US Customs Seizure - CTime is Making it OK

[nauticatom]

this is more of an inform post. Ive been buying watches for about a decade from CN, nothing extravagant numbers wise... a few watches a year.

On my fourth watch from CTime in 2024, I typically pay the Uptick for Fedex, the same in this case. Had my first watch seizure (or rejection)

I live on the east coast, it went from Narita to Newark where it normally goes through customs and clears / delivers to my house, instead it goes from Newark to Indianapolis, sits for 5 days waiting for clearance, today fedex notifies me it "cant deliver" and its returning to shipping... new tracking number showing return to sender.

Whatsapp is the best way to comm with Ctime, they already knew what was happening said they will prepare another one shortly.

Bummer that it happened, I guess it was bound to one of these days. Curious for the more experienced folks in US Customs..

1. Do they send the watch back (there is a return fedex tracking number), or do they just send a Photo of Trump 47 and say nice try..
2. Does this create some sort of problem for future watches being send to my US address, or is there nothing to really work about beyond just a singular incident?

 

[daytonadude]

Avoid FedEx at all costs, UPS is better. I just had a batch of clothes inspected going through there, (though I received all of them). I don’t know why…

 

[Cubatobaco]

Avoid FedEx at all costs, UPS is better. I just had a batch of clothes inspected going through there, (though I received all of them). I don’t know why…

FedEx opened a package a few weeks back. I had purchased a LV necklace and bracelet from a non-TD. Everything arrived just fine. Probably wasn't their style to I figured one of them would be wearing it for the holiday.

 

[nauticatom]

Avoid FedEx at all costs, UPS is better. I just had a batch of clothes inspected going through there, (though I received all of them). I don’t know why…

Yep looks like going to use USPS from now on... I hear the back and forth about people who solely use Fedex, people who say dont... I havent had an issue before, but not going to do it again...

Appreciative that CT is going to support me here.

 

[CutePinkKitty]

Avoid FedEx at all costs, UPS is better. I just had a batch of clothes inspected going through there, (though I received all of them). I don’t know why…

Fedex even local is the worst. They have completely gone downhill due to contracting private drivers.
They'll ALWAYS be late at the minimum or your parcel is lost or damaged.

 

[Kerbus]

I’m unfortunate enough to have an incompetently bad post office. I used Fedex in october and all worked out well but if now it’s bad, maybe I'm screwed. I must need to move if both are bad for me now.

 

[LuckyLefty]

Same thing happened to me today and there's actually a bunch of people on reddit going through the same thing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RepTime/comments/1hftn9y
My tracking just updated to delivery exception today (red alert) and also went from Shenzhen, Narita, Ankorage, Newark, and then indianapolis where it got sent back. It seems like all of us were part of the same bust.

I also want to know what the consequences are. Is this the same as getting your package seized or not? are we black listed in the database some how? I hope the packages do arrive back to our TD's where they can be shipped back out. Maybe will ask to not use Fedex. Funny thing is i paid extra for expedited fedex shipping and my TD assured me it was safe.

 

[Kerbus]

Eek, I must’ve gotten mine in the nick of time now that there’s issues

 

[nauticatom]

That thread is indeed what happened. Read through it - Steve the one watches, jtime and apparently Ctime all use the same fedex broker and we all got taken for a ride.. that’s a bummer. We get told to avoid bulk purchase shipments and rather the watch broker put us altogether anyways.

 

[nauticatom]

The only thing that doesn’t read right to me and I’m looking for a person who’s had US customs seize a watch before, they don’t send it back to the shipper as what’s being done in my case and all those dudes on Reddit.

 

[LuckyLefty]

That’s what I’m confused about as well. All of these packages getting turned around instead of being seized is something I’ve not heard of before. Wish someone could chime in on that.

 

[nauticatom]

Just an update on this. The Watches (including those on the reptime thread) were not seized, they were simply returned.. CT had already worked up a new QC when I recieved a whatsapp message from them this morning saying the shipper has the watch and am I ok waiting for them to turn it around in a few days, I was like sure.. So not sure what happened out of that particular shipping broker, but they werent seized, they just have gone on an around the world trip, as the shipping broker clearly forgot something with that batch they sent out.

Sounds like ill have something around the new year time frame.

 

[Kerbus]

That sounds like being on the way to a happy ending eventually. I hope all watches that are stopped encounter similar. Getting it after a long time is better than not at all

 

[bezelbandit]

Fingers crossed this is only temporal as I’ve got a bunch coming…

 

[Cubatobaco]

Coiendentally, I had purchased some items (not watches, but rep items) that got hung up clearing customs in AK as well. It asked for me to call. I did and it was an error from the shipper/shipping company as they did not check a particular box or correctly document something. I advised the place what FedEx needed and now it has cleared and set to be delivered tomorrow. Will the items be in there? I don't know...lol. I'll update once the package is received.

 

[dbs]

Avoid FedEx at all costs, UPS is better. I just had a batch of clothes inspected going through there, (though I received all of them). I don’t know why…

There's no difference between Fedex, UPS, USPS, as long as it is a direct shipment (that is, custom clearance handled by themselves). I had my package seized at airport USPS.

The only safe route is: ship with airline, dump at warehouse at US and repack and send to Fedex/UPS/USPS for the final route.

 

[Tubeweed]

I bought a watch from CTime in November last year and it took almost 7 weeks to arrive by USPS. I live on west coast. good luck !