prevent [email protected] meds to keep people safe.

I am just a logistics expert and certified for kustoms clearance( I do the PARS, or other documents when shipments arrive at the borders, help with commercial invoices , dispatch trucks and monitor them etc.)
The U$ actually has some of the easier kustoms for the most part.
It will fade away, vendors will need to adjust.

Deal with it all day everyday for commercial things, it’s a pain in the @ss.

I'm counting on you to be right about it "fading away!"

But actually I don't see this [email protected] issue going away anytime soon either. It kills me that it's harder and harder to obtain rx meds which are obviously MUCH safer, but getting the biggies - heroin, meth and as you say, f3nt. - those are as easy as it's ever been. How come they never seem to get to the heart of problems? I will never understand...

Thanks again...🙏

 

[heavymetalviolet]

Was curious about this. Ordered something around Thanksgiving, it shipped from Europe in December, and has been sitting in Chi since 12/9. It was listed as "inward office of exchange" and was originally listed as "in transit" but now that is listed as "destination" so I am hoping that doesn't mean I am going to be the happy recipient of an LL soon, though I think that is what that means. My first LL came from a Chi shipment, second Miami. I am hopeful but nervous. I hate this feeling.

 

[jaders]

I just had one hit Chi and inbound into customs? What are my chances it gets thru? i paid for extra stealth too

So did this one make it? Been wondering…thanks.

 

[Mecha]

Oh I will say my piece. When POE Chicago gets overloaded they truck it over to either Milwaukee WI or to Detroit Mi. I’ve had this happen to me quite a few times. They do scan at Chicago every once in a while. But then they have to wait for a commercial truck (outbid the other truckers clients) and planes so it may take a week longer to get to MI or WI. There you may get a scan or not. One of mine ran 22 day a couple years ago. Good luck, M

P. S.: Just adding in another scenario. It could be one of 1 million things, just hang in there, everything’s gonna be all right. 💫 M

 

[Miket55]

Oh I will say my piece. When POE Chicago gets overloaded they truck it over to either Milwaukee WI or to Detroit Mi. I’ve had this happen to me quite a few times. They do scan at Chicago every once in a while. But then they have to wait for a commercial truck (outbid the other truckers clients) and planes so it may take a week longer to get to MI or WI. There you may get a scan or not. One of mine ran 22 day a couple years ago. Good luck, M

P. S.: Just adding in another scenario. It could be one of 1 million things, just hang in there, everything’s gonna be all right. 💫 M

Spot on, they use commercial carriers for overflow as I am actually working 4 skids of mail pieces but they are being picked up in IN to head to another center as the PO is full and needs re-routed per the manager.
These need to be shrink wrapped and bar coded to move with a commercial carrier. Oh and they do a sh*t job on these kinds of things , half the time they don’t load the truck and it sits for days.
That right there can be a delay……

 

[fundus]

My last two seizures went through Chi town over this past summer. I've since had a few successful deliveries but I'm not sure which POE they came through because the stamps were not legible. I'm about due to place another order and hopefully it goes through NY, I'm not sure what's up with Chicago but they seem to have a great sense of awareness if you ask me.

I forgot to add that the only worse POE from my experience in the past decade or so is Miami, nothing makes past Miami..at least for me.

 

[Purplebomshell]

My item just cleared customs. It had been there since the 27th.😀

 

[Doc Rogue]

Just to help others here who have a letter in CHI. An order of mine placed recently was in opps for 5 days, and in CHI for 9 days, before finally getting thru cost0ms and on its way westward.
I tend to think that even though this is a horrible time of year to have one land here.. being overrun with letters and packages may be a benefit - just that for them to work their way thru the backlog of letters yours may have a better chance of skating thru unharmed.
Just a theory. I’d rather not have to deal w/ this isc at all, but would probably choose to take my chances with them over LA. Neither being a great option though.
Good luck to all those waiting.

 

[Musing]

OK, I have one in Chi customs...
doing this from memory but it said at 12:37am on the 31st: processed through facility
the weird thing is it has not updated but it said expected delivery Monday, Jan 3rd. NOPE.

Since I usually don't get to deal with tn's and customs can anyone tell me what is going on?

Thank you

 

[LeviDenim]

Had one enter ISC Chicago around Nov 17. Next day it was at a distribution center and then
it stopped updating. It has not had a scan since Nov 18. Needles to say I have given up on it.

 

[Musing]

Had one enter ISC Chicago around Nov 17. Next day it was at a distribution center and then
it stopped updating. It has not had a scan since Nov 18. Needles to say I have given up on it.

So after one day and it doesn't update its a goner? yikes, that sucks.

 

[DBGdefector]

With the way things are now in this country and where it seems to be headed with this ah, "administration"... the uncertainty of getting what you order thru customs I don't need any more headaches & frustration, I order US2US more now and it's taken a load off my mind to say the least. It's the way to go for me until things change but I don't expect that anytime soon.

 

[Musing]

Mine still has not moved since the 31st.

Happy New's Years!!!

 

[Musing]

Day 10 "PTF"

 

[LeviDenim]

Just updating my previous post.
The item never arrived from the UK it recently just fell off the map.
The tracking number appears to have expired. That's only the 2nd
item never received from Western Europe for me, but IMO this trend
appears to be growing.

 

[Musing]

nothing