Stark shipping issues with customs

[nbss89]

I have two separate shipments from Stark now that have been stuck in US customs clearance because of missing information/documents. I ordered a bolt kit mid April and has been stuck in US customs since 4/25 with the following message from Fedex: "Length and/or width are required on the Commercial Invoice.". I opened a ticket with Stark support 4/25 and they said they would provide the info to Fedex/Customs. Yesterday Fedex called me asking if I knew the length/width of the item because it is still pending information to clear customs. I obviously can't answer that since I don't have the item. I put it off as a one off thing thinking it will probably arrive eventually.

It's now happened again though. The incorrect suspension was sent with my bike so they are shipping out the correct forks and shock. The forks are currently stuck in customs since yesterday and Fedex is displaying the following message: "Itemized breakdown of product composition required."

I'm wondering if anyone else is facing the same issues with shipping? I've order quite few things internationally and have never had this much issue with items getting through US customs.

 

[Jgottsch]

Same happened to me, ordered a fender and handquard. Fender shipped first, spent a week in France, then a week in chicago, got a call and email from Fedex asking to fill out a form to state if the fender contained aluminum or steel, after I filled that out it took anoter 10 days to arrive. Now the handguard is in France so probably have the same problem.

 

[fsfs]

Same happened to me, ordered a fender and handquard. Fender shipped first, spent a week in France, then a week in chicago, got a call and email from Fedex asking to fill out a form to state if the fender contained aluminum or steel, after I filled that out it took anoter 10 days to arrive. Now the handguard is in France so probably have the same problem.

Stark may be responsible for a lot of things. But the steel and aluminum is on the orange one.

 

[Chaconne]

My guess is that it is those jackasses from Fedex. They are absolutely the worst. They just suck. I am hoping they go out-of-business. Amazon rarely if ever muffs a delivery. If you can believe it, even the USPS is far better than Fedex.

I remember when Fedex used to be good, but I now will shop for another vendor who doesn't use Fedex if I can, it is worth it to pay more to another vendor than to have those jackasses lose something or ship shit all the way back to Japan because their crap software mangled an address as their drivers couldn't find the proper location. Or worse yet they deliver it to the wrong place and you spend days trying to rectify their bullshit.

 

[OpaTsupa]

You are getting a small taste of the third world. That's precisely how customs operate in most backwards countries.
If it's any sort of consolation consider that customs isn't charging you 21% tax on free shipping which they will estimate themselves.

Don't blame it on a private companies like FedEx.

 

[Chaconne]

You are getting a small taste of the third world. That's precisely how customs operate in most backwards countries.
If it's any sort of consolation consider that customs isn't charging you 21% tax on free shipping which they will estimate themselves.

Don't blame it on a private companies like FedEx.

No FedEx sucks go on line and look for yourself. It is legendary awful. I spent a fair amount of time in India and Mexico/South America I know all about backwards customs. FedEx is about equal to bad customs in the worst of them. Terrible operation, terrible IT/Software/AI, and incompetence up and down the food chain. Being private doesn't exempt an operation from being a bureaucratic sinkhole.

 

[fsfs]

No FedEx sucks go on line and look for yourself. It is legendary awful. I spent a fair amount of time in India and Mexico/South America I know all about backwards customs. FedEx is about equal to bad customs in the worst of them. Terrible operation, terrible IT/Software/AI, and incompetence up and down the food chain. Being private doesn't exempt an operation from being a bureaucratic sinkhole.

I went online and looked. According to my looking Fedex is indeed awful. Then I did UPS and DHL, and they are equally as bad.

However, steel and Aluminum was specifically mentioned.

A quick search yields "As of April/May 2026, the U.S. has intensified Section 232 tariffs, imposing a 50% duty on most steel and aluminum imports from nearly all trading partners, including the EU, Canada, and Mexico"

That is the US government, specifically the orange one. How is Fedex supposed to know if there is aluminum in the fender? As for Stark, is it their responsibility to tell Fedex there is no aluminum in the fender? Perhaps if things are stable over some period of time, but now things change on a weekly basis and it is not reasonable to expect them to respond to a constantly changing situation.