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Has anyone ever had an international shipment returned to sender due to being too dense? (2 Viewers)

Frank

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I'm trying to ship from Canada to Belgium with Canada Post. My box has been returned to me (not leaving Canada) saying it was refused for air delivery for "other" reason and written in sharpie is "dense". I've searched the forum a fair bit. I read an issue about dense packages likely needing to be inspected by customs to check contents but in this case it seems like a machine flags it and then it just simply gets returned to me before getting on the plane.

We all want to make our shipments as bombproof as possible, especially for longer trips but I feel like the only option here is to remove some of the padding? I've never had this issue before though I don't think I've ever sent anything overseas before either.

Calling customer support didn't solve anything. They could only guess that it was a sorting mistake. That would be extremely unlikely to happen twice...
 
Never had a problem shipping out with Canada Post, that's weird. And I laugh everytime, shipping a rectangular brick, that weighs ~kilo
 
Frank said:
I feel like the only option here is to remove some of the padding?
Click to expand...
How many chips are you sending? A rack already weighs 2ish pounds. I can't imagine foam/bubblewrap/paper is what's adding enough weight to push it over the edge.
 
springbox said:
How many chips are you sending? A rack already weighs 2ish pounds. I can't imagine foam/bubblewrap/paper is what's adding enough weight to push it over the edge.
Click to expand...

400 chips. I'm assuming that's not the problem.

There's varying degrees of padding. From chip boxes right up against the outer cardboard box (aka none) to 1-3 inches of bubble wrap/cardboard/foam densely packed all around the chips and the outer box in case a family of bears intercepts the package and decides to play a game of football with it. I'm closer to the latter.

I'll try using a smaller box with less bubble wrap... unless somehow someone knows exactly what's allowed. I'm just hoping I'll get refunded for the failed attempts.
 
Perhaps too "Dense" means that however you packed the package it was unable to scan in the Xray or similar used export customs? Strange Canada is a total drug den these days, why they even care to scan the packages I have no idea. Metal detector maybe....but everything else seems a go here now.
 
Frank said:
it was refused for air delivery for "other" reason
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Ur shipement was rejected for Other reason and you need to check with the delivery company what is the actual issue of the other reason

It could be as simple as wrong classification of product in the paperworks

Frank said:
and written in sharpie is "dense"
Click to expand...
That likely just the sorting process where they mark all packages with higher density as dense and not the reason of rejection
 
LeLe said:
Ur shipement was rejected for Other reason and you need to check with the delivery company what is the actual issue of the other reason
Click to expand...

Yes I contacted them but they were far from clear. Mostly confused like me. "Maybe it was a sorting error" or "maybe it's a restricted item". Never been an issue for the buyer before.

LeLe said:
That likely just the sorting process where they mark all packages with higher density as dense and not the reason of rejection
Click to expand...

Dense.jpg


This definitely made it seem like the reason of rejection to me but like I said Canada Post was no help in figuring out why. I could wait and see if I get a refund for the shipping cost first. Hopefully that would come with more of an explanation. Or just try using a smaller box.
 
Frank said:
Yes I contacted them but they were far from clear. Mostly confused like me. "Maybe it was a sorting error" or "maybe it's a restricted item". Never been an issue for the buyer before.



View attachment 1327251

This definitely made it seem like the reason of rejection to me but like I said Canada Post was no help in figuring out why. I could wait and see if I get a refund for the shipping cost first. Hopefully that would come with more of an explanation. Or just try using a smaller box.
Click to expand...
Maybe they were afraid of damaging the contents of the opened it the way it was packed.
Customs is nice like that
 
Mine was returned because i put the value too high (on accident) and they were afraid of the person having to pay additional tax (didn’t know that was a thing)… so I fixed it and it went through without issue. Nice ppl.
 
Also I could believe they are rejecting it because
( A ) on the x-ray it looks like something they would have to open to inspect properly, and
( B ) they are skeptical they will be able to re-package it properly after inspection, because it's so carefully done, so
( C ) they just reject it, to save the trouble.

In all seriousness, I would try re-packing it less efficiently!
 
Gear said:
Hmm, seems to me if they want it to be less dense, you should be using a bigger box. Not joking -- get a bigger box, and use more packing material like crumpled paper, bubble wrap, etc. in between the chip boxes?
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Yes, that's what I was thinking. However, due to the density I would have to remove packing material. The chip boxes themselves are bundled together in bubble wrap, I could separate them if it would help. I was thinking of just putting this bundle in a smaller box with basically no other packing material and calling it a day.

Gear said:
Also I could believe they are rejecting it because
( A ) on the x-ray it looks like something they would have to open to inspect properly, and
( B ) they are skeptical they will be able to re-package it properly after inspection, because it's so carefully done, so
( C ) they just reject it, to save the trouble.

In all seriousness, I would try re-packing it less efficiently!
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought they inspected upon arrival at the destination country but this would save time if they know it will be a problem.

I could separate the chip boxes and have them each "in their own world" among the loose bubble wrap/paper/etc. Maybe one piece of bubble wrap taped around each chip box. Not my preference but it would be much easier to re-package for them.
 
Frank said:
Yes, that's what I was thinking. However, due to the density I would have to remove packing material. The chip boxes themselves are bundled together in bubble wrap, I could separate them if it would help. I was thinking of just putting this bundle in a smaller box with basically no other packing material and calling it a day.



Yeah I thought they inspected upon arrival at the destination country but this would save time if they know it will be a problem.

I could separate the chip boxes and have them each "in their own world" among the loose bubble wrap/paper/etc. Maybe one piece of bubble wrap taped around each chip box. Not my preference but it would be much easier to re-package for them.
Click to expand...
Use elastic bands to secure individual chips boxes....easy as pie to re-package
 
Well, I guess I should have seen this coming, but after I messed up and shipped some chips to Belgium via mail instead of DHL, they got refused as well:

1716435190070.png


I'm pretty sure that's the same word (and if I'm not mistaken, in the same handwriting!) but I still don't know what it says, for sure. The one on Frank's parcel looks like "Dense" but this looks more like "Deny" ?

Anyone with experience reading European handwriting got a theory on what that says?
 
Gear said:
Anyone with experience reading European Doctor handwriting
Click to expand...
U meant doctor handwriting?

Gear said:
The one on Frank's parcel looks like "Dense" but this looks more like "Deny" ?
Click to expand...
Maybe we are guessing it wrong from the start, they are not in english but some other form of language instead ?
 
LeLe said:
Maybe we are guessing it wrong from the start, they are not in english but some other form of language instead ?
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm pretty sure the parcels are getting to Belgium and then being rejected. Therefore I now think it's probably Dutch, German, or French.
 
Gear said:
Yes, I'm pretty sure the parcels are getting to Belgium and then being rejected. Therefore I now think it's probably Dutch, German, or French.
Click to expand...

If my tracking timestamps are correct they couldn't be making it onto any plane. Only 14 hours between leaving Canada to get to Belgium and back. Even less for the second instance.

Also the wording "refused for air transport" would make me think the same thing.
 
Frank said:
If my tracking timestamps are correct they couldn't be making it onto any plane. Only 14 hours between leaving Canada to get to Belgium and back. Even less for the second instance.

Also the wording "refused for air transport" would make me think the same thing.
Click to expand...
Correct, I can confirm that this package did not leave Canada. So it had to be written in Canada, and I assume this one also states ‘dense’…
 
Also, the label is from Canada Post - no reason to put it on the package for someone on the other side of the pond writing on why it shouldn't have been on the airplane to begin with.

Maybe it's written in Canadian French?

Call the number on the label and ask wtf?
 
LeGold said:
Call the number on the label and ask wtf?
Click to expand...

Yeah, already did. They were as confused as I was. I will call them again. Seems like getting a refund is possible.

My best guess now seems to be that this is a new issue in 2024, at least for some carriers. Packing barrels separately and loose in the box has been suggested to me to not look like batteries from the scan. As long as I don't have to toss all the chips loosely in the box and hope for the best. Need to find the "limit".

Or alternatively, hopefully DHL works just fine with normal packing!
 
Your package might be dangerous. We could investigate, or we could just give it back to you.

Makes sense.
 
Still waiting to see if I'll get all the money back but for anyone in this situation down the road the solution seems simple:

Use DHL instead.
 

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