【Guide Part VII】What Happens when Your Haul Gets Seized By Customs

Outside of United States

Keep. The. F***. Calm. This can have so many reasons. And I want to correct myself: It is a difference between your parcel is held up by customs and your parcel being seized by customs. Let me take all the fear from you.

If your parcel is held up DHL probably just messaged/emailed/called you and they told you some long story about some value declaration and so on. To keep it short: DHL does not trust your invoice/can’t read the invoice/is bored af and wants a proof of payment to declare the value of your haul. For DHL Germany it is really easy to do this. You go to this DHL Link fill out the information and upload a Paypal/Bank wire/Western Union/Payment Screenshot. For any other country: Search for the email address of DHL Express Customs (not normal DHL) in your country. You can also call the DHL Express hotline and ask them. Email them the same proof of payment screenshot.

The bad side is that you will probably have to pay some importing fees (EUSt in Germany are 19% + 12,50€ DHL fees). I can tell you that DHL Customs will not check if you send them an authentic screenshot of your Paypal transaction or if you managed to change up some digits in order to stay under $24. To save the importing fees. I cannot tell you how to do it, though of course. Google inspect element… This is why it was important, that PandaBuy sent you the Commercial Invoice they put on the parcel – You know exactly how high they declared it and what they stated is inside.

The Tracking status should be “Clearance Event” when they want the proof of payment and should change to “Clearance processing completed” when it is done. This can take up to several days after you send them the screenshot.

If your haul really got seized (Tracking status “Please contact DHL”) there is nothing you can do. DHL will send you a letter where they will ask you for your permission to destroy the items. Just ignore this letter. It will automatically count as a permission (in Germany). There is nothing else. You don’t go to jail, you don’t get a Million $ fine. Some DHL Customs worker told me that if you stay under 3 shoes per package they will not contact the brand. But keep in mind, this is TOTALLY random. If you follow the checklist there is a micro chance that you package will even get inspected. Because inspecting alone is not enough, so many DHL workers just don’t care and pass Nike, Adidas, Gucci Fakes. And if you really are that unlucky, just deal with it. Some sellers send out a replacement for free, some don’t. You, Your family and your future kids will be safe, don’t worry.

Inside the United States

If your package was seized within Chinese borders often times the Agent will refund you the full parcel price. Meaning if your haul went to the value of ¥2,000 then you will be reimbursed ¥2,000 directly to your PandaBuy account.

If your package was seized or taken in for inspection by United States Customs then you will be given a call or a notice that DHL, EMS, or your selected shipping company has took in your package. Do not panic. Often times when they take your package in for inspection they will ask you to provide a receipt or invoice for the declaration of value for your haul. Seizures and inspections are 100% random and aren’t able to bypassed through any method. To keep it short: DHL does not trust your invoice/can’t read the invoice/is bored af and wants a proof of payment to declare the value of your haul. For DHL Germany it is really easy to do this. You go to this DHL Link fill out the information and upload a Paypal/Bank wire/Western Union/Payment Screenshot. For any other country: Search for the email address of DHL Express Customs (not normal DHL) in your country. You can also call the DHL Express hotline and ask them. Email them the same proof of payment screenshot.

After this step you will need to wait for the review period to end and if everything went well then your package will be released to you. If your package was seized and they send you a letter than it is best to say you didn’t order the item and take the loss on the haul.

This rarely happens.