Why are my customs forms not generating when printing labels?

[Plagueman]

Hello, I've been a Shopify user for over 5 years now, but this last week or two when I go to print labels the customs forms aren't generating. I will see an option for 50 Shipping labels and 5 customs forms, I check them both, and then when I go to print it only shows 50 pages instead of 55. If I try to print only the customs forms I get an error that says they can't be generated.

[Plagueman]

this has been happening across all of my sites

[Dillon52]

I'm having the same issue. Has Shopify given you any solution for this?

[Blair]

Hi folks!

Thank you for reaching out to the Community! As we're not experiencing any known issue with printing both labels and custom forms, I'd encourage you to connect with us directly. This will allow our support team to get you authenticated, as I wouldn't have access to any account details here through the Community. This will allow them to investigate further to ensure the error is resolved as quickly as possible. 

Please let me know if you have any troubles with this. 

[XenoCat]

This is absolutely happening to multiple stores i maintain contact with across the US and internationally. I have not found any work arounds to fix it and it will keep giving me error codes that it cant generate the custom forms, and this directly inhibits our ability to ship internationally. Since customer service has been at an all time low, and the gaslighting that "it must be on your end" is at an all time high, I would kindly ask if you can try once again to see if it is indeed on the platforms end. Customer service keeps pulling the "i dont know, hah!" answer, and its actually a pretty bad bug. I do not want to have to process all internationals on another website but I dont have any other choice.

Thanks

[JoeyDuan]

We got the same problem, it's so frustrating.

[ShredFin]

Having the same issue. This is a big problem for us.

[Hd24]

Same issue just started happening to us since last night.. contacted shopify and said they are still working on it with their team. Having to delay many orders cuz of it

[JNS594]

Support told me that customs forms are no longer required since they are submitted electronically.  I am not fully convinced this is correct and either way I would still like to have the option to print customs forms to attach to the package.  Sometimes labels get wet during shipping and having the customs forms allows the package to still get delivered.  Very disapointed this has been taken away.

[lisaflkc]

I was told this as well after 1 hour of chat room with someone who, while being very kind, clearly did not know what was going on.  If they are taking away a step that is completely essential for my customer to receive their package, then they should notify me/us!! Also, when I dropped a package off at the ship safe store, they demanded the customs forms, which I do not have!!!!  I don't have 3 extra hours to create them!!  If I get dinged for this shipping and then nothing gets delivered....and now I don't even have a scanned label, which is the only way I get paid from markets pro, since they collect the initial payment.....seems rather convenient for them.  I am soooo frustrated.   Great if you are going electronic- but if no one else in the entire shipping chain knows about it, then you are just dreaming, not doing.   PLEASE shopify, get something official put together to share with all of us regarding what the heck is going on and how we should handle it in all the different use cases, ie, can't get it scanned at drop off anymore if  going to a shipping store.  I'm just throwing money out the window and losing customers right now.

[Imogen]

Hi there, @Plagueman, @lisaflkc and all of the other folks that have jumped in here on this thread to outline their experiences around printing off customs forms! My name is Imogen. It's good to meet and connect with all of you!

Recently, we announced via our changelog that shipping labels now track customs forms printing status in order to help merchants better identify if customs forms are required for their international labels. As part of this change customs forms may not be shown as required, and this will represent that the shipping label barcode itself contains the customs information that shipping carriers and customs agents require.

Beyond this change, some carriers will have different expectations and functionalities around their customs form. For example, some DHL orders won't require separate customs forms as they are considered 'paperless', meaning that the customs forms are submitted electronically. Canada Post may also include customs form information within the label depending on the service used.

I do want to highlight that if you ever experience issues with printing off customs forms that it's wise to reach out to our Authenticated Support Team via our Help Center. This will allow our team to authenticate you and provide us with access to the order(s) you're experiencing these printing issues with. We can take a closer look at the order and help identify if it's an order requiring a physical custom form print-out or not. Additionally, this allows us to touch base with our Shipping Team about these specific orders you're noticing these issues with so they can take a closer look and identify if the inability to print the form is expected (due to the carrier or service used) or if there is something else occurring.

[CircuitRecords]

HEY!!!! WHO READS THE CHANGE LOG? YOUR COMMS TEAM NEEDS TO DO BETTER. WE DO NOT HAVE TIME TO HELP MANAGE ALL OF YOU. DO BETTER.

[CircuitRecords]

ABSOLUTELY horrific service from SHOPIFY. They should send an email to all merchants. We do not have time to support THEM. I am going to look at other providers as they have been trying to lure me away and now I get it. 

[CircuitRecords]

Please let us know if any of your packages are returned, or if the shipper indicates the package did not clear customs. 

[ShredFin]

So, I was finally able to figure out how to obtain my customs forms. By the way, the comment above about support saying it's not needed is BS. Try to drop off a UPS package without one and you'll find out.

Here's how I was able to print the customs form:

After creating the normal shipping label, click 'Orders' in the menu on the left, then click 'Shipping labels'. Next, go find the order that needs customs forms, then click the check box to select it. Now, at the top right click 'Print documents'. A box will now pop up giving you the option to print the customs form. 

Hope this works for y'all as well. It's a shame that we have to figure these things out on our own and support has no clue.

[jonahmkozakh]

unfortunately not working on my end

[Lane_Borg]

This worked for me. Thanks for posting. 

To the Shopify admins/team, just because things have gone digital/paperless doesn't mean there won't be teething issues with the shippers and their employees learning that they don't need customs forms anymore. If UPS or USPS won't accept my drop off, how am I supposed to prove to them that customs forms aren't needed? On top of that, barcodes get damaged. This seems like something that could have been rolled out more smoothly and with better communication. Giving Shopify users an option to select if they want to print non-required customs forms would be very helpful and would have avoided a lot of this while also communicating to us that some customs forms aren't required anymore. 

Separately, even if I have one item that has two short words on one line of the customs forms, they are still printing out as two pages for me with a TON of blank space. This has been going on for years. You guys are making enough money. Hire more people to help improve your product. Going backwards just makes me want to consider other options.

[DecantP]

Thank you so much for sharing this - it worked! Despite what Shopify says, any time I've attempted to drop off an international package at UPS, they always say the physical custom form is needed (and 3 copies at that).

[CircuitRecords]

UPS Expedited - the first time in over 2 years shipping from US to Switzerland. NO CUSTOMS FORM, period. This is a major problem that SHOPIFY needs to fix. If my box is returned I plan to file a claim. Fellow merchants, what do you plan to do? I have to ship this and undoubtedly it will be returned to me, right?