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#1201 August 1 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

small packets from china are taking 70 days at least.

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#1202 August 17 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Sorry for the late update as I was not subscribed to this topic.

June 17: Item ordered.
June 27:
* Item arrived at Lebanon. There was a message saying "Held at customs" on the AliExpress in app tracking.
* I messaged both LibanPost and the Customs that day, the emails are as follows:

1. LibanPost:
Hello sir or madam,

I have ordered a mobile phone overseas, based on the tracking information from your website "RB567416131SG" it says that the item is sent to customs for clearance. However, the tracking information provided by the store says that my item is held at the customs.
If this is the case, what is going to happen? Will you (LibanPost) take care of it and charge extra once you deliver the item, or how are things going to be managed?
Thank you in advance.

Regards

2. Customs (basically the same email)

Hello sir or madam,
I have ordered a mobile phone overseas, based on the tracking information from Libanpost "RB567416131SG" it says that the item is sent to customs for clearance. However, the tracking information provided by the store says that my item is held at the customs.
If this is the case, what is going to happen? What should i do?
Will (LibanPost) take care of it and charge extra once they deliver the item, or how are things going to get managed?
Thank you in advance.

Regards.

June 28: Customs Reply:

Dear Sir,

Please wait until Liban post contacts you. They will inform you what to and you will have to pay customs duties, however you will have to acquire a permit from the ministry of telecommunications after you contact the Customs office at Libanpost.

Best Regards

June 30: LibanPost replies:
Dear Concerned,

Kindly be informed that the parcel is still under the custom clearance issue related to the custom , you should wait to finish the custom process.

Best Regards
Asma Kaddah
LibanPost Customer Care


*After that comes the waiting period. (Waited so long for LibanPost to contact me)... They have not.

July 31:
*Sent LibanPost another email:

Greetings,

Is there any update regarding this package? It's been stuck on the same tacking information for about 3 weeks now.

Thank you.
Sincerely

August 1:
*I get a reply:

Dear Sir,

The mail is retained by customs under the following lebanese tracking number BS000380014LB.
The receiver needs to visit our main branch near the airport to clear it from customs.

Best Regards
Hiba Khalife
LibanPost Customer Care

August 2:
* I went to LibanPost Headquarters which is in the Airport area, (Available and free parking)

* After reaching the concerned directory I have waited there for about 10 minutes in between ringing the bell and looking for an employee for help.
* Once the employee arrived he asked for the tracking number and my ID
* He bought the package which was unsealed then taped back
* The customs lady pulled out a permit request copied the name and the IMEI of the phone and asked me about its price
I said it was 220000 LL however, i actually got it for 255$. She actually believed me and even wrote 200,000 on the permit request.
*After i get the permit from the MoT they asked me to go to the DHL which is near LibanPost hq and pay the tax which was 44000LL
*Next stop was MoT (Ministry of Telecommunications

*I had to get a 5000LL stamp from the LibanPost office which was near the MoT
*The prcoess of accepting the permit request takes two days, so it was delayed to Monday since i applied for it on a Thursday
August 6: I collected the permit then went to DHL, had to walk for 3-4 minutes, and waited inside for about 30-40 minutes as the employee was not really doing his job correctly (was having breakfast on duty).
* I finally headed back to LibanPost HQ paid a tax of 29000LL and took the package.
I have paid 71000 in total for an item that costs 200000 (on paper).

I would never get another phone thanks to all of that.

Hope this helps.

Useful links ( use a binary decoder like roubaixinteractive dot com):
Links to
1. MoT location (google maps)
2. LibanPost HQ location (google maps)
3. Image of the permit (imgrpost)
4. Image of the DHL tax bill (imgrpost)
5. Image of the LibanPost tax bill (imgrpost)

https://t.17track.net/en#nums=RB567416131SG
https://www.google.com.lb/maps/place/Mi … 8963251,35

Last edited by Destermayor (September 25 2019)

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#1203 August 20 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

@Destermayor yup I went through all of that to get my wife her Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (that she broke a couple of months later...).

I had one main difference though, a major one:

YOU: " The customs lady pulled out a permit request copied the name and the IMEI of the phone and asked me about its price. I said it was 220000 LL however, i actually got it for 255$. She actually believed me and even wrote 200,000 on the permit request. "

ME: " The customs lady pulled out a permit request copied the name and the IMEI of the phone and asked me about its price. I said it was 200000 LL however, i actually got it for 200$. She NEVER believed me and asked me to show her the original receipt. I told her it's a phone from AliExpress what receipt do you expect!!! She told me to show her the original order on the app. I was like WTF. Then I lied saying that I don't have the app on my phone and that I ordered it from the iPAD. Then I convinced her to google its price; I googled Xiaomi redmi 4 instead of Xiaomi redmi note 4; luckily she fell for it in the end although she wasn't fully satisfied and wasn't content. "

As much as I'd like to get my hands on that awesome Xiaomi MI MAX 3 (6.9" 18:9, 128gb/6gb, 5500mAh...), costing around 330$ only on AliExpress, I'll probably not do it and go through all of that humiliation again.

I guess they have achieved their goal in the end...

Last edited by LifeEngineer (August 20 2018)

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#1204 September 4 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

@LifeEngineer I thought i had replied to this..

That must have pissed you off a bit, sorry to hear that.

I guess it was up to that lady's mood, maybe if someone was around her and she couldn't work freely.

The mix max 3 is a powerful phone, try contacting someone abroad if you really want it.
I don't expect anyone to go through that again. This country...

Last edited by Destermayor (September 4 2018)

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#1205 September 5 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Destermayor wrote:

@LifeEngineer I thought i had replied to this..

That must have pissed you off a bit, sorry to hear that.

I guess it was up to that lady's mood, maybe if someone was around her and she couldn't work freely.

The mix max 3 is a powerful phone, try contacting someone abroad if you really want it.
I don't expect anyone to go through that again. This country...

Yes it was annoying obviously.
Mi Lebanon already confirmed that they will be getting the Mi MAX 3 but it's still nowhere in sight. And I expect it to be at least 500$ which will render it worthless...

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#1206 September 5 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Aliexpress salesmen are ruder nowadays .. threatening and such ..

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#1207 September 5 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

@LifeEngineer Let's hope your expectations would be false, 400-420$ would be a great deal, considering not having to go through humiliation.

@duke-of-bytes I'm interested to know about the "threatening" part of your experience with the salesmen.

The worst I've seen out of AliExpress sellers is an extremely irresponsible saleswomen, that doesn't respond to you, but replies on the dispute page claiming she contacted the local post office and the item is there, so that I'd cancel the dispute. Twice...

Last edited by Destermayor (September 5 2018)

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#1208 September 6 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Yeah and I've NEVER had any issue on AliExpress yet. And I order a lot. Maybe coz I make some thorough research for best sellers.

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#1209 September 6 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Just a friendly advice to test the reliance of a seller before making a purchase of an item from his/her store:

1. Make a test account for the following
2. Get an empty cc.
3. Attempt to make a purchase of the item you want from that empty card.

If
The seller sends you a message saying that he will send the item as soon as you pay for your item, or asking if you have any problem etc.
The earlier he sends the message, the more reliable that seller is.

If
You never got a reply or got it more than 2 days later.
It's recommended not to make an actual purchase.

I usually add more items to my cart, make one empty purchase of all, just to save time.
It's more efficient than messaging each seller, then wait for a response.

Hope this helps

Last edited by Destermayor (September 8 2018)

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#1210 September 6 2018

nuclearcat
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Disagree about such way.
It doesnt mean anything if he answers in such stage, it is better to ask some technical question about item he is selling (pre-sales message, before any purchase), than messing with unpaid orders, but even this way doesn't guarantee a lot.

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#1211 September 6 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Everyone has his own way.
I've been using this for approximately the last 50 purchases and everything was smooth.

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#1212 September 6 2018

anayman_k7
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Personally when I need to order something I order the result of the search by number of orders and I choose the cheapest item with the highest review values and it should have a considerable amount of orders/feedback, if the item is not that popular I tend to choose the store with the best rating.

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#1213 September 6 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I'm going through my first issue after over 50 orders.

I ordered a phone from the Xiaomi Online Store and it has been processing for 3 days. I've contacted the store a couple times with no response (one asking about the shipment and the other asking them to label the box).

I contacted AliExpress' own customer support and they seemed super keen on helping me. They said that they'd be contacting the seller directly and updating me via email. I'll be giving it a few days before canceling the order.

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#1214 September 6 2018

nuclearcat
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Destermayor wrote:

Everyone has his own way.
I've been using this for approximately the last 50 purchases and everything was smooth.

It's not about "way", its about proper usage of platform and possible consequences. This affects your internal reputation on platform.
On dispute it will increase chances for aliexpress personnel ruling out not in your favor, because you have low reputation (high cancellation rate).
Also this is translation from some russian forum where aliexpress support guy did small interview:
---
If you systematically do orders, but do not pay them, then this is considered a violation of the rules for the buyer.

The fact is that on the site of Aliexpress it is considered that the seller, seeing the issued, but unpaid order, should reserve for you the goods with the necessary parameters. If the buyer orders too often and does not pay for them, he simply spends the time of the seller, and, possibly, leads to small financial losses, since the reserved goods could be sold at that time to another buyer.

As a result, for such an innocent violation, the buyer may be punished in the form of a ban from the site of the AliExpress.
---
So, you are free to screw up your account, but don't give such advices to others.

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#1215 September 8 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I edited the post, my steps were missing one part.
Thank you for clearing that out though.

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#1216 September 8 2018

Destermayor
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Is there going to be a tax to pay if one buys any rig components, or simply an external hard drive?

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#1217 October 11 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I have a Xiaomi Pocophone stuck at customs right now:

21/09/2018 06:23
Item departed to final destination    SINGAPORE-SGSINB
03/10/2018 08:56
Item received at Sorting Center    LEBANON-BEIRUT SORTING CENTRE
03/10/2018 08:57
Item handed over to Customs for clearance    LEBANON-BEIRUT SORTING CENTRE
05/10/2018 16:12
Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner    LEBANON-BEIRUT SORTING CENTRE
11/10/2018 10:20
Record item customs information (Inb) Retention Reason: Item handed over to customs authority for final delivery    LEBANON-BEIRUT SORTING CENTRE


I emailed LibanPost and awaiting a response.
I hope by some miracle this doesn't mean I need to pick it up personally.

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#1218 October 11 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

i hope i'm wrong, you need to go clear the customs, and perhaps register it in moT to be able to use it.

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#1219 October 11 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Can I pick up the phone from the airport and delay registering it with MoT, or do I need to register it with MoT before I even get to pick it up from the airport?

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#1220 October 11 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Registering it at MoT to get the clearance paper allowing you to pick it up from the airport!

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#1221 October 11 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I'm willing to pay for a service to do this for me

I asked LibanPost and they said that they don't clear customs on someone else's behalf.

Anyone aware of such a service?

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#1222 October 11 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

first, make sure you don't have to be there in person. It has your name on it..

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#1223 October 11 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Yeah they said I had to clear it myself.

I'll see if by any miracle aramex can pull somehting off.

If not, I'll have to go through the clearance process :(

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#1224 November 3 2018

TechXero
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Sorry for posting here after so long. But I have learned from experience never to order online. Well that was until I went to Dubai and lived there for 4 years. Anyway am back in Lebanon and never will order anything online. That is directly, I use a "man in the middle" service called DOT. I just send them an email with links to desired items, they will buy it for you and ship it, all you do is pay a down payment and rest once received. Only one downside they only support ordering from US based sites.

I personally don't care if it takes 4 weeks to arrive as long as they are doing hard work...

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#1225 November 4 2018

chosen2k
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

You make it sound like they're doing it for free. Also posting this ad on a Aliexpress thread won't get you nowhere since you are targeting the wrong crowd.

Thank you for going to Dubai and learning how to order online, we would have never figured it out without your hard work.

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