Parcelforce refusing to provide me with information

Shagger

A few months ago I bought a pretty expensive item on ebay that was sent from Germany. When it arrived in Britain I got an import duty invoice from Parcelforce. I paid up, and they delivered the item. Unfortunately when I later inspected it I discovered that it was damaged, so I returned it back to Germany for a refund.

Since then, I've been trying unsuccessfully to reclaim the import duty that I paid. I know exactly which forms I need to complete, but in order to do so I need Parcelforce to give me either the EPU Number, Import Entry Number and Entry Date, or alternatively the MRN (if they used CDS rather than CHIEF). I'm now into my fourth week of trying to get this very basic piece of information from Parcelforce, but they're being so awkward and evasive that to all intents and purposes, they're refusing to provide it.

On the multiple occasions I've rung them, after the torturous 40+ minutes navigating through their IVR then queueing to be put through, whoever I've eventually spoken to has either literally cut me off as soon as I've told them what I'm after, or just flat-out denied all knowledge of having such information. I've spoken to HMRC multiple times and they are at least (on the face of it) helpful and consistent, every time telling me the same thing: that they can't do anything without the aforementioned info and that only the courier can get that info.

I then tried emailing Parcelforce, thinking maybe I'd have more luck if I put my request in writing. Every time I get a useless, possibly automated reply saying "In order to claim a refund, you'll need to complete these forms" along with links to the forms. Every time I reply to with something along the lines of "Yes, I know which forms I need to complete, but I can't complete them without the information I've requested." My reply is then either ignored or, if I'm lucky, after a few days I get another reply along the lines of "Ok, please provide me with the parcel tracking number and parcel reference number (which I've always already made sure to include on my first message) and I can get you that information".

I re-send that, then nothing. After a few days of silence I then send another message and the whole maddening cycle begins again.

On the Parcelforce "Contact us" page it suggests Twitter as another means of contacting them, so I even created a Twitter account just for that purpose, but my requests there have also gone ignored.

Has anybody been in a similar situation and if so, how did you get it resolved (if at all)? The amount of time and effort I've put into this so far is ridiculous. If it wasn't such a large amount of money I'd have just given up by now, which is maybe what they're hoping for. Do you think it's worth raising an official complaint with Parcelforce or is this likely to just be a different waste of time?

Shagger

An update in case anybody having the same problem stumbles on this thread:

Send an email to compliance@parcelforce.co.uk requesting the clearance information for your parcel, giving them the tracking number and any parcel reference numbers that you may also have. I discovered this purely by chance but to my amazement I got a reply with the information I need within less than a day, after weeks and weeks of going around in circles with their various customer services channels.

unmixed8424

I had the exact same experience contacting the telephone support or the officially advertised support email address.
Using the compliance email address from your post, I was finally able to solve the issue. Thank you!