Import issues - customs hold up...

[darrellx (Darrell)]

Hi All

I am arranging a package from OS, and I am a bit concerned.

Tim, in your original post you said you already paid the GST charges. Did you get a notification from the ATO or Customs (Or Border Force) about the amount of GST required?

I am wondering how you got that notification.

Thanks
darrell

[Wavytone]

The answer depends on the carrier.

Some carriers (DHL in my case) require you to fill out a customs declaration (from the customs website) and pay that duty and GST online before the parcel will be released (I collected from mail centre in St Leonard’s). A few days after payment a notification by email to collect it, from Aust Post.

DHL’s tracking system is borked by the way.

OTOH FedEx sent me an email with a link to a billing page - their site from memory - with a statement on it, you pay that online and parcel arrived the next day. Easy peasy. FedEx tracking system also works which isn’t aurprising as they manage the whole process end to end.

There seem to be issues with all carriers tracking systems if the final leg is via AustPost which suggests AustPost isn’t very good at updating tracking data in timely manner.

The one you won’t get a bill from is the ATO.

[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

UPS EXPRESS..handled the whole thing from start to finish for me.....they'll even ring you the day(s) before, to ask if you want to pay customs by credit card over the phone..took less than 5 Days from TS in Germany to get a Scope and Flattener to my door in Concord, Sydney.. Tracking ..of course!

Now thats service.

PS: They need a phone number for contact.

bigjoe.

[GrahamL]

With my package i used plain old USPS
I did wait a week thinking customs would send an advice they did but not in any reasonable time frame (almost 3 weeks ) and after delivery
I used E broker I think they are called and every thing moved quickly once they were advised .
Next time I know once tracking shows its arrived call aus post /slash customs with tracking no and get the customs referance no, assuming duty has to be paid, hand that over to a broker pay and wait or you can self process if you have the time to deal with it .The above timeframe would of been quite quick if i had of known what i do now.

the other carriers mentioned do this for you and quickly but at a price I think it was double what i eventually paid .

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

I had exactly the same experience getting some motorbike parts out of Germany. It took two goes back and forth between Aus and Germany and I ended up having to pay a customs agent to clear it for me. At least I owned the world's largest motorbike for a while. It spanned three continents.

Originally Posted by Wavytone

Best I’ve ever had was Losmandy - ordered a mount on a Thursday, they shipped it FedEx on Thursday US time, by Monday it was here in customs, Fedex handles the duties and GST payment and it cleared customs on Tuesday, and FedEx delivered on my doorstep Thursday exactly 1 week from ordering. No messing with AustPost.

I’ve ordered two parcels from Germany and the vendor insisted on shipping via DHL. DHL took 8 weeks to get them to Australia (by boat I suspect) then the a-holes in Aust Post decided to return them to Germany. No attempt at delivery, no notification, no card, not even an email or sms which imho
is pathentic. After another 4 months they finally turned up at the vendors. Trying again with a different courier.

[Wavytone]

Hah. My missing parcel arrived last week, after 8 months, having been round the world at least twice. I had concluded ages ago it was gone for good as all attempts to track it failed, but hey, surprise, and it was undamaged though the carton had had a rough time.

DHL are truly incompetent.

[darrellx (Darrell)]

Well, I am a bit more relaxed now, after reading the experience of bigjoe and UPS Express.

It looks like my parcel will be coming via "UPS World-Wide expedited". I will see how that goes.

Thanks
Darrell