Yeah, sorry to say but big mistake to bring anything from Jagdish through JFK. And as a side note I have been saying this for a while in these boards. I had two packages seized (from him) in 2024 and never ordered from him again.
Jagdish has been good about reshipping the package that was lost from the first batch so I was willing to give him a try with another batch. We shall see what happens with the rest. In the end, it’s not the end of the world. The packages are only 100-200 USD in value.
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I asked Deepseek, a Chinese AI
Change Your Supplier and Shipping Address: Your suspicion is well-founded. A 50% seizure rate is not random bad luck; it strongly suggests that either your personal details (name/address) or the Indian exporter’s details are on a CBP watchlist . Changing your supplier is a good first step. Even more effective would be to use a different shipping address, such as a trusted friend’s or family member’s address, to see if packages to that address get through.
For the past 2 years, I have ordered from Maulik and have never had a package seized.
Obviously there is some problem in your supply chain. At this point I would be paranoid and think maybe they even monitor your emails. If you are not already using WhatsApp, that’s what I would use for all correspondence from India.
Also, as I have posted before, Maulik uses a different shipping service than Jagdish.
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Yes. I may have to change suppliers. I do all my correspondence now through WhatsApp. I haven’t used emails with them in a while. I hope my parents address isn’t on a watchlist, but who knows. I’m not very happy about all this.
I highly doubt that anyone would be monitoring his email especially given that he’s just bringing meds. While our big brother (government) does like to interfere with our lives a bit, we are still way better than in many other countries, so I doubt they’d watch his emails (unless of course he was bringing in cocaine lol). As I had stated earlier during 2024, I had two packages seized (one from anil and one from Jagdish) and they both reshipped and even those reshipped ones were seized. I received custom letters in all four cases and responded to them via email asking them to release the shipment since it was for personal consumption. Obviously, they didn’t care what i say and never released them, but after I complained that in USA med prices a really expensive they send me some sources where I could try to get help with better pricing. anyway, I stopped using both of them (Anil nd Jagdish) and ever since I’ve had over 25 packages in last two years and the success rate has been 100%. If it were the case that they were monitoring my emails no packages would have made it through. I really think that it is the supplier side that it is flagged, and if you order from same supplier, you can only get the product if you are lucky and no one enters your packages in the system for checking. So best/first thing to do is change the supplier.
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I agree with most of your recommendation but not this part. There is no reason to use WhatsApp when your counterparty is willing to use Signal. Jagdish and others are happy to use Signal as well.
If you must use email, try to find vendors that use Protonmail or Tutanota, etc and use the same for the benefits of end to end encryption. If all else fails use PGP encryption or find another vendor that actually values private and secure communication.
While the message itself is end to end encrypted with WhatsApp, metadata is not. There is a good reason why Brian Acton donated $50 million to the Signal foundation despite receiving Billions from the sale of WhatsApp to Meta!
TLDR: Use Signal not WhatsApp
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I just use regular Gmail and have not had any packages seized in recent years. I didn’t save the packages from Maulik, but as I posted earlier, he uses a different postal service than Jagdish. Maulik doesn’t use Speed Post. Maulik’s packages always arrived much quicker than Jagdish’s.
From a Jagdish package:
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Just an interesting note about USPS tracking data through ParcelsApp: I ordered a package from Maulik two weeks ago, and it arrived today. However, once it left India, no further tracking information appeared on ParcelsApp from the USPS tracking system. The package simply appeared in my mailbox today, with the USPS tracking system showing “Package Delivered” when I checked ParcelsApp.
At the same time, I ordered a package from Forveda. It, too, has not shown any USPS tracking information through ParcelsApp. However, it has not been delivered and is still in limbo, which could mean it is being held by Customs in New York—or it could simply be delayed. I find this lack of tracking information from the USPS tracking system appearing on ParcelsApp very unusual because it generally provides quite good data about where my packages are once they enter Customs.
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I don’t think packages from India typically show up in USPS Informed Delivery. Best to use one of the many free (ad-supported) online international package tracking web sites which will track it from start to finish.
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I know that a larger package size carries more risk. And they are cracking down more now. I just received this email from a seller:
If going to USA, the US Customs has stopped all mail from india to investigate a few firms are shipping 20 kilo boxes of drugs to USA to reship from inside USA illegally and they declare it as other items. This is blatant violation of moneylaundering, USA laws, medical laws, even Indian laws. We are told the stoppage will be a few days but it could be a week, NO ONE is supposed to be sending pharma products to USA.
Orders to USA put in now will go out first when the ban is lifted (we had bans last august for tariffs and ban during covid and ban all the time so this is not unusual). WE ARE IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE CUSTOMS in USA doing this. It is the illegal and fake shippers that harm our reputation. We are legal and declare legally and pay tariffs legally.
WE ARE BEING TOLD THIS WEEKEND OR NEXT WEEK SHIPPING WILL RESUME. FOUR SHOPS IN OUR BUILDING ALONE WERE RAIDED ALREADY. CUSTOMER DATA WAS SEIZED AND WE MUST SUPPORT THE STOPPING OF ILLEGAL DRUG TRADE.
I reworded my original message for clarity. I use ParcelsApp for checking the location of packages which has always shown me various waypoints from entry into the India Post system through entry into US Customs and major points after that until packages get to my address. And, I’ve always been able to view the same information with USPS Tracking. There’s usually an option on the USPS Tracking link I use that says something like “See All Tracking History” for this. When I click that link all waypoints show up. But, as I noted, with my last two packages this did not happen.
Does ParcelsApp show you tracking info while the package is still in India? If not, I’d try a different one next time such as aftership.com
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