Is that normal that I have an item for more than 24h in the Lebanese customs?
I called Libanpost and they told me that it entered customs today while on their own website and AE they said it arrived at Lebanese customs yesterday morning...
vegetaleb wroteIs that normal that I have an item for more than 24h in the Lebanese customs?
I called Libanpost and they told me that it entered customs today while on their own website and AE they said it arrived at Lebanese customs yesterday morning...
Normal?!?! It takes 2 weeks sometimes so relax and enjoy the wait!
Forget it guys. Never order stuff you really need for AE. I just order random things for fun and forget about it. For things you really need just buy them locally, I know its more expensive but the wait is unbearable.
Salloum wroteForget it guys. Never order stuff you really need for AE. I just order random things for fun and forget about it. For things you really need just buy them locally, I know its more expensive but the wait is unbearable.
The thing is that I ordered items not available here: a Fiit VR headset and 3 xiaomi micro-usb to type C adapters.
I don't need them asap but knowing the VR are in the airport but not moving while the earphones I ordered from AE last time took 1/2 day to pass from customs to libanpost...
Typical Lebanese public employees, too lazy to work efficiently
Btw it took only 1 week in airplane this time opposed to 1 month last time :)
vegetaleb wrote
Salloum wroteForget it guys. Never order stuff you really need for AE. I just order random things for fun and forget about it. For things you really need just buy them locally, I know its more expensive but the wait is unbearable.
The thing is that I ordered items not available here: a Fiit VR headset and 3 xiaomi micro-usb to type C adapters.
I don't need them asap but knowing the VR are in the airport but not moving while the earphones I ordered from AE last time took 1/2 day to pass from customs to libanpost...
Typical Lebanese public employees, too lazy to work efficiently
Btw it took only 1 week in airplane this time opposed to 1 month last time :)

Same for me, last item took 1 month of plane while this new item took exactly 5 days from Singapore...I hope customs don't mess up the hype !

Anyone got any tips to avoid the 4$ charge of LibanPost ? my last 2 items came for free but im still worried one day they gonna charge me for no reason... Fight back perhaps ?

Sometimes you really need something but it's not available locally :/ and I find 1 moth/ 1.5 months bearable... Time passes so fast...
Romanvian wrote
vegetaleb wrote
Salloum wroteForget it guys. Never order stuff you really need for AE. I just order random things for fun and forget about it. For things you really need just buy them locally, I know its more expensive but the wait is unbearable.
The thing is that I ordered items not available here: a Fiit VR headset and 3 xiaomi micro-usb to type C adapters.
I don't need them asap but knowing the VR are in the airport but not moving while the earphones I ordered from AE last time took 1/2 day to pass from customs to libanpost...
Typical Lebanese public employees, too lazy to work efficiently
Btw it took only 1 week in airplane this time opposed to 1 month last time :)

Same for me, last item took 1 month of plane while this new item took exactly 5 days from Singapore...I hope customs don't mess up the hype !

Anyone got any tips to avoid the 4$ charge of LibanPost ? my last 2 items came for free but im still worried one day they gonna charge me for no reason... Fight back perhaps ?

Sometimes you really need something but it's not available locally :/ and I find 1 moth/ 1.5 months bearable... Time passes so fast...
It looks like customs ARE messing up the hype!
Still no move since the 30th May, so it's on its 4th day in customs, it's weird that for things that have customs fees (meaning everything coming with DHL,UPS...) they pass them flawlessly in 15 minutes while Libanpost items can swim in an ocean of days. $ talk only
5th day in the customs!
This country is corrupted at all levels, they are shocked how people can't do business in this country?
Imagine if I was expecting some items for sale in my shop and I have to keep telling people ''sorry better luck next week'' because of these lazy customs who are searching for some ''tips treasures'' instead of respecting Lebanese citizens.
For us when they see our packages they say ''oh these bunch of Libanpost customs free items can wait an extra days, let's make the DHL guy pay customs + overtime because our schedule is from 8 to 12''
There's thousands of packages coming in every day. I've seen pictures, it's really insane. But yes it is also heavily understaffed.
vegetaleb you are really being non patient without even knowing how things even work, you want to get your items fast ship them with DHL don't expect express shipping with regular post, and stop being childish really, writing a post every day about your package as if you are the first guy who buys from china, i bought hundreds of items never did i nag like this.

anyway my closest friends work in the sorting center i know exactly what happens there, its not as you said no there is no guy searching for tips treasures, there are thousands of packages there and customs work there ass to xray every package and scan it, and no they aren't the same guys that receive DHL and other express shipping parcels those guys are faster because there is much much less packages, remember libanpost not only receives aliexpress orders, there are thousands of other sources of Post, packages and parcels
that arrives daily from multiple planes from around the world so packages are always coming in the thousands. DHL for example only receive few planes every 1 or 2 days i guess and its only THEIR planes, and they charge you fair amount of money while libanpost offers the service for FREE to your doorstep.

anyway your package have left the customs and it is currently sitting in a bag waiting its turn to get sorted to your local office, depending on how much packages there are before it, it will stay in the Bag up to 20days till you see it scanned again and sent to your local post office.


PS: all unregistered mail is a matter of luck no one at liban post can know which packet is where since they are unregistered so its a matter of luck when will you receive it sometime 15days sometimes 90.
Hey DNA, I have to disagree with you, I don't think Libanpost are doing this service for free, there's nothing for free. So they are getting paid to do it or required to do it since they are part of the UPU.

Based on my experience, back in 2013-2014 all items I bought from aliexpress passed through customs in 1 day. Whenever I tracked, the customs status meant that the next day the item will be at the distribution center and a day later delivered. Then an event happened: something weird where all items got stuck at the airport for 2 months or so, and it was at that time where TV's got interested and made some investigations.

After this period, items began to get stuck at the customs for days and even weeks.

Vegetaleb is not being impatient about the shipping time, his frustration is comprehensible since it is related to items being stuck at CUSTOMS for no reason.

It is inadmissible that an item travels half across the world in 20 days to be stuck at customs for 2 weeks.
they are required to do so by international agreements, when the items got stuck it was because there was no clear law regarding Packages sent as post, and after that 2 month period liban post had already hundreds of thousands of packets, and over that people starting ordering more since the ministry and customs cleared this on TV and said that any item under 200$ will be free from customs and the huge amounts of packages started arriving increasing the already huge stockpile.

dude it is not STUCK at the customs it passes the customs in matter of seconds, it is just stuck in a bag after the customs awaiting to be scanned when sorting workers reach it

the final wait is for the specific bag for the local post office to get filled sometimes it takes time, sure they are not gunna send only this item to the local office they wait for couple hundred. when the bag is full you get the "item sent to x post office message"

dude the process of receiving and sorting is complex, libanpost processes tons yes they weigh in tons of paper mail let alone packages, its not just in lebanon there is a reason Aliexpress states up to 60day shipping period
@DNA the major problem I was underlining is that all public employees work less than they should in terms of schedules, I mean we work from 8 am to 5pm everyday with jobs that have less responsibilities, we are the only country in the world where custom guys work from 8 to 12 on Friday and I am not even sure they work on Saturdays, from the officially 2000 registered customs dudes in the state only 200 work, the others stay at home and get their salaries because some shitty politicians want their votes in elections.
We are the only country in the world where things stay at customs so long, if we had real politicians and not some ''rayess'' they would vote for a law that put customs employees with longer schedules and use ALL the thousands of employees to make things faster and better. But the problem is that some dark minister is just very happy to bring us back to prehistoric ages.
My previous item passed customs in 1/2 day with aliexpress now it's stay for days, so yes there is a crazy management problem.
And again I am talking about a personal single item, imagine people who have shops and are waiting for stuff to sell...
Perhaps this whole politician cast need formatting, because many of them are bad clusters that are slowing down the entire system
shops use express shipping or priority post
you are absolutely right about everything you said about the country the thing is libanpost is overwelmed with packets, it is not customs fault as i said previously, when u see "item at customs clearance" on tracking the items already passed customs they finished their job, your item isnt at customs anymore. btw libanpost work day and night and customs isnt what is causing longer waiting times

the only thing that will help is more staff, but again i dont think libanpost gains money from china items, so it is not a good idea to speed this up, but rather focus on other areas

the shipping time overall is very normal average is 40days
Yo DNA, this doesn't explain the shift from before the "there was no clear law regarding Packages sent as post" to after it.

As I told you, it was a pattern:
Day X: custom clearance
Day X+1: Distribution center
Day X+2: Delivered

Edit: There wasn't even customs clearance, found some tracking samples that i posted in 2013...

https://lebgeeks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=127621#p127621
that has changed all registred post has to be cleared at customs, untracked is a hot or miss..and man nowadays libanpost has tens of thousands of packages how is it possible to pass customs and get sorted and sent to local office within 1 or 2 days..

anyway just called him to check he said customs arent who cause lag, he said they even finish faster than what the sorting workers can handle so items gets stacked past the customs awaiting sorting to each local office. each bag is around 10kg-30kg and has 50-150 items so as you can imagine if you have 10,000 items the weight alone needs so much time to move let alone sort.. annd after that comes the waiting game to fill a local post office Bag sometimes lots of people in your area ordered packages at same time sometimes you need to sort 10days worth of packages to fill the local post office bag... sometimes you just happen to be the last item to fill the bag so you feel you receive it early while other people have their items in that bag stuck for 20days...
hope you got the point guys
Guy dna has a point.
First of all, the guys down there are doing their job, it's not like they take 5 days off a week...
I agree, sometimes packages take longer than usual but it's normal, and the flux of parcels is extremely fluctuent, specially during holidays, or perhaps when a starting company makes a huge order, or an existing one, security reasons and threats sometimes affect that.
So it's not a matter of customs officer having a speed up button.
Finally, i'd say relax and appreciate what they're doing, we pay no custom tax most of the time, which is surprising and good to be honest.
Plus, tracking your parcel is a fun thing to do, so let it take time.
So finally when we see ''item at custom clearance'' it means it's with Libanpost but they want to throw the responsibility on the customs.
They should say it's in the Libanpost airport sorting facility, but instead even when I call them they say it's in the hands of the customs.
With Ramadan coming next week it will be even slower.
About being happy to not pay customs, it's because we used a slow option aka China Mail instead of a premium fast one, also our beloved deputees don't pay customs nor VAT on anything and they are the people who work the less in this country, also we are paying for customs from the various taxes the Lebanese State takes from us.So yes it's normal they don't take customs on everything, in fact many people are shocked by the heavy customs (20-25%) they take on DHL,UPS items including the price of transportation,it's not an international standard.
Some business even had to close and put people out of work because they couldn't stand such heavy customs.
The solution? As said before, increase the number of ''real'' employees, stop taking random customs on premium carriers (we are the only country in the world where DHL and others don't know how much they should consider the customs!!!!) and use better scans.
I made deliveries in the US and Europe and I never ever saw a so long waiting time for deliveries while they have 100x more Km to drive.
If it's Libanpost's problem or the customs they both have a major management problem and they should ask for a foreign help to fix it (if they want to fix it) to learn from the best instead from going from bad to worse.

PS: as expected my item didn't move
man i tell you again relax, it's not worth the headache, you're right there is corruption everywhere, but this thing is really working as it should. I think your problem is that you got your first package quite fast, and now you are surprised why the others take so long.
It's a matter of dozen of orders until you realize that it's not always the same, not closely related in time frames.
From my experience, 1-2 weeks in the airport is super normal.
Besides when it says at customs clearance it means it passed customs and now waiting to be scanned or inspected, libanpost has nothing to do with it. In fact liban post is the easiest and fastest phase and usually takes 3 days.
vegetaleb wrote in fact many people are shocked by the heavy customs (20-25%) they take on DHL,UPS items including the price of transportation,it's not an international standard.
Definitely. I still remember ordering the original flip cover for my Galaxy Note 2 back in the day from eBay when CTC didn't bring accessories, it was $49 and I wound up paying like $60 tax on it through FedEx. I was furious.