We were named importer of record on entries FedEx filed under their own bond, and the portal has shown some of them as refund received since May. FedEx's own site said payment would start on 10 August, but nobody there, not the portal and not customer service, will say by what channel: wire, cheque, or credited back to whatever was used at entry. Customer service just redirects you to the same portal that already told you nothing. Is the hold-up something in how the refund itself moves through the system, or is this a courier sitting on money it already has?
I want to say this with more confidence than I actually have: the portal only checks by entry number, and it only knows about shipments FedEx filed as importer of record on its own bond. If any of yours went in under your own importer number, or through a different broker, I think the system simply has no record. Not a denial, just untracked. Does that match what people are seeing, or is there another explanation for a blank result?
To mark the difference plainly: under the Union Customs Code, a duty repayment runs directly between importer and customs authority, with no commercial intermediary holding funds in between. What you describe (a private carrier sitting on money already received from government, months after the fact) is a commercial delay stacked on a customs process that has already closed. It does not answer whether you are owed the money; it tells you who is actually failing to pay it, and that is not customs.
This isn't FedEx stalling for no reason. CBP capped how many entries the couriers could submit in the first phase of this, and low-value entries filed under the courier's own bond backed up behind that cap. A blank tracking number is not customer service withholding an apology. It is a queue CBP created that FedEx does not control. Budget 90 days once the courier is allowed to submit, and another 90 after that to see it reconciled with interest. Nothing you do from your end moves it faster.
Separate what's actually happening before deciding who to chase. If your tracking shows nothing yet, the money has not reached the carrier, and pressuring their front-line staff will not change that. If it already shows as received, the obligation has shifted: that is now a commercial debt owed by the carrier, not a customs matter, and it needs pursuing as one: formally, on the record, one entry at a time. You will need that record later to match what eventually lands against what you are owed.
Chasing this confirms what a few of you have said: mine have shown 'received' since mid-May with nothing moved since. Word going round is that the refund lands back on whatever card was used at entry, rather than a wire, which would explain the silence: FedEx batching it against the original transaction instead of paying entry by entry as each clears. Doesn't change what I do next: writing to the brokerage side today rather than waiting for the portal to change colour.
Somewhere a screen says refund received, the same way a tracking screen once told me a reefer was delivered while it still sat on my chassis two exits short of the customer. Green light, box not moved.
This thread already found the fix though. Once their light turns green it quits being customs problem and becomes a debt the carrier owes you. Write the date down, chase the people holding the money, and stop refreshing a portal that already told you everything it plans to.
