Customs United States EMS? Shipping to and from Russia

I don't see why you have to call US EMS if you didn't mail out the package. It came in under whatever passes for Russian EMS. I've found that EMS from other countries doesn't necessarily mean overnight, but can cover a span from a couple of days to much longer. (Perhaps as part of the worldwide cost-cutting measures, too, outbound mail from Russia to the US is held up until they have a full plane-ful?)

But also, the US equivalent of outgoing EMS is now handled by Fed Ex, again as a cost-cutting service, since Fed Ex has the international facilities in place already.

How long something stays in customs can vary immensely, particularly if they're experiencing a heavy load of incoming packages. IMO, three weeks is not overly long. I had something from Germany take 9 weeks to get to me, and purchases from other countries in Europe taking between a week to two months. I rarely look at the tracking numbers any more until a month has passed.

Can't hurt to have her put in a missing package application, or at least find out the requirements. Some places won't let you apply until at least a month has passed.

 

EMS (Express Mail) is a service offered by the United States Postal Service, as well as the postal systems in other countries. Mail to and from Russia is notoriously slow, even for express services. Have you tried calling the USPS directly? They will have employees in an International department who may be able to give you more information about your package. Be persistent; if the employee you talk too first can't offer any help, keep trying, and insist on speaking to someone else. Good luck!

 

Rynn007 - the international OUTGOING EMS, or very top tier of international Express Mail (aka the most expensive one!) does get handed off to be handled by Fed Ex for shipment to other countries. I don't know if Fed Ex drops it off to other countries' postoffices for the final delivery or do it themselves, however. According to the postal clerks at several stations, it was done as part of a cost-cutting measure by USPS. But since most of us only use international airmail or international Priority, we don't usually deal with that level.

As far as I can see, other countries' own postal systems are still handling their EMS shipments.

 

My Soom Spinel got stuck in Chicago customs for 12 days. He got inspected but thankfully, was perfect when I did get him. Unfortunately, the post office cannot help if your doll is in customs, it's all dependent on when customs releases them.

 

I have had a few parcels take forever in customs. I think a lot of us are spoiled by EMS from say.. Korea, where it's very quick. Normally when I get a package from elsewhere, they take forever.

Often, the tracking will not update, either. I have had tracking stick to the "inbound in customs" for about 10 days and then the doll to arrive without any change in tracking at all!

Sadly, it is just a process of being patient. Your doll may be on the way to you and people just got lazy with scanning or may still be stuck in customs. Calling will rarely help. The people at USPS are half the time clueless, as they can't really see much more information than we can.

I say try your best not to worry too much yet It is beyond irritating, but eventually it will change in tracking or the doll may just appear at home! I hope I was any help or made you worry less~ >o<

 

hi,
just to give you a bit of reassurance, i recently posted a doll ems from Australia to USA and she spent 8 days in customs! Goodluck i hope it all works out for you :-)

 

Thank you for this note! I was just searching around to see if there were any US EMS delays, as I've had a doll coming from AUS > USA, and it's been in customs for almost 4 days now.

 

I had a tiny package that was lost in customs for about a week, which
is unusual for us, besides this "missing" package only one other EMS
package has taken longer than 1 day to go in and out of our customs.

My Mom was able to contact our airports post office and they gave her
the number to our airports customs. It wasn't THAT simple though, she
called numerous times only to get an answering machine, but she kept
calling and after maybe 10 calls over 2-3 days she got a live person who
was willing to look into it, she asked how she could contact him to see if
he found it and reluctantly he gave his number.
Longer story short, it seemed my tiny box was stuck at the bottom of the
bin/cart....and it was delivered shortly afterwards.

Not sure if my experience of contacting customs can help you, but I do hope
you receive your items, that stinks after all your troubles with not getting
them from Soom like you should have.

edit: USPS does not seem to be scanning packages like they used to, I used
to see several (depending on where they were coming from..) arrival notices/
updates....so it may seem like a package is still in customs and could quite
possibly be somewhere else but simply not scanned/updated.