Stuck in Customs Clearance for nearly 3 weeks due to incorrectly completed Fedex manifest

During August I shipped a parcel from the USA using myus.com parcel forwarding service. I provided myus.com with a copy of the invoice for the goods, and a pro-forma invoice for that amount was shipped with the goods around 25th August. I was contacted by Minah Sibeko of Fedex regarding pre-clearance of the package on 26th August and I provided her with a copy of the invoice for the goods to the value of $170, and then paid duties and VAT on that amount to Fedex.

The goods were supposed to to have been delivered on Friday 1st September, but were held up in customs while I was asked to provide proof of the goods value - this I did at least 4 times to various customer representatives. Eventually on Wednesday 13th September I received an email from Penny N Masemola-Mokiti, of Clearing Support Admin informing me that Customs had levied a penalty for under-declaring the value of the goods. I requested and received a copy of the shipment manifest which indicated that the value of the goods had been declared on the manifest by Fedex as $1, despite the pro-forma sent with the goods showing a value of $170, and having already paid duties and VAT to Fedex on the amount of $170 when the shipment was pre-cleared.

On 13 September I confirmed with Penny N Masemola-Mokiti that she should send me the invoice for the penalty so that I could receive my parcel ASAP (I have 30 days to contest the customs penalty). She indicated that she would get the invoice to me by Friday 15th September. Needless to say this hasn't happened and a week later I am still waiting for it. She has not responded to my email sent on 15th September inquiring about it.

While waiting to find out why the customs were holding the goods I also had correspondence with Komola Naidu, Merle Croy-Antha and Desiree Schroeder. Ms Naidu was the only one to actually respond when she promised to. On 19th September after another call to Fedex I was promised that the matter would be escalated to Craig Farrar in the Imports dept who would be given my phone number to liaise with me, but the call has not been forthcoming.

Considering the delay was originally caused by a Fedex error in the manifest I would have thought that the company would be keen to get my parcel to me as soon as possible now that the reason for the delay has surfaced. Instead I have received no explanation about why the invoice for my shipment penalty has been delayed and have not heard from Penny N Masemola-Mokiti since I confirmed that she should send me the penalty invoice a week ago.

I will be forwarding a breakdown of my experiences with Fedex Express to myus.com and hopefully if enough people follow suit, they might decide to change their shipping provider at some stage. One can only hope. In the meantime I am still waiting for my "Express" delivery.