Finnish customs fiasco

finlon

Hello MSE-ers, I would appreciate any advice on the below from anyone who knows their stuff / has been through a similar nightmare...

I have been trying to return an expensive pair of earphones to Finland for over a month now. 

The item was pre authorised as a return with the company and sent via Royal Mail signed for with the appropriate customs declaration attached. It was then held at Finnish customs and I received a message from Posti (their national postal service) to authenticate myself in order to provide the customs declaration. The only option available to non EU/Finnish individuals is to use the official authenticator app, but it refuses to work with British passports. The support staff provided to assistance to resolve this issue.

I then contacted the official customs authority and they offered to fill in the return on my behalf, before realising that the item was a return. Their advice was that the company needs to provide the declaration, but they did not elaborate on how. I kept the company informed during this process and requested help, but they have stopped responding.

It is not possible to contact Posti via a form or unless I am authenticated (see previous issue). The only routes open to me are to pay €25 for Posti to perform the declaration on my behalf (why should I need to do this?) or try to talk to them at a cost of 20p/minute.

I am lost as to who is responsible at this point and what my rights are. Appreciate any advice you're able to offer.  

user1977

Whatever your rights, they're unlikely to have anything to do with UK consumer law, which is what we mainly know about here. You may need to look elsewhere for expertise in Finnish consumer rights and/or import bureaucracy. 

Manxman_in_exile

As @user1977 has said, you need someone who understands Finnish consumer law and or Finnish import and customs procedures.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say the return was pre-authorised* by the retailer?  Didn't they give you instructions as to what to do to get the return through Finnish customs without difficulty?

If you are having difficulty authenticating yourself to allow Finnish customs to accept your* declaration, I doubt anybody here can help you if Finnish customs can't.

*Surely the retailer should be doing the declaration if you can't?

user1977

I'm assuming above that it is a Finnish retailer you bought from, and not something odd like a UK retailer which has asked you to return to Finland?

Sandtree

Manxman_in_exile said:

*Surely the retailer should be doing the declaration if you can't?

The sender ultimately has to make the declaration as only the sender knows what's in the box... the retailer could advise what they are expecting to be in the box but the OP could have put any form of "present" in there too.

Not sure how much contact the OP really has had with the customs guys given the comment on the price of phone calls... whilst I cannot comment on Finnish customs you can certainly make calls for a lot cheaper than 20p/min