AliExpress in Lebanon

beezer wrote

beezer wroteI brought 4 phones from outside just 5 months ago. None were registered and all of them are working fine till today.
Are you sure about this?

LifeEngineer wrote No, I'm not sure I was hallucinating.

Now seriously, it's a relatively new law and you luckily missed it.

I don't know how well this is implemented. I think they forced you to do that when they noticed it's a new phone and could make you run around, but I had 3 guests here from Feb 12-15. Each brought their phones with them and they worked fine, one of them even put a Lebanese sim card in because his phone has 2 sim slots.

I remember when it was implemented a few years back there was a counter at the airport for doing that. Anyways, I'll be traveling again soon and will see if someone asks me to buy a phone for them.

I think there is a time limit on how long you can use the sim card before you are dropped off of the network---I want to say 2 months, but it could be a month. They did sort of keep in mind of the 10's of thousands of Lebanese who work outside of the country (they just decided to screw over the people in the country).

And next time I order a phone, I will have it sent to Dubai for a family member to pick up and bring with them. What an asinine law and even worse implementation.

A couple of things: if you ever order a phone from wherever, the alfa and touch sites are pretty much worthless for configuring any internet services. After spending a fruitless half hour trying to configure everything, I found this site and my connection was configured within a couple of minutes. Since most people don't order a samsung, apple, htc or huawei, the site is seems pretty useful, even for those brands. 2) If/when I order another phone, it will be to family in the UAE (UK and Canada also) so they can bring it over without the current hassle and bs. While the people at the ministry and libanpost were friendly and almost apologetic, it still is a procedural pain. If my sim expires after a couple of months, so be it, I will deal with it. But going back and forth at the beginning is not worth it if you know about it in advance. They sort of sprung it on us as a new year's surprise.

Anyway, happy with my new phone. :)

"Held by customs in destination country" For a $15 earphone, gonna dispute order and not even bother with contacting jomrok.

I don't believe held by customs means you need to go.
Normal process.
I could be wrong though.

Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

nas93 wroteItem handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

happened with me before
it is normal item delivered without any taxes

boudz wrote

nas93 wroteItem handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

happened with me before
it is normal item delivered without any taxes

Exactly. the item is on-wait to be inspected that's it.
However, if i may ask, how long did it take the item to arrive to lebanon? Thanks!

nas93 wroteItem handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

Just wait. The item will eventually get delivered without taxes. It happened to me with $5 earplugs. Customs love to "inspect" everything.

As everyone here said, that's the normal process for most electronic devices or anything tech!

NuclearVision wrote

boudz wrote

nas93 wroteItem handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

happened with me before
it is normal item delivered without any taxes

Exactly. the item is on-wait to be inspected that's it.
However, if i may ask, how long did it take the item to arrive to lebanon? Thanks!

Ordered on April 6 Arrived on 16

Quite impressive! Faster than my one week record.

I ordered something that cost $2, they shipped it with TNT, how much do you think they will charge me for VAT and customs? Anyone been through that before?

NuclearVision wroteQuite impressive! Faster than my one week record.

One week from Singapore, 2+ Weeks in Customs. They really should make a better system for this

okay guys, am I the only one that is still waiting 2 months for his items ?

I'm not sure, but all my smaller items took longer time, perhaps they sink in the bottom of whatever they store them in. My bigger items generally take less time.
Like i said, once i got an item in hands one week after order, it was sent from china directly to germany then to Lebanon, another thing i noticed, stuff from europe and U.S. have some kind of priority, they usually stay max 2 days in customs My orders on ebay confirm this.

Draguen wroteokay guys, am I the only one that is still waiting 2 months for his items ?

If it's small packet plus it can take 3 months

infiniteloop wrote

Draguen wroteokay guys, am I the only one that is still waiting 2 months for his items ?

If it's small packet plus it can take 3 months

unfortunately it's not, with aliexpress standard shipping as well as china post express, i still have to wait at least 1.5 month.